White author under fire for using Asian pen name to get published

A white author is being criticized for using an Asian pen name to publish a poem that was released in the prestigious anthology "The Best American Poetry 2015."

Michael Derrick Hudson wrote in his bio that the poem "The Bees, the Flowers, Jesus, Ancient Tigers, Poseidon, Adam and Eve" was rejected under his real name 40 times, and nine times under the alias Yi-Fen Chou before it was published under the latter, the Independent reported.

"If indeed this is one of the best American poems of 2015, it took quite a bit of effort to get it into print, but I'm nothing if not persistent," he wrote.

After news broke on Twitter, many called the stunt an act of appropriation, while Jezebel drew similarities between Hudson's situation to that of Rachel Dolezal, a white former NAACP leader who lied about being black.

"It diminishes categorically all of our accomplishments. He sort of implies that minorities are published because we're minorities, not because of our work," poet and Chapman University professor Victoria Chang told The Washington Post. "That's just insulting because it strips everything we've worked so hard for."

Publisher Sherman Alexie penned an extensive to the criticism, saying, "I am quite aware that I am also committing an injustice against poets of color, and against Chinese and Asian poets in particular."

Contact Kristen DeSilva at kdesilva@reviewjournal.com.  Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva