The Poetry Swindler
by Jídé Salawu
On Thursday, July 17, 2025, my friend Hussain Ahmed sent me a Daily Mail article written by Sonya Gugliara headlined, “Straight white author’s career finally takes off after he tells woke publishers he’s gender queer Nigerian.” The piece describes the exploits of literary hoaxer Aaron Barry, a Vancouver-based white man who succeeded in publishing a number of poems in little-known literary journals under various fake names and identities, including that of “Adele Nwankwo,” a self-described “gender-fluid member of the Nigerian diaspora.”
Barry, who is 29, seems to believe that writers of color, or broadly categorized as visible minorities, rely on those marginalized identities in order to reap literary fame and economic benefits. Though the success of his hoax as reported could generously be described as negligible, right-wing rags including The Free Press and The Daily Caller joined the Daily Mail in jumping on the story.
“My thinking was that, if the industry—from small magazines to full-on publishing imprints—could get away with showing a clear preference toward certain groups and, in that same vein, a clear bias against other groups… then there was nothing to say that such power couldn't be abused in the future, whether it be to adhere to shifting trends or politics, or to discriminate against additional demographics,” Barry told the Daily Mail.
The prank attracted little interest beyond the right-wing outlets that chose to cover Barry’s story on political grounds. On Sunday afternoon, the newsletter where he publishes under the alias of “Jasper Ceylon” had 98 subscribers, despite his attempts beginning back in April to gin up interest in the revelation of his identity.
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