A statement on retracting Jumi Bello’s essay.
Earlier this morning Lit Hub published a very personal essay by Jumi Bello about her experience writing a debut novel, her struggles with severe mental illness, the self-imposed pressures a young writer can feel to publish, and her own acts of plagiarism. Because of inconsistencies in the story and, crucially, a further incident of plagiarism in the published piece, we decided to pull the essay.