A prize celebrating LGBTQ+ literature has cancelled its awards this year, after a row over the longlisting of an author who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
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.
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”.
Source: Polari book prize cancelled after row over gender-critical novelist