\n<\/p>\n
A poet is threatening Arts Council England (ACE) with legal action after a magazine it funds withdrew her work from publication based on her \u201csocial media presence\u201d, which she believes refers to gender-critical posts.<\/p>\n
A letter sent to ACE by solicitors representing the poet Abigail Ottley last Tuesday, seen by the Guardian, argues the public body \u201cfailed\u201d to \u201cconduct a sufficient inquiry\u201d into the decision not to publish Ottley\u2019s poem made by the Aftershock Review, which the lawyers accuse of discrimination.<\/p>\n
Aftershock was launched last year by Max Wallis. It received \u00a332,368 from ACE in April 2025, and a further \u00a360,000 on 28 January, according to ACE data.<\/p>\n
Ottley\u2019s poem was accepted for publication by Aftershock in September. In October, Ottley received an email from the magazine informing her that it had decided not to proceed with publishing her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing an internal review, and in light of concerns raised about your social media presence, we\u2019ve decided not to proceed with publishing your work in this issue,\u201d reads the email, cited in the legal letter. \u201cAs a trauma-informed and inclusive publication, the Aftershock Review has a duty of care to ensure our contributors and readers feel safe and respected. This decision reflects our commitment to those principles and is final.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the letter, Ottley did not receive a response when she asked for clarification about what element of her social media activity had led to the withdrawal. She complained to ACE in November, and approached the Freedom in the Arts (FITA) organisation, which also lodged a complaint that month.<\/p>\n
On 28 January, ACE responded to Ottley\u2019s complaint, stating that it did not identify a breach of its terms and conditions of funding for grantees in Aftershock\u2019s decision-making. \u201cAlthough we are unable to provide specific details of our review, I hope it is helpful to mention that the grant-holder confirmed that your poem was not withdrawn due to your gender-critical beliefs,\u201d the email stated, according to the legal letter, sent by Conrathe Gardner LLP.<\/p>\n
Ottley\u2019s social media activity \u201cconsists primarily of expressing and re-posting gender-critical views\u201d, said FITA. Her solicitors argued that \u201cin the absence of further clarification as to what it was about Ms Ottley\u2019s social media profile that resulted in the withdrawal, there are sufficient facts to establish that the reason why she was discriminated against was her gender-critical beliefs.\u201d Ottley\u2019s social media activity includes retweeting prominent gender-critical voices, such as JK Rowling.<\/p>\n
The letter asks ACE to disclose all documents related to the complaint\u2019s January dismissal, and in order to \u201cavoid litigation\u201d asks that it re-open the complaint, conduct a \u201clawful and fulsome investigation\u201d, and review its decision to fund Aftershock, on the basis that ACE grantees must comply with the Equality Act 2010 not to discriminate.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for ACE said that it will not comment at this stage, \u201cas legal proceedings are ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Aftershock Review has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
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<\/span>Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A poet is threatening Arts Council England (ACE) with legal action after a magazine it funds withdrew her work from publication based on her \u201csocial media presence\u201d, which she believes refers to gender-critical posts. A letter sent to ACE by solicitors representing the poet Abigail Ottley last Tuesday, seen by the Guardian, argues the public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[955,1001,914,311,2395,324,11944,18287,1162,18244,514],"class_list":{"0":"post-45729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-council","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-faces","13":"tag-legal","14":"tag-magazines","15":"tag-poets","16":"tag-threat","17":"tag-withdrawal","18":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}