In the wake of the brouhaha of Jamie Oliver’s book, Billy and the Epic Escape, being scrapped for its offensive portrayal of First Nations peoples, ArtsHub decided to explore the role of sensitivity readers given that Oliver and his Penguin Random House UK publisher neither consulted with any First Nations individuals or organisations nor employed a reader attuned to any perceived harm.
A sensitivity reader is someone who assesses a manuscript in order to identify if there are any potential inaccurate, stereotypical or problematic issues within it before it goes to publication, and alerting the writer and the publisher if so in order for amendments to be made before a book’s release.
