5 Questions with First Nations & People of Colour (FNPOC) in Publishing Network
The FNPOC in Publishing Network is a place to connect, gather, support each other and share experiences and insights in a safe environment.
The network welcomes members from all levels who identify as FNPOC and work in Australian and New Zealand publishing houses and journals and/or work freelance.
It was founded in 2020 by publishing industry professionals Radhiah Chowdhury, Camha Pham and Grace Lucas-Pennington.
(Opinions expressed are solely our own and do not express the views or opinions of the other members of the FNPOC in Publishing Network.)
No.1
What is the FNPOC in Publishing Network exactly?
The FNPOC in Publishing Network is a place where FNPOC who work in Australian and New Zealand publishing houses and journals and/or work freelance can connect, gather, support each other and share experiences and insights in a safe environment. It is a network built on mutual honesty, transparency and trust between all members.
Together, we hope to be a vital and valuable resource for members to navigate the myriad complexities of the Australian publishing landscape while being a person of colour. Our focus is to make the industry better for FNPOC staff—and, by extension, for FNPOC authors—whether that’s through training, emotional and professional support, amplifying opportunities, and doing our best to create a safe space for each other where we don’t need to perform towards or even be conscious of the mainstream white gaze.
We may not always be able to do anything about the problems we each face in our majority-white workplaces, but at the very least, within this network, those problems will be acknowledged as real. We listen, we empathise and we prioritise making visible the struggles that are all-too-often invisible. Above all, we want to foster a supportive community where for so long there has often just been crushing isolation.
No.2
Why did you start the FNPOC Network? Tell us a bit more about the people behind this project.
Radhi: Camha reached out to me just after I was announced as the 2019-20 Beatrice Davis Fellow with literally the best subject line: ‘HELLO FELLOW UNICORN!’. Because that’s genuinely how it felt being a POC in this industry—we’re rare, possibly mythological, and can only be touched by virgins. Levity aside, getting to know Camha over the next few months was such a life-affirming experience in a year when I was genuinely considering packing up and trying my hand at another career. The fellowship was also my gateway drug to another incredibly excellent human, Grace, with whom I shared an industry panel late last year. So when Camha suggested that we should stop talking about peer support and actually do it, it felt like a no-brainer. If just the three of us connecting had been such a boost to each other, imagine what a whole community of POC could be?
Without quite planning it thus, Camha, Grace and I between us represent the east coast Australian publishing scene, as well as the freelance, trade and non-profit arms of the industry. It’s been such an immeasurable pleasure working with them on developing this group, but most of all, I’m so grateful for them as wonderful people with whom I’m always happy to speak to and share a laugh, and they have rekindled the fire to force the industry to do better by us, whether it wants to or not. I’m most excited by the fact that we get to operate completely outside of the eyes of white publishing. It strips away all of the expectations we’re so often lumped with to fix the problem of our white supremacist cultural industries, because of course the burden of a solution should fall to us. We’re not here to fix white publishing’s problems, we’re here to support each other and try to create the world we want to work in.
I think it’s important to note as well that although Camha, Grace and I are moderating the network; we’re not considering ourselves as ‘in charge’ in any way besides as organisers. The intention is to act as the interface between the outside world—namely, the white publishing industry—and our members, so that their safety and comfort is paramount.
Grace: I was very excited when Radhiah was announced as the Beatrice Davis Fellow. I couldn’t wait for her report ‘It’s hard to be what you can’t see: Diversity within Australian publishing’ to come out, and when I read it I was nodding and highlighting all the way through. We know—via publishing industry surveys, anecdotally, and just by looking—that our industry is not representative of the world we live in. Representation on the page is one (important) aspect of change, but also representation in the small army of people behind the creation, production and marketing of every single book.
The question keeps coming up, as Camha put it in the excellent Kill Your Darlings piece ‘Where are all the editors of colour?’. So when I met her and Radhiah I quickly realised we were on the same wavelength (the laughter, the tears, the stories!), and the idea soon came up to do this—possibly in our first (virtual) meeting. For support, for visibility, for just-no-longer-being the ‘only’ one. The need for a space of our own making. Honestly if it had just been us three that would have seemed like a success, but as more and more people hear about the network and want to join I realised so many people have all been wanting for this for so long.
Camha: The sense of isolation that you may feel as an FNPOC in the industry can be heightened as a freelancer, and I didn’t realise how much I was craving a space/community where I didn’t need to explain myself (or navigate the tediousness of white fragility) until I got in touch with Radhiah and Grace (the most excellent humans you will ever meet) and we started planting the seeds for this network. Personally, I don’t view this network as a project so much as a necessity. This industry can make you jaded at times (most of the time?), and so you need to find and cling onto the things that fill you with hope—Radhi, Grace and the network are my lifelines.
No.3
As POC in the publishing industry, we know that even despite more talk of diversity and representation in recent times, statistics show that it is still a largely white-dominated space. What do you hope will come out of this initiative?
Radhi: I’ve long believed that a rising tide raises all ships, and I would love for this network to be part of a rising tide. The invisible burden of being the only one, the Other, holds so many of us back from participating full-heartedly in the work that we do, and is often the underlying reason behind burnout, and why so many FNPOC don’t survive the publishing landscape for extended periods of time. Isolated, we’re also prey to the many, many senior people in this industry who are currently interacting with ‘diversity’ in extremely bad faith, and I think our desire as FNPOC to change the conversation, change the landscape, leaves us vulnerable to the worst kinds of manipulation that executives throw our way.
