‘Trust breached’: publisher distances herself from author John Hughes amid plagiarism claims

Upswell publisher Terri-ann White says she is distressed by controversy around former Miles Franklin prize longlist novel The Dogs

The publisher of John Hughes’ 2021 book The Dogs has said her trust has been breached by the author, after the novel was found to contain sections that were nearly identical to extracts from the Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina and a Nobel laureate’s nonfiction work.

In a statement posted to the website of Upswell Publishing on Friday, Terri-ann White said while her “impulse is always to stand by my author”, she was affronted by a line he wrote in a piece justifying his work, published by the Guardian yesterday: “I wanted the appropriated passages to be seen and recognised as in a collage.”

In that piece, Hughes said: “I’ve always used the work of other writers in my own. It’s a rare writer who doesn’t.” He denied he was a plagiarist, saying the word was “a great simplification” of the process of “an allusive writer” who has “always spoken through the voices of others … I’ve made no secret of this. It’s there for all to see.”

Hughes acknowledged that as the book changed shape, he didn’t keep notes on which parts were based on what work, “so many of the sources became so integrated I came to think of them as my own”.

“I am no thief … I wanted the appropriated passages [in The Dogs] to be seen and recognised as in a collage,” he wrote. “But somewhere in the writing, my idea, like the focus, shifted.”

An investigation by Guardian Australia found 58 similarities and identical instances of texts between parts of The Dogs and the 2017 English translation of Belarusian Nobel prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction work The Unwomanly Face of War. Alexievich was not credited in his book.

Hughes apologised to Alexievich and her translators last week for using their words without acknowledgment “without realising I was doing so”.

The book was subsequently withdrawn from the longlist of Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin, before writer Shannon Burns and academic Emmett Stinson tweeted out more passages from The Dogs that appeared to have been borrowed without credit from classic texts including The Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina and All Quiet on the Western Front.

When the first revelations were published by the Guardian on 9 June, White said she “stands steadfast alongside the author”, recognising “how creativity can get mixed up in the making of a long work … I am only sorry that I didn’t recognise these borrowed descriptions.”

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s weekend culture and lifestyle email

In a post to Upswell’s website on 17 June, the publisher appeared to have changed her position.

“The events of the past fortnight in the media and amplified on social media have been personally distressing as well as concerning for my very new publishing venture,” she wrote, noting she has worked with John Hughes on four books before The Dogs.

“Although I have read most of the books now revealed as being quoted without attribution in The Dogs, I sincerely did not recognise them folded into a new text,” she said. “That’s a trust thing, I think. I was affronted when John Hughes wrote, in his rejoinder in the Guardian yesterday: ‘I wanted the appropriated passages to be seen and recognised as in a collage.’”

White added that she has “published many writers who use collage and bricolage and other approaches to weaving in other voices and materials,” but usually they credit the original text. “I should have pushed John Hughes harder on his lack of the standard mode of book acknowledgments where any credits to other writers (with permissions or otherwise), and the thanks to those nearest and dearest, are held,” she said.

“To have provided a note in this book with attribution would have been the only way to treat it. I now recognise this as a breach of my trust.

“Upswell relies upon credibility and trust. That has been damaged this fortnight, and I seek to reaffirm my position. I am currently thinking seriously about my options. This will take time to untangle mess.”

On Friday, Hughes said he was “deeply sorry” for putting White in a difficult situation.

“In my piece on influences I never intended to imply that I had knowingly passed off other writers words as my own,” Hughes said. “I sought only to try to clarify as far as I am able how something like this might happen to a fiction writer.

“Terri-ann White has been a staunch supporter for many years and is a person of great integrity.

“I am very distressed at the thought that her reputation might be tarnished in any way as a result of my actions. Small publishers are vitally important to our industry.”

Contributor

Steph Harmon

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Miles Franklin prize removes novel from longlist after author apologises for plagiarism
Exclusive: The Dogs by John Hughes withdrawn from $60,000 prize after novelist admits he used parts of nonfiction work of Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich ‘without realising’

Anna Katherine Verney

10, Jun, 2022 @6:47 AM

Article image
Miles Franklin-nominated novelist apologises for plagiarising Nobel laureate ‘without realising’
Exclusive: Guardian Australia uncovers multiple near-identical phrases and scenes in John Hughes’ book The Dogs and Svetlana Alexievich’s nonfiction work The Unwomanly Face of War

Anna Katharine Verney

09, Jun, 2022 @4:56 AM

Article image
‘One publisher called my book repellent’: the first self-published author up for the Miles Franklin
Michael Winkler’s Grimmish has been embraced by judges of the $60,000 prize – and by readers, whose support has been ‘truly astonishing’

Beejay Silcox

20, Jun, 2022 @5:30 PM

Article image
Jennifer Down wins 2022 Miles Franklin award for Bodies of Light
Book prize judges have praised ‘ethical precision’ of Melburnian’s second novel, a poised unpacking of the horrors of institutional failure

Imogen Dewey

20, Jul, 2022 @6:19 AM

Article image
‘I cried, I danced to Springsteen’: in Australia, a Nobel laureate’s translator celebrates their win
A world away from Norway in Australia’s Blue Mountains, May-Brit Akerholt works to bring Jon Fosse’s work to English readers. ‘I reject the term translator,’ she says. ‘I create a new version’

Xenia Hanusiak

09, Dec, 2023 @7:00 PM

Article image
Literary experts find John Hughes’ plagiarism defence unconvincing
Scholars respond to author’s explanation for his new book appearing to copy some parts of classic texts

Kelly Burke

18, Jun, 2022 @2:33 AM

Article image
The Guardian view on Annie Ernaux: a vintage Nobel winner | Editorial
Editorial: One of France’s finest writers has joined an all too select bunch of female laureates. And about time too

Editorial

07, Oct, 2022 @5:25 PM

Article image
From swapped babies to psychosis: author explores harrowing side of motherhood
GP Susi Fox’s debut novel digs deep into stress and exposes medicine’s sexist practices

Louise Omer

01, Apr, 2018 @7:00 PM

Article image
'Give up and go to the pub': Australia's top authors on beating writer's block
Nominees for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary awards share their tips on tackling the monster that plagues all writers

Alison Whittaker, Billy Griffiths, Clare Atkins, Eddie Ayres, Keri Glastonbury, Karen Foxlee, Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Maria Tumarkin, Sharon Kernot, Tanya Dalziell, Melissa Lucashenko

03, Oct, 2019 @3:22 AM

Article image
Miles Franklin 2019 winner Melissa Lucashenko: 'We need a revolution'
The prize-winning author on rage, her ‘risky’ novel and speaking truth to power

Stephanie Convery

30, Jul, 2019 @8:26 AM