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

[QAOPspaceman]

A third of the nominated authors and a judge have withdrawn from the Polari prize because John Boyne, apparently a self-confessed terf (!) and friend of JK Rowling (!!!), is nominated. He wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and has previously said "while I will happily employ any term that a person feels best defines them... I reject the notion that someone can force an unwanted term on to another" so is clearly a fascist.

Have never read his stuff but am tempted to order his complete works immediately.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/polari-prize-will-review-processes-after-a-third-of-nominated-authors-withdraw-books-from-longlist

https://archive.ph/J39nH

Oh Good! A ‘Terf’ had more chance of winning then : )

Good ole JB.

OP, I can recommend "The Hearts Invisible Furies", and "The Echo Chamber"

Get reading them immediately!

He’s a fabulous writer. This era of demanding ‘moral purity’ from creatives otherwise they’re cancelled can’t end soon enough.

But but but I thought the LGBTQIA2S community was all one big happy rainbow mutually supportive family

I'm shocked! shocked I tell you that that only applies if you deny biological reality otherwise you can go straight under the virtue bus

Oh merrily destroying a prize celebrating their own community, are they? Foot, meet bullet.

I can only read a limited section of the story but I do find it so worrying that so many of the people who are meant to be promoting freedom of speech are so hardline and intolerant. I disagree with the Tra position but I would never take action to try to block people from having that debate. It’s like people can’t bear to countenance that some opinions may differ from theirs so they just blacklist people with such damaging consequences, not just for individuals but also freedom of expression. I hope John wins - and not just because I love his work.

How utterly deranged of them. I hope John doesn't pull out because of this and takes heart that they are very much overreacting and being ridiculous. So many of us can see it.

I can't read the article, does it say which authors have pulled out?

Yes I would be interested to know this too.

@QAOPspaceman You're missing out! He's a fantastic writer. I've not long finished All the Broken Places which I could hardly put down. I've read a few of his books and they're all good.

Hope he wins.

Boyne also rather famously had a big falling out with Graham Lineham over gender and trans. Boyne was particularly nasty to Lineham for being gender critical, same sex spaces etc... Then a friend of Boyne, a female Irish musician accidentally stepped on a gender social land mine and got blown up resulting in loads of extremely nasty gender backlash. It took a while for Boyne to understand what the fuck was going on, but after he'd had a long think on it, an out of the blue apology got publicly posted to Lineham. No lawyers or legal threats were involved to twist Boyne's arm, just he saw how crazy the gender woowoo can get and decided to nope the fuck out of Dodge. Operation let them speak had peaked another.
It takes a lot to realise something you believed very strongly is wrong, and to apologise sincerely with no snark or bitterness. I tip my hat to Boyne, that shows a lot of good character.

Such sad, pathetic babies. Do they have any idea how utterly silly their actions are?

Mind blown. I have just this minute found out that the author of 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' and 'My Brother's Name is Jessica' is the same person who wrote 'The Hearts Invisible Furies'. How did I not realise this?

Yes, he has a lot of integrity.

As for the idiotic little pr*cks trying to cancel him 🙄

The hearts invisible furries is a bloody fantastic book and I had no idea same author as the boy in striped pyjamas!

Wish they’d name names so we know who the censorious writers and the like are. They need keeping from any area of judgement about writing.

Slanted piece by Assigned Media but it does have the names:
https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/polari-prize-lgbtq-authors-withdraw-protesting-john-boyne-inclusion

First Book prize list below: respect to Jane Cholmeley, Hanako Footman, Hugo Greenhalgh and Eleanor Medhurst, I guess, who are probably being cancelled as we speak

Latest list I could find

Sacha Coward is well named 😂

Ah, yet another example of the crime of "alignment". Which, according to another thread, doesn't really exist!

'Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion' sounds like an interesting read. I hope Eleanor Medhurst withstands the inevitable pressure.

Ugh he's dreadful. Check out his social media. He is so self obsessed.

It’s very funny - these people are insane. It seems an obviously skewed list in that you have two genuine stars on the list - Alan Hollinghurst, one of the foremost writers of his generation, and John Boyne, who has the kind of sales the others would kill for. Removing yourself from the list makes zero difference to the eventual outcome.

Don't tell me he's erasing the furries as well?! What's his next hate-filled, kink-shaming book going to be? The Man in the Pooey Nappies?

He’s an amazing writer