Polari book prize cancelled after row over gender-critical novelist
From a total longlist of 24, 16 authors and two judges withdrew from this year's prize, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers signed a statement protesting against the inclusion of John Boyne, the author best known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Polari said it had decided to 'pause the prize this year' while it increases 'representation of trans and gender non-conforming judges on the panels for all the awards' and undertakes 'a governance and management review', organisers wrote in a statement on Monday.
'What was supposed to be a celebration of exceptional LGBTQ+ literature has been overshadowed by hurt and anger, which has been painful and distressing for all concerned and we apologise to everyone who has been affected', it added.
The prize organisers said they had had 'many conversations' with authors, judges, stakeholders and funding bodies about the impact of Boyne's longlisting and 'how we can learn from this experience and move forwards'.
'We are a tiny operation that has run on goodwill and small pots of funding and sponsorship for 15 years and will endeavour to find a way forwards in good faith', the statement concluded.
Polari had previously told the Guardian that it was 'committed to going forward' with this year's prize. In a statement on 7 August, it said that Boyne had been longlisted 'on merit' and that it was 'inevitable' that 'even within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues'.
The statement in protest against Boyne's longlisting, drafted in response to Polari's 7 August statement, said that the author had 'publicly and unequivocally associated himself with trans exclusionary sentiments', citing an Irish Independent article in which Boyne expressed support for JK Rowling and described himself as a 'fellow Terf'. Its hundreds of signatories included Alice Oseman, the author of Heartstopper, along with the writers Nikesh Shukla, Julia Armfield, Naoise Dolan and Seán Hewitt.
Author Nicola Dinan, who won the Polari first book prize last year for her novel Bellies, resigned from this year's jury for the debut prize. Guardian journalist Jason Okundaye asked for his book Revolutionary Acts to be removed from this year's first book prize longlist, while Andrew McMillan withdrew his book Pity from the longlist for the overall Polari book prize for non-debuts, for which Boyne was also longlisted.
Writing in the Guardian last week, Okundaye said that the prize had 'always been for the entire LGBTQ+ community', and so 'it is a contradiction to include someone who is trans-exclusionary'.
In a response to the controversy, Boyne said that it seemed 'absurd and wrong' that debut writers who were withdrawing were losing an opportunity, and said that if they returned, he would ask judges not to consider his novella, Earth, for the shortlist.
Writing in the Telegraph on Tuesday, he called Polari's decision to cancel the prize an 'interesting example of self-cancellation', and said that nobody from the prize had contacted him. 'Had they done so, perhaps a happier resolution might have been found'.
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