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A third of the nominated authors and a judge have withdrawn from the Polari prize because John Boyne, apparently a self-confessed terf (!)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 stop it.

Isn't that the job of a writer though?

To enable us to see from everyone's point of view?

Surely you are not suggesting that an SS officer could never feel pain in losing a child?

Something tells me that PollyNomial isn’t here to engage in good faith.

Thank you for all the advice to read the Elements quartet. After devouring Water in a day, I’m now on Earth. Having never read JB before, I’m now listening to a new author, who writes incredibly beautifully. I will enjoy reading his work, as I avoided the Boy in the Pyjamas when it was released.

John Boyne is on RTÉ Radio 1 right now talking about this - should be listenable again online in an hour or so.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/

Thank you DeanElderberry, that was a good listen.

The questions from listeners though! "My daughter is a TW and she's lovely - TW are gentle, kind and loving people"
As John Boyne said, we wouldn't say that about any other group of people!

Well I have heard it often about Down Syndrome children. But yeah it sounds a bit weird and patronising. I'm actually amazed RTÉ had the balls to interview John Boyne.
There hadn't been much on the subject since Joe Duffy's call in show , which produced the wrong result of course : nearly everyone is a terf. After which they shut the door quick smart and reverted to be kind generalities

I've just listened to the interview on RTE on my lunch break. God, the presenter was DREADFUL. Basically, why can't you be kind ,John Boyne, to this poor persecuted minority, and why are you even courting this controversy instead of just keeping your mouth shut? Is that an accurate reflection of RTE's views when they deign to touch on this topic?

I thought John's responses were good but he was much more apologetic and hand wringing than he should have been, presumably because of the attitude of the presenter.

I didn't want to start a new thread and this Unherd article by Sarah Ditum seemed a reasonable fit for this one

The Left's ugly free-speech fetish - UnHerd https://share.google/nrh523nVhDmlRRzhe

Cancel culture now coming for the 'left'...wah! Suddenly it's wrong.

Good piece.