Allegations raised against Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
Note: My regular Genre Grapevine is nearly finished and will be released on October 31. I felt this report was important enough to release before that column.
In 2022, a new writer named Erin Cairns emailed me seeking advice about a well-known author who had exploited and deceived her. This author had evidently submitted one of Cairns’ stories under his own name to a magazine that specialized in “own-voice stories.” As a white woman born in South Africa, Cairns was adamant that her story absolutely didn’t qualify as an own-voice story. In addition, while she had written the main draft of the story, she’d expected the author to rewrite and expand on what she’d written and then list both of them as co-authors. Instead, he’d submitted it under his name with minimal changes.
Cairns was worried this “well-connected” author might hurt her career if she went public with what happened or if any of this got back to him. Because of this, she didn’t want to share the author’s name with me and also didn’t share any identifying details about him or the magazine the story had been submitted to.
A major reason I write my column is because I want to help others in the genre community. I told Cairns that while it was difficult to give advice without knowing the author’s name, what he did to her was absolutely wrong and that it was likely she wasn’t the only person he’d done this to. I also advised her to keep receipts (i.e., screenshots) of any messages between the two of them.
Well, Cairns absolutely kept the receipts, which she has now released in a detailed report that reveals the previously unnamed author to be Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki.
Most people in the genre know Ekpeki, who is the first African-born Black author to win a Nebula Award and who has also won a number of other awards along with being a finalist multiple times for the Hugo Award. The first nine pages of Cairns’ report offers a summary of what happened between the two of them, followed by 68 more pages containing all the screenshotted evidence from their conversations.
As Cairns says at the start of the report, Ekpeki “submitted a story entirely written by me into a black voices magazine without my name on the byline. He lied about who he knew and how well he knew them. He obfuscated information about publications and editors and manipulated me to such an extent that I still struggle to trust myself and others.”
Since Cairns released her report two days ago, she has received well-deserved praise from other authors such as Merc Fenn Wolfmoor and Vajra Chandrasekera for going public with her report. And since the report was released, others have come forward to also raise concerns about Ekpeki’s behavior.
For example, L. D. Lewis stated that Ekpeki was removed from FIYAHCON 2022 “because of an ethics complaint.” Yoon Ha Lee said that "I have seen Ekpeki's bad behavior in a [redacted] context in such a way that I find (Cairns’ report) completely and sadly believable.”
And in a detailed thread, Suyi Davies Okungbowa pointedly said that "I've previously been privy to Erin's report, & I stand in support of her today. It's a brave thing to do, calling out unethical & harmful patterns of behavior such as this. I can attest that this is not the only instance of such behaviour---I've witnessed & received report of similar instances.”
As someone who helped Ekpeki fundraise to both attend the Chicago Worldcon and to deal with his visa issues, and who also donated my own money to support him, these revelations have left me pissed and gutted. I spent a lot of time helping Ekpeki. I’m glad Cairns went public with her report, but I also wish I’d pressed her for the name of that author when she’d originally approached me. At the time I felt, based on her email, that she was fearful to reveal the name and that it wasn’t appropriate for me to even ask. Now I wish I had done so.
I’m not the only one who is angry about all this. I spoke with Chris M. Barkley, who in addition to being a good friend of mine helped Ekpeki raise money to attend this year’s Worldcon. When Ekpeki was denied a visa by the State Department to attend Chicon 8, Barkley and his partner Juli contacted a number of leading U.S. politicians to get this decision overturned. Barkley even helped write and edit Ekpeki’s visa application, which was approved in time for that year’s Worldcon.
As Barkley told me, SF/F fandom has had for decades a “pay it forward” credo and he saw helping Ekpeki as being very much a part of this.
“You can imagine our shock and horror,” Barkley said, referring to himself and Juli, “when Erin Cairns released a report to SWFA outlining egregious ethical transgressions involving her literary collaborations with him this past weekend. We were further disturbed when several friends contacted us with even more credible testimony of his abominable behavior and questionable activities. And sadly, we think that this weekend’s revelations are only the tip of an iceberg of malfeasance perpetrated by him over the past decade. Not only are we angered and deeply disappointed by these allegations, we also know that these sorts of accusations play directly into the hands of his racist detractors and bring shame and suspicion to his fellow African writers as well. Both Juli and I feel shame and disgust for being deceived by him and inadvertently playing a part in his widespread deceptions. He has squandered the goodwill and faith of fandom and set back the efforts of upcoming writers.”
I also worry about the effect this will have on other upcoming writers, especially those from the Global South. And I hate that the people who attacked Ekpeki merely because he’s from Africa will now imagine that they were right all along. As Merc Fenn Wolfmoor said with regards to this, “Ekpeki knows how to weaponize social justice tactics to further his own agenda and suppress/silence victims. Please be aware that there are a lot of bad actors out there who will be wanting to use this to try and discredit/harass/abuse victims — read the report, listen to people who share stories.”
For more reading on all this, I suggest this interesting thread from Gautam Bhatia about how all of this fits into the worldwide SF/F genre, especially with regards to the "actual structural imbalances of power within the industry."
And as Suzan Palumbo said, “You see those writers in the books? Black writers and writers living in African countries now? Go look THEM up and their other work. Big them up. Yeah you feel upset, justified. Do not dwell on THAT. Yes your trust was broken, mine too, turn around and support those writers.”
Finally, Suyi Davies Okungbowa raises some great points:
“Continue to support BIPOC authors in SFF. One bad actor is not representative of the whole. We still need the support, even in the exact ways that have been hijacked for personal enrichment. So go follow, read & support writers of African descent & from the Global South; not just one, but many. Lastly (for now), remember that this doesn't constitute an opportunity to dogpile. There remain bad faith trolls out there excited to capitalize on this revelation to pursue their racist ends. They're already agog over on X/Twitter. Don't give them firepower. State your piece & remain cautious.”