The Green Carnation Prize 2011: The Longlist
We’re always thrilled to see some of our favourite women authors on prize longlists (see: Novel Women), but we’re especially excited to see names such as Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith and Jackie Kay selected for this year’s Green Carnation Prize (with Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, There But for The… and Red Dust Road respectively)!
In 2010, the prize celebrated the best fiction and memoirs by gay men (the winner was Christopher Fowler’s Paperboy), but now, in its second year, the prize is open to all LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) writers. The longlist of 13 spans genres, with memoirs, short stories, crime, literary and science fiction all represented. Chair of the judges, Simon Savidge, said, “I think the long list this year is very exciting and very diverse…We have books by some well known names along with some stunning debuts and some authors that people might not have heard of before – in fact that also applies to some of the publishers.”
One of the new judges for 2011 is deputy editor of the Guardian Books website, Michelle Pauli. Praising the diversity of authors and genres selected she said, “just as the Green Carnation prize itself has broadened out this year to include all LGBT writers, not just gay men, so this longlist represents a wonderfully wide range of writing”, and fellow judge Stella Duffy said she is “delighted to see so many women writers on the list and excited by the range of writing.”
The organisers hope the Green Carnation will “become Britain’s most prestigious literary prize for modern gay writing”, and the longlist this year is looking most promising!
The shortlist will be announced on 2nd November and the winner on 7th December 2011.
That longlist in full:
By Nightfall – Michael Cunningham (Fourth Estate)
The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge – Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
The Proof of Love – Catherine Hall (Portobello)
Red Dust Road – Jackie Kay (Picador)
The Retribution – Val McDermid (Little Brown)
Purge – Sofi Oksanen (Atlantic Books)
There But for The… – Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
Remembrance of Things I Forgot – Bob Smith (Terrace Books)
Ever Fallen in Love – Zoe Strachan (Sandstone Press)
The Empty Family – Colm Toibin (Penguin Books)
Role Models – John Waters (Beautiful Books)
Before I Go To Sleep – S J Watson (Doubleday)
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson (Jonathan Cape)
Alex Herod
What do you think?