Authors and poets have leaped to the defence of an award-winning Indigenous writer after she was allegedly abused online by year 12 students.
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Ellen van Neerven also received messages asking her to explain her poem Mango from the book Comfort Food after students sitting the HSC English exam on Monday were asked to analyse the work.
The opening question in the exam asked students to "explain how the poet conveys the delight of discovery".
However, some students were less than delighted with the question, creating memes on social media inspired by the poem.
Other students expressed frustration and contempt for Ms van Neerven, whose first book, Heat and Light won a number of accolades including a NSW Premiers' Literary Award.
A post on the HSC Discussion Group Facebook page, purporting to be a message sent to the writer asking her to explain the poem: "In all honesty there wasn't much to analyse cos (sic) it reads like a 4 year wrote it."
Other comments descended to racist and vulgar abuse, prompting authors to criticise the actions of HSC students.
Evelyn Araluen, a poet and PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, said students had invaded Ms van Neerven's privacy and sent abusive messages: "It's not cute, it's harassment."
huge amount of kids sending her PMs, DMs, tweets, emails, trying to illicit reactions for a FB meme group. You're venting and I understand.??? Evelyn Araluen (@evelynaraluen) October 16, 2017
This isn't about your meme, it's about when children feel licence to drag authors into their exam angst. It's not cute, it's harassment.??? Evelyn Araluen (@evelynaraluen) October 16, 2017
Author Michelle Law described the students abusing Ms van Neerven as "lazy, entitled and obtuse".
Author Omar Sakr called on the NSW Department of Education to investigate the online abuse directed at Ms van Neerven.
"[A]sking a poet to analyse their poem for you demonstrates a staggering lack of imagination and critical ability to engage with literature," Mr Sakr wrote in a separate post on social media.
Others criticised NSW Education Standards Authority for what they said was a poorly framed question.
See this is something that's actually worth talking about! HSC questions are usually pretty vague, it's what encourages ppl to memorise. https://t.co/VEOJCfNVeg??? Evelyn Araluen (@evelynaraluen) October 16, 2017
A NESA spokesman said exam questions had been sent by a committee of experienced English teachers.
"The authors are not advised in advance," he said. "They don't know because obviously ... for the security and confidentiality of the exam."
The spokesman declined to comment on the online abuse directed at Ms van Neervan by students.
He said HSC students were provided with an opportunity to give feedback on the courses as well as the exams to NESA.
Ms van Neerven was approached for comment.
