Game Of Thrones author George RR Martin has apologised after coming under criticism for comments deemed ‘racially and sexually insensitive’ at this year’s Hugo Awards.
The 71-year-old novelist hosted this year’s virtual literature ceremony, which focuses on the efforts of those in fantasy and science fiction.
However, viewers and nominees called out the author for repeatedly mispronouncing names of nominees during the ceremony, particularly names of people of colour.
This included Rebecca F Kuang – who won in the best new writer category.
In another moment, he referred to the statuette as a ‘Golden Eunuch’ which author Natalie Luhrs declared as ‘gender essentialist and transphobic’.
He also praised the late HP Lovecraft and John W Campbell, both of whom won awards this year despite their history of racist views.
In a long message posted on File 770 after the ceremony, George addressed the criticisms and apologised for mispronunciation, stating that he had never been shown phonetically how to pronounce the winners names and apologising for any errors.
‘Last night at the event I was handed sealed envelopes with the names of the winners, and there were phonetic pronunciations for SOME (by no means all) of the names of those winners on the cards, which I had a second or two to digest before reading them out,’ he wrote.
‘I probably got some of those wrong as well. Pronunciation has never been my strong suit. I even mispronounce the name of my own characters at times (witness some of my interviews).
‘At no point in the process was I ever given a phonetic guide to how to pronounce all the other finalists, the ones who did not win.’
‘Had I received that, I would certainly have made every effort to get all the names correct,’ he asserted, before adding: ‘(I do fear I would have messed some of them up in any case. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and I freely admit, this is one of my weaknesses. I still have trouble with the name of one of my own assistants).’
‘I do hereby apologize to everyone and anyone whose name I mispronounced. I am deeply sorry. That was never my intent,’ he concluded.
In her speech, later posted online, Kuang said: ‘If I were talking to a new writer coming to the genre in 2020, I would tell them, well, if you are an author of colour, you’d very likely only be paid a fraction of the advance that white writers are getting.
‘You’ll be pigeonholed, you will be miscategorised, you will be lumped in with other authors of colour whose work doesn’t remotely resemble yours.
‘The chances are very high that you will be sexually harassed at conventions, or the target of racist microaggressions, or very often just overt racism. People will mispronounce your name repeatedly and in public, even people who are on your publishing team.
‘Your cover art will be racist and you will have to push against that, and the way people talk about you and your literature will be tied to your identity and your personal trauma instead of the stories you’re actually trying to tell.’
‘If I had known all of that when I went into the industry, I don’t know if I would have done it,’ she said.
‘So I think that the best way we can celebrate new writers is to make this industry more welcoming for everyone.’
Kuang later joked her author website now has ‘easy instructions to pronounce her name’.
Of the other criticisms of his hosting, George said he had relied on ‘tried and tested’ jokes and wanted to highlight the award show’s past, and not cause offence.
He added: ‘I regret that some of you did not enjoy my hosting. And I am pleased to hear that so many of you did…
‘Obviously I wish I could have been everyone’s favorite toastmaster of all time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.’
CoNZealand, who hosted the ceremony, later posted an apology of their own on Twitter, which read: ‘We acknowledge that we got some things wrong at the Hugo Awards Ceremony today, and through doing so have hurt members of our community.
‘We sincerely apologise for that hurt. We apologise for the mispronunciation of names and any disrespect implied. Phonetic guidelines were made available to us and we did not overcome the challenges we faced.
‘As chairs, we accept full responsibility for this. This chair’s also made the decision to provide an agnostic platform for all the participants and did not place restrictions on any speech or presentations.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted George RR Martin’s reps for further comment.
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