Authors weigh the meaning of authenticity at the hay festival

A thoughtful discussion among writers advances beyond the idea that only people in some demographic group should be allowed to write about people in that group.

I think "Do you know this well enough to write it well?" is a good way to look at that issue.

However, we need to be careful about demanding diversity in the characters of any particular book. If an author who is white and straight doesn't know other groups well enough to write such characters well, per writings will perforce be limited to straight, white characters.