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# Women’s prize for fiction nominee speaks out against cisnormativity
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/womens-prize-for-fiction-nominee-speaks-out-against-cisnormativity/
- Published: 2020-10-12T08:09:07.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-11T12:05:21.000Z
- Description: 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.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: Arts, Books, News, Queer Corner, JK Rowling, LGBTQ, Non-binary, trans women

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/akwaeke-1000x563-1.jpg)

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](https://twitter.com/azemezi/status/1313003556434259968?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=scenemag.co.uk) 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](https://twitter.com/WomensPrize/status/1313059947626848256?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=scenemag.co.uk) 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.”*

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/baileysprize2016shortlist1-1.jpg)

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](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/jk-rowling-tops-book-charts-despite-transphobia-accusations/) of transphobia after the release of her new novel.