Ideally, this network can be a place where we can talk about the actual lived realities of being FNPOC in this industry and protect ourselves and each other from that manipulation. If it doesn’t serve us, it’s not worth our time—I’ve no interest whatsoever in contributing to a corporation’s anaemic diversity initiatives under a misguided belief that they have our best interests at heart.
I’m also obsessed with the idea of paying things forward. I’ve only gotten as far as I have through the support and mentorship of (white) women, as well as three incredibly meaningful friendships with women of colour. I know there are others like us who have also managed to claw our way to positions of some influence by clinging on for dear life. I think the only way forward is to extend the ladder for others to join us, rather than kicking the ladder away, in the hope that every time someone else from our communities approaches the coalface, we can try to make it at least incrementally better an experience for them.
Grace: I have been quite privileged to come into the publishing sphere with amazing mentors and people around me who have been in the industry for much longer—they’ve lived similar struggles and gave me lots of advice and support. It reminds me what I’m doing is valid and worthy, and gives me strength to keep working to make the industry more inclusive for First Nations peoples, whether as authors or editors. I am enormously grateful to everyone who has come before me, and I hope to do the same for people who are just entering the industry, or who perhaps didn’t have that kind of support. I just think it’s so important that we support each other.
Camha: We are all aware of the myriad problems that exist in publishing and other arts industries; however, this network is about FNPOC for FNPOC—we don’t want to be someone else’s diversity project. I think others in the industry were initially perplexed as to what the network was offering, but, frankly, we started this network with no goal other than to allow other FNPOC in the industry to know that they are not alone.
We wanted to come together to support our communities and to elevate each other in whatever way we can, and to learn from each other’s experiences. We wanted to provide a space where people can be honest without fear of retribution, which can happen when you speak up in a room dominated by white colleagues. The safety of our communities will always be our priority, and we are open to seeing how the network will grow and flourish in dialogue with our members.
No.4
In a statement announcing the launch of the network, you write that it is “a closed, moderated group with an anonymous membership list. Accessibility and the cultural safety and support of all members are our guiding principles.” What guidelines do you have in place to ensure this?
When we first talked about starting the network, we quickly realised that we needed to establish a code of conduct outlining generally standards of behaviour (in summary: don’t be a dick), which everyone must accept before attending meetings. Although we initially wanted to run the network quite ‘informally’, we understand that we were asking people to trust in us and we take this responsibility seriously; the code of conduct enables us to protect the integrity of the network and the wellbeing of our members. It is also a living document—we revisit its terms frequently, and we welcome any feedback from any members about ways in which we can balance the utmost hospitality alongside each other’s safety.
No.5
What in your opinion(s) makes an ideal publishing industry in Australia?
Radhi: Is there any such thing as one ideal industry? I know the things that I would like to see, but I’m also supremely conscious that I am a sample size of exactly one, and to impose my value system on an entire industry would only compound the problem. The one thing I can say for certain that the current model we’re working with ain’t it. What I’d love to see is an industry that is actually, truly equitable, one that really reconsiders what we do, why we do it, and who we do it for. It’s simply not enough to just keep on consolidating the white supremacist vision of modern Australia. It’s actually horrifying that the personhood and inherent value of everyone who falls outside the white mainstream should be boiled down to a trendy zeitgeist moment for publishers to scrabble over in their race to the bottom.
We have such immense privilege in this industry as the interface between storytellers and readers, and in an ideal industry, we would take that privilege seriously, with the respect and humanity that it deserves.
Grace: This is a really good question. I think it says a lot that I can’t imagine my ideal industry. What would that even be like? I know it’s not what we’ve got at the moment. I’d like a flatter hierarchy, I’d like storytelling to be disconnected from profiteering, I’d like active and sustained community engagement, not just one-off projects that only deliver benefits for the publisher. But I’m also not interested in creating my ideal industry. What I’m working for is for the industry to serve all of our communities better, and so I am focused on building an industry that is for all of us. It’s no use for me to create my ideal industry if it doesn’t work for others—that’s what’s led to the present state of things. I want to kick open that door and let everyone in so we can all build it together.
Camha: I don’t think it’s my place to speculate about what makes an ‘ideal’ publishing industry, but there are definitely ways we can make it better. Really, we probably need an entire dismantling of the industry and a complete rethink in terms of how a publishing house should be structured. I would also love for diversity to not be viewed as a ‘trend’, but rather a moral and ethical imperative. What does it say about us that we view lives in terms of profitability? But, sadly, I don’t think capitalism is going away any time soon, so in lieu of that, we need to see more diverse people in top-level management positions because that is where the real decisions are being made. Publishing will never be equitable if there are only middle-class white folk running the show. It shouldn’t be the burden of other FNPOC to continually ask others to be better.
The FNPOC in Publishing Network welcomes members from all levels who identify as FNPOC and work in editorial, sales, marketing, design, administration, publicity and production roles at any Australian and New Zealand publishing houses and journals and/or working freelance.
It also welcomes any FNPOC agents, scouts, booksellers and festival programmers. Together, it hopes to be a vital and valuable resource for all members to navigate the myriad complexities of the Australian publishing landscape while being a person of colour.
The network is a closed, moderated group with an anonymous membership list. Accessibility and the cultural safety and support of all members are paramount. For all inquiries or to join, please email: FNPOCinpublishing@gmail.com