A book review has consequences
A letter calling on the Listener to cancel book reviewer Nicholas Reid has attracted over 300 signatures. The extraordinary outpouring of rage against Reid, and support for the author who was the subject of his scorn, essa may ranapiri, has resulted in almost certainly the fastest petition in New Zealand writing.
Reid's review appeared on Monday. Disbelief quickly turned to anger. The online petition is open until 11am today (Thursday), and seeks to prevent Reid from reviewing any further "queer works" in the Listener. It accuses Reid of transphobia, and "a deliberately harmful display of ignorance". The 842-word letter, written by poet Lily Holloway, states: "We request that you consider platforming other poetry reviewers. Reid should not be paid to review queer works. The transphobia in this review is inappropriate, and actively harms the author and the wider queer community." The letter provides a list of queer writers who could step in once Reid is deplatformed.
The review was of Echidna, ranipiri's second collection of poetry, published by Te Herenga Waka University Press. The publisher has also expressed its contempt for Reid. A post on its Twitter account made public that Reid would no longer be sent review copies: "Reid's attack is vile and unacceptable."
There are actually two versions of the review. Reid expanded on his review in the latest Listener when he posted it on his blog Reid's Reader – and it's the additional commentary which has created the problem.
The longer review is not, in fact, a review. Reid doesn't actually engage with the work or think about it critically. It’s a stupid piece of writing, mainly concerned with the poet's gender and identity.
He writes in the version on his blog, "Ranipiri prefers to be designated as 'they'. This signals being sexually non-binary, as does the poet’s photo on the back cover where the hairy-chested poet is wearing lipstick and a dress. Dare I say that I find this usage not only alien but also confusing? 'They' refers to plurality. Were I to write 'They wrote this book' you, like 99 percent of people, would immediately assume that more than one person wrote this book. This being the case I will not refer in this review to 'they' but instead will designate the author as 'poet'."
Insulting, archaic, foolish; and yet it gets worse. Reid goes on to puzzle over the title, holds his hands over his ears when he frets that "this collection loudly beats the drum against colonialism" (he asserts elsewhere on his blog, "I am tangata whenua"), and at least bothers to quote two lines from the book, but then saves his worst for the final paragraph when he makes deliberately scornful use of the "he" / "his" pronoun, and concludes, "Perhaps I am simply not attuned to the circles in which Essa May Ranapiri moves."
The only circle any literary critic ought to be attuned to is the work.
In their letter to the Listener, Holloway writes, "It is a deliberately harmful display of ignorance that serves the purpose of questioning the validity of essa’s identity, and, by extension, of trans, takatāpui, and non-binary people as a whole. The description of essa’s author photo (given the context in which it appears) has been included to further denigrate essa’s gender identity and expression…Intentionally using the wrong pronouns for the author when they have been clearly stated is both rude and harmful…[It] reads as a pointed and deliberate attempt to humiliate the author… It would be irresponsible to platform similar reviews from Reid given the clear and unapologetic bias he holds against the queer community."
The review of Echidna appears in a round-up of two other poetry books. And in fact Reid's assessments of We're All Made of Lightning by Khadro Mohamed, and Sonnets for Sio by Scott Hamilton, are models of good reviewing - alert, thoughtful, attentive to language (Reid is a poet himself), and a testament to his long commitment to covering New Zealand books.
Holloway acknowledges that the Listener review doesn’t contain the personal remarks in the version Reid published on his blog. So why write to the magazine? What's the Listener got to do with Reid's blog? Is the letter misdirected? Holloway argues in their letter to Listener editor Karyn Scherer and books editor Mark Broatch, "This review in its entirety was not published within your pages, but platforming writers who are openly bigoted elsewhere signals that such matters are unimportant to your publication.
"...Given the current climate of transphobic hatred in Aotearoa, it is important to do whatever we can to uplift and show support for those targeted. This is an example of something tangible the Listener can do to step up to the plate."
Over 300 people who signed the letter – including authors Elizabeth Knox, Noelle McCarthy, Emily Perkins, Kirsten McDougall, Catherine Chidgey, Brannavan Gnanalingam, Sue Orr, Ashleigh Young, and Catherine Robertson, as well as publisher Sam Elworthy, bookseller Carole Beu, and writers Emma Espiner and Giovanni Tiso – seem to agree.
Update, 12:47pm: The letter eventually attracted over 400 signatories, and Listener editor Karyn Scherer issued an immediate response, writing to Holloway, "I'm well aware of the issue you mention, and I agree that our readers deserve reviews that respect and understand such issues. Although Nicholas's personal blog has nothing to do with [sic] Listener, it appears to me that he has been honest on his blog about his lack of familiarity with such issues, so I agree that makes him a poor choice to review works by LGBTQIA+ authors. We won't be using him to review such works in the future."
