By Amelia Scarponi ’23
Staff Writer
Content Warning: This article contains discussions of transphobia and child abuse.
Author Akwaeke Emezi was nominated for the U.K. Women's Prize for Fiction in March 2019 despite being transgender and using they/them pronouns.
Emezi was born in 1987 in Umuahia, Nigeria, and is of Nigerian and Malaysian heritage. They began writing short stories at the age of five and continued to use storytelling to escape their violent and chaotic childhood under the Nigerian dictatorship.
The inspiration for the Women’s Prize in Fiction was the 1991 Booker Prize, which shortlisted zero women even though about 60 percent of novels published that year were written by female authors. Each year, the winner receives a prize of £30,000 from an anonymous donor and a bronze figurine created by the artist Grizel Niven.
Kate Williams, chair of judges, called the nomination of Emezi’s novel “Freshwater” a “historic moment.” “Freshwater,” their debut autobiographical novel, explores mental illness, gender and the relationship between body and spirit. The coming-of-age story focuses on Ada, a Nigerian college student who finds out that she has three spirits living in her subconscious. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these “alters” begin to take control, her life begins to unravel.
The Guardian reported that “the judges were not aware of Emezi’s gender identity when they selected ‘Freshwater,’ but they did check that Emezi was happy to be longlisted before the announcement.”
In early October 2020, Faber, Emezi’s publisher, attempted to enter their latest novel, “The Death of Vivek Oji,” for this year’s prize. Following the entrance, the U.K. Women’s Prize for Fiction asked Emezi’s publisher to provide information about Emezi’s sex as defined by law.” The award’s policy requires prospective entrants to provide legal documentation such as birth or gender recognition certificates. Individuals who identify as nonbinary are eligible only if these forms dictate that they are female. This policy has been scrutinized by many authors and scholars, including Emezi, for its discriminatory nature.
“Forget about me — I don’t want this prize — but anyone who uses this kind of language does not f---- with trans women either, so when they say it’s for women, they mean cis women,” Emezi tweeted on Oct. 5. “It’s fine for me not to be eligible because I’m not a woman! But you not about to be out here on some ‘sex as defined by law’ like that’s not a weapon used against trans women.” Emezi also stated that the documentation policy proves that the Women’s Prize was transphobic for longlisting “Freshwater.”
In response to Emezi’s tweet, Joanna Prior, the award’s chair of trustees, stated: “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 by all women. In our 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. The trustees of the Women’s Prize Trust would like to reassert that we are firmly opposed to any form of discrimination or prejudice on the basis of race, sexuality or gender identity.”
Kaitlin Gerald ’24 is skeptical. “Their message is that nonbinary folks, like myself, are not welcome and do not exist,” they said. “It’s reassuring that the organization changed their definition of