Polari prize nominees withdraw over inclusion of 'terf' John Boyne

Sucha Coward seems to spend his time 'queering' museum collections. I didn't see Patrick Ness's name and he's been absolutely vile.

Boyne really annoyed me when he was still mid-peakening (trying to appease the D.I.E Vampyre when his book ‘My Brother’s Name is Jessica’ didn’t land the way he expected) but he has really stepped up to the plate since and his humour has won me over.

Fuck this daft prize facilitated by cowards, John can have a Mumsnet FWR award instead.

Me too, I saved the list on my phone and not one of them will get a cent from me again. The only exception I'll make is writers who are currently very young. I was kind of surprised to see the Motherfoclóir guy there. I knew he was woke but I didn't realise he was a nasty bully.

My thoughts exactly. From a reader's perspective, I also looked through that list to make sure I had none of the books by those authors and to avoid them in the future. They don't even realise they are alienating a particular audience, or maybe don't care? I'd say they haven't put any deep thought into their decision to sign that letter, they're just going along with the mob.

Sacha Coward must be a real person, whoever they are, because they're one of the shortlisted authors who withdrew.

I thought the same - plenty of people in books and publishing are just having to keep their heads down, be very careful who they are honest with, or toe the line but still have a clear business awareness that this kind of witch-hunting and purity-spiralling is not helpful and people who go in for it are likely to be a nightmare to work with. They’ve all just declared in public that they’re all aboard with victimising a leading, successful, popular and well-liked writer for wrongthink - people will be hanging onto that list.

I was also surprised to see a few key names not on it and wondered if they had the same realisation.

The name is too good to be true

Ps Sacha Coward signed it. I want him or her to be a secret agent. ...

Very true! I know a couple of people whose names are not on the list ... somewhat to my surprise. One of whom has been very strident in her condemnation of GC people in the past. Sniffing the wind maybe.

Like all totalitarian regimes, it would descend into purges and denouncements very quickly.

It would be highly entertaining though.

The funny thing about that letter is that the people signing it are, I think, quite blinkered to the possible costs of signing it. To them, their position is the default, the uncontroversial, the politically safe one. They are so snug in their bubble they have no idea how many people will be horrified by their dogmatism. Publishing is pretty toxic but there are bound to be some sensible people who are keeping their heads down. If you were an agent or were organising some literary event, would you want to have to deal with a signatory from that list?

More user friendly link to archive of telegraph article https://archive.is/niINf

( the .ph version has all those hoops to go through. the .is doesn't)

Anyhow glad that JB was and is able to rise above the noisy school children.

Is anyone a subscriber to the Telegraph? If so are the comments on the article positive?

I loved John Boyne's droll sense of humour in the Telegraph article.
Boyne and JKR are well matched in that area

Joe Mccarthy signed it! 😃 I'm assuming a different one, what with being dead and all, but his spirit lives on.

I hate lists that alphabetise by first name.

https://medium.com/@nnimhaoileoin/author-statement-on-the-polari-prize-longlist-42111cca1c53

Sorry, I sent the wrong link the first time. This should work.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/2025/08/18/literary-prize-cancels-annual-award-following-backlash-over-inclusion-of-irish-author-john-boyne/

Great article. I especially liked
"Honestly, my phone hasn’t been this hot since I was last on Tinder."

Has anyone got a link to this petition? I'd love to see the list. I thought I'd found one yesterday but it just led to a note from Google, no more contributions accepted, or words to that effect.

Eta, this might be my favourite bit

this obsessive need to amplify the voices of trans people, a strange fixation considering one would get less amplification at a Metallica concert

To be polite, it lacked a certain name recognition factor
JB has used a politer set of words than my ‘nonentities’.

That’s a great article and I’m also relieved that I misinterpreted the “can’t go on” part of his earlier statement.

ive never read any of his books, but I’ve ordered the one that’s 99p on kindle. I’ll need something else to looking forward to read after the new Strike release in a couple of weeks! And I like his writing from the articles he’s written, so I’ll see whether I get on with his storytelling.

That is a fantastic article. Full of common sense and compassion. Also really witty and waspish (‘exiled to Elba’)

I'm disappointed, as was he, that no one from the Polari Prize has contacted him. That is cowardly and frankly unprofessional.

It's also interesting that he doesn't mention his own publisher/editor/publicist. I wonder where they stand on it?

I've just ordered Earth from my local extremely "Queer" bookshop. Obviously they didn't have it in, despite having progress flags and trans flags festooned everywhere, because he's only gay, so not worth promoting 🙄

Or the Judean People's Front and People's Front of Judea

John Boyne has written more about the latest in the Telegraph

https://archive.ph/niINf

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/john-boyne-heres-what-happened-when-they-tried-to-cancel-me/

It's witty and compassionate. I'm relieved it is confirmed that he actually wasn't feeling suicidal.

Some disappointing names on that list (amidst the nonentities). Never mind, the type of fiction I like has plenty of offerings to choose from, so less of a boycott, more a dropping down to the bottom of a very long list in future.
I’m sure a lot of authors I read have views on gender that are different to my own and that isn’t a problem at all. Where it becomes a problem and affects who I spend my money on is when they put their names to a bullying cancellation attempt such as that.