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The Goldsmiths Prize
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2022 Goldsmiths Prize speculation
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Hugh, Active moderator
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Nov 11, 2021 01:29AM
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Listopia here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...Feeling the bar is set high for the first post on this thread as one year we managed 4/6 and this year 3/6! So I will treat this as a marker post and give it some thought and perhaps 'freeze' my predictions in January.
Curandera by Irenosen Okojie is my current favourite to win
Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe if it lives up to its billing
Ali Smith's new novel Companion Piece: The follow-up to the Seasonal Quartet may be a contender
My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is by Paul Stanbridge, if it's anything like his last may be too Goldsmiths for the Goldsmiths!
Perhaps Emergency by Daisy Hildyard
[Tell Me I'm Worthless would have been one, but published 3 days too early]
Curandera sounds amazing! Emergency sounds good too.
Following on from the SKG thread https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11947/...
You wonder what this means for the prize - I did speculate last year if the future was part of the reason for not having a shortlist event or the lecture in person … but on this basis you can see people refusing to be judges.
They are never going to top SKG as a winner so perhaps it may make sense to stop the prize and award the trophy permanently to Isabel Waidner.
Rumours of the death of the prize may be greatly exaggeratedThey’ve named the judges
Authors Ali Smith and Natasha Brown will judge the 10th Goldsmiths Prize, joined by the New Statesman’s Tom Gatti and prize founder Dr Tim Parnell
Parnell is the Chair and is from Goldsmiths
The shortlist is due to be announced on 5th October and the winner on 9th November
Wow great judging panel
If the judges can find anything even close to the quality of Assembly or The Seasonal Quartet we are in for a treat. And I have a lot of time for Tom Gatti and Tim Parnell also.
This does seem to take Companion Piece out of the running. Great panel.
Tom Gatti was a judge in the second year of the prize won by …. Ali Smith. In the days when the shortlist was announced at the end of the Goldsmiths lecture I recall on a couple of occasions Tim Parnell asking us afterwards what our first impressions were of the list
, the fact that I remember telling him what I though of Ducks Newburyport! I did preface it by saying others would like it!
Goldsmiths Prize 2022 key dates:28 January – submissions open
1 April – submissions close
5 October – six-book shortlist announced
9 November – winner announced
It feels like we need some kind of Mookse calendar where we could list all the prize dates in one post by calendar date ….
It's a good line-up but personally I'm a bit disappointed in Ali Smith and Tom Gatti for going against the boycott, doesn't fit with their reps as more politically engaged as far as their work's concerned. And Goldsmiths' has been pretty vile in their treatment of their staff even when compared to other academic institutions. So it will be interesting to see if they go through with it if the call for not engaging continues to be in place.
Paul, you predicted Poguemahone, but aren’t the Unbound books often delayed in getting completed and published? One of the books I ordered was originally due in November 2020. I’m not criticizing, Unbound is great about updates and things went wonky the last two years, but I’ll be surprised if Poguemahone is released on schedule.
Yes. It may not end up eligible. Still a better prediction than Companion Pieces though!!
I’m not up to speed on the Goldsmith debacle, but I know enough to know that a ban was requested in support of staff so it is surprising any author is cooperating with the prize. Maybe they know something I don’t?
I am not sure I follow the issue either - can anyone explain it a little more. The link I gave about the boycott refers to a redundancy programme and a ranking of people to be made redundant but presumably there is a lot more besides as otherwise I suspect there is hardly a medium or large company anywhere in the Uk that should not also be boycotted - I have certainly seen those programmes pretty well every where I have worked and even had to run them on occasions.
I believe there is a general issue with financial mismanagement so other options are possible to save staff positions. It's also the case that in some HE institutions where these kinds of schemes have been implemented it was purely a means of offloading staff on decent contracts, in order to hire new staff in more junior positions on less reasonable contracts. These new positions are often given new titles or the related courses are rejigged to make it look as if the old positions were no longer relevant/surplus to requirements. Sometimes the schemes are used to target particular people or groups, older staff tend to be particularly vulnerable.There's also a tendency to have a number of people in higher management on over-inflated salaries, so end up with lots of those plus a few permanent, experienced academics, who are then left to deal with an army of low-paid, part-timers.
You can find more information on the relevant Twitter feed
https://twitter.com/GoldsmithsUCU
My hot tip to win Curandera seems to have been postponed to next year. Not seeing that many other obvious contenders so far.
Interesting book published today though - Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence which is a Red and the Dead style fictionalised biography of the first black top flight referee, Uriah Rennie. If any of the jury are football fans could be a contender.
Adam Scovell has a new book out today as well - Nettles. Not sure how Goldsmithsy this one is, but I was surprised neither of his previous two novels made it.
I have been adding various books to the Listopia, most of which books probably aren’t Goldsmiths material. Feeling there may be some surprises this year as it doesn’t feel as predictable as some years. Any thoughts from anyone else - ARCs read or Booker tips which might be Goldsmiths contenders? Or indeed ones I have added to the Listopia which you think “have you actually read it?” (Answer - probably not).
Author is Tasmanian isn’t he? Not sure of any UK/Irish connection.
Paul wrote: "Author is Tasmanian isn’t he? Not sure of any UK/Irish connection."Perhaps none. I lose track of prize eligibility and which prizes include commonwealth nations.
Almost none now that carve out Commonwealth, but not rest of world, that I can think of. Although oddly most UK prizes treat Ireland as part of the UK.
The Goldsmiths lecture this year - which is usually where they also announce the shortlist - is to be given by Knausgaard and will be at the Southbank not Goldsmiths Unihttps://www.newstatesman.com/culture/...
Greater profile for a star name - or a bit of distancing from Goldsmiths the institution?
Karl Ove Knausgård will launch the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Goldsmiths Prize this autumn with an event at the Southbank Centre. The acclaimed Norwegian author, best known for his My Struggle series, will deliver the annual New Statesman/Goldsmiths Prize lecture on “why the novel matters” at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 22 October as part of the centre’s London Literature Festival.
The Goldsmiths Prize, which runs in partnership with the New Statesman, awards “fiction at its most novel”, celebrating literature that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form”. Winners of the prize during its first decade include Eimear McBride for A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Ali Smith for How to Be Both, and Isabel Waidner for Sterling Karat Gold. The New Statesman/Goldsmiths Prize lecture was first delivered in 2016 by Howard Jacobson; subsequent lecturers included Elif Shafak and Bernardine Evaristo, who argued against the continuing dominance of the white male canon.
Also kicking off the prize’s tenth anniversary celebrations at the Southbank Centre on 22 October are Ali Smith and previous Goldsmiths-shortlisted novelists Natasha Brown and Guy Gunaratne. They will discuss their fantasy Goldsmiths Prize winner – a favourite innovative novel published before the award was founded. Both events will also be livestreamed. Other speakers at the London Literature Festival include Greta Thunberg, Malorie Blackman and George Saunders.
They manage to get 8 mentions of Goldsmith so does not feel like much distancing - more it looks to fit with the London literature festival (aren’t the Booker shortlist readings normally part of that also).
Neither event - the judges giving their fantasy winners nor Knausi’s lecture - mentions the shortlist being announced. And actually dates don’t tie up as shortlist is pencilled in for 5 October and these are 20 October.
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/wha...
I am confused as to why After Sappho is on here?
Because I am enjoying the book so assumed the author couldn’t be American.
What about Diego Garcia? I believe both authors are UK based.
For me, Treacle Walker also fits the Goldsmiths. It's certainly not a conventional novel. I was not familiar with Garner's work though and I'm not sure what our UK-based friends on GR would think.
Definitely in my view.
Vesna wrote: "For me, Treacle Walker also fits the Goldsmiths. It's certainly not a conventional novel. I was not familiar with Garner's work though and I'm not sure what our UK-based friends on ..."Ali Smith is a Garner fan, she's written about him more than once including contributing to a book of essays about his writing First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner
But does the book actually fit the publication dates for the prize?
I'm not sure it does. But experts will know!
Good point - misses by 3 days
Yes Treacle Walker was eligible last year (if the official publication date is accurate)As was Case Study.
And I am not sure about books with more than one author - the rules implicitly assume a sole author.
Paul wrote: "And I am not sure about books with more than one author - the rules implicitly assume a sole author."How retrograde. Get with the times, Goldsmiths.
Paul wrote: "Yes Treacle Walker was eligible last year (if the official publication date is accurate) ..."I've just checked the 4th Estate Catalogue - 30 September 2021. Too bad because this year Ali Smith is a judge. Thank you, Alwynne, for letting us know that she is a Garner's fan.
Booker similar - lots of references to “the author” although not clear what would happen to a dual authored book. And the previous book the two co-authored was actually released as by one of them (with the other just thanked in the acknowledgements) in part to make it eligible for prizes.
As indeed also happens to the two characters in the novel itself:After your world-famous agency had read the full manuscript and you'd revealed by contribution they expressed unease. Your publisher reacted similarly: what if I wanted my name on the cover...? Would I want paying? What about the terms and conditions for literary prizes
Vesna wrote: "Paul wrote: "Yes Treacle Walker was eligible last year (if the official publication date is accurate) ..."I've just checked the 4th Estate Catalogue - 30 September 2021. Too bad because this year..."
I thought his influence seemed particularly strong in Companion Piece
If Treacle Walker was 30 Sept 2021 then it isn’t eligible for this year’s Booker either - should have been last year. Unless the prize overlooked it being ineligible by one day (this year is from 1 Oct 2021).
Amazon has it as published on 28 October 2021. Which would make it Booker but not Goldsmiths eligible this year.
There’s always one Booker book of dubious eligibility so that makes sense.
True. There was one last year - can’t remember which - which definitely wasn’t eligible for the Booker as the ebook had been published months before the cut off. I still remember being asked by an author to edit their biography on Goodreads which said, incorrectly, that they lectured at Goldsmiths (I suspect they were concerned about being deemed ineligible).
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The Mookse and the Gripes
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Companion Piece (other topics)Treacle Walker (other topics)
First Light: A celebration of Alan Garner (other topics)
Treacle Walker (other topics)
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