This man lied about his identity and got awards for his deliberately terrible poems

New format alert! We’re changing how we monetize episodes. Instead of paywalling the second half of every show, we’re now paywalling every other episode in full. That means this week’s episode is completely free—but if you want access to any part of next week’s episode, you’ll need to become a supporter.In the first segment of this week’s episode, we break down the wild story of Aaron Barry, a white Canadian who posed as a gender-fluid Nigerian poet—and several other made-up identities—to publish 47 intentionally terrible poems across dozens of indie magazines. His hoax reveals how identity politics in the indie lit world can override even the most basic standards, as long as the author checks enough diversity boxes.Plus, in the second segment, we unpack a new Finnish study that complicates the narrative that trans-identifying youth are merely victims of bullying. The data show that non-binary adolescents, in particular, are more likely to be bullies than to be bullied—flipping the usual story and raising uncomfortable questions about performative victimhood and power dynamics in today’s schools. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.citationneededpodcast.com

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