Hudson, who is white, wrote in his bio for the anthology that he chose the Chinese-sounding nom de plume after The Bees was rejected by 40 different journals when submitted under his real name. He figured that the poem might have a better shot at publication if it was written by somebody else.

. . . But Hudson’s critics said the literary bait-and-switch was fraudulent and racist.

“When you’re doing this from a position of entitlement, you’re appropriating an ethnic identity that’s one, imaginary, and two, doesn’t have access to the literary world,” poet and Chapman University professor Victoria Chang said.