Women’s Prize for Fiction sparks transgender row

The decision comes amid a row between the Prize and Akwaeke Emezi, who became the first transgender author to be nominated for the Women’s Prize in 2019.

The prestigious Women’s Prize for Fiction has extended its eligibility for submissions to include anyone who is a ‘cis woman, a transgender woman or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex’.

The Prize was founded 25 years ago to ‘honour, celebrate and champion women’s voices, and to shine a spotlight on phenomenal fiction written by women’, a statement claimed.

It has now decided that it will receive for submission full-length novels ‘by all women’ – including ‘cis’ (heterosexual) women, transgender women and ‘anyone who is legally defined as a woman’.

Joanna Prior’s statement added that the Trustees of the Prize, who include Anita Anand and Kate Mosse, are ‘firmly opposed to any form of discrimination or prejudice on the basis of race, sexuality or gender identity’.

The decision comes amid a row between the Prize and Akwaeke Emezi, who became the first transgender author to be nominated for the Women’s Prize in 2019.

Judges last year said they had not been aware of Emezi’s gender when reading submissions and described their longlisting as a ‘historic moment’. But today, Emezi said their publisher, Faber, had asked them if they wanted their second novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, to be submitted for the prize this year. Emezi said that when Faber got in touch with the Women’s Prize about submitting The Death of Vivek Oji, they were allegedly informed: ‘The information we would require from you regards Akwaeke Emezi’s sex as defined by law.’

According to The Guardian, the prize organisers then said that their terms and conditions for entry equated the word ‘woman’ with ‘a cis woman, a transgender woman or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex’.

Ms Prior, chair of trustees, said: ‘The Women’s Prize for Fiction was founded 25 years ago to honour, celebrate and champion women’s voices, and to shine a spotlight on phenomenal fiction written by women. Over the past quarter of a century, the prize has publicly championed and amplified a diverse breadth of women’s voices, and holds the principle of freedom of expression among its core values. ‘As a prize which celebrates the voices of women and the experience of being a woman in all its varied forms, we are proud to include as eligible for submission full-length novels written in English by all women.

‘In our terms and conditions, the word ‘woman’ equates to a cis woman, a transgender woman or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex. The Trustees of the Women’s Prize Trust would like to reassert that we are firmly opposed to any form of discrimination or prejudice on the basis of race, sexuality or gender identity.’

It appears the row was sparked by the Government’s rejection of proposals to allow transgender people to ‘self-id’ without a medical diagnosis.