The novelist Joanne Harris has seen off an attempt to remove her from a leading position at the UK’s largest trade union for writers, illustrators and translators, after members comprehensively backed her in a vote.
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In a vote of its members at its AGM, held online, a resolution to unseat Harris as chair of the Society of Authors management committee fell by 608 votes to 143. It represented 81% of voters backing her.
Too bad. She seems very unpleasant to me – bratty, sneery, flippant, and a bully.
The move to oust Harris followed a row earlier this year over her response to the stabbing of Salman Rushdie in New York state. The Booker prize-winning author lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand in the onstage knife attack.
Harris was criticised for launching a Twitter poll in the wake of the attack and after a death threat to the Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who had expressed solidarity with Rushdie.
Harris asked authors if they had ever received a death threat, offering a choice of answers: “Yes”, “Hell, yes”, “No, never” and “Show me, dammit”.
In other words it was snide mockery of JK Rowling, because all the cool kids think she’s a “transphobe.” But apparently the members like that kind of thing so whatever.
Comments
4 responses to “Stuck”
Well, at least you don’t have to be a society member to practice your profession. Sounds like there are other options. Let them stew in their self-righteous juice.
Maybe they’ll lose 143 members.
Members did not “comprehensively” back snideychops Harris, as only about one in sixteen of the 12,000 of them bothered to vote, with about 5% actually supporting her.
Ah, that’s interesting.