Women’s prize for fiction nominee speaks out against cisnormativity

Non-binary writer Akwaeke Emezi, longlisted for the women’s prize for fiction with her novel Freshwater, said they would no longer be submitting entries due to a lack of gender non-conforming inclusivity. Emezi was told they would have to enter their new book according to “sex as defined by law”, so they tweeted saying “I don’t want this prize—but anyone who uses this kind of language does not f*ck with trans women either, so when they say it’s for women, they mean cis women.”

Joanna Prior, the prize committee’s chair of trustees, tweeted confirming all female-identifying and/or female born authors were eligible to enter, adding: “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 written by all women.”

According to the prize’s 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.” Despite this, Emezi argued there is “virulent transphobia in the UK literary world” and referenced author JK Rowling who has been accused of transphobia after the release of her new novel.