H&S wins Lawal's 'essential' guide to calling out harmful black stereotypes

Hodder & Stoughton has acquired the rights to The Clapback: How to Call out Harmful Black Stereotypes by Elijah Lawal.

Huw Armstrong, editor for non-fiction, acquired British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada), at auction, from Niki Chang at The Good Literary Agency. The book will be published in hardback in June 2019. 

The Clapback examines the evolution of negative and harmful racial stereotypes and then proceeds to debunk them factually and scientifically, says H&S. 

Lawal, a PR manager at Google, and a finalist of the Penguin WriteNow scheme, is said to be passionate about helping underrepresented people grow their careers in creative industries. 

He said:  “For far too long, there have been prevailing negative stereotypes about the black community that are taken as gospel. I look forward to dispelling these tropes and helping people clapback on such assertions. After all, there's true beauty in the culture, heritage, and legacy of black people — I mean, we came up with Jollof rice, for God's sake. I can't wait to share this book with the world and I couldn't have picked a better publisher than Huw and the Hodder & Stoughton team to help make my dream a reality.”

Armstrong said: “The Clapback will be essential reading for everyone. Elijah writes with passion and doesn’t shy away when providing comebacks to some of the most harmful stereotypes. This is a book that the world needs, and I can’t wait for it to publish. It’s magic.”