Public statement with regards to plagiarism claims against Sheree Mack

Earlier this week the American writer Judith Turner-Yamamoto brought to New Writing North’s attention her belief that her story A Mercy, (which was shortlisted for the 2011 Manchester Fiction Prize), had been plagiarized by the North East writer Sheree Mack. The Mack story in question, The Tracks, was commissioned by New Writing North and published in a free publication that we distributed in the region in 2012 and was subsequently published in The Journal. 

The case Turner-Yamamoto made was a compelling one and having taken appropriate action to address the matter with Sheree Mack we are confident in our conclusion that Mack had taken ideas from the premise and structure, and some of the language, directly from Turner-Yamamoto’s story. This is a regrettable situation for both writers. 

We have this week taken action to inform our project partners of this issue and to pulp the remaining copies of the publication that are in our stock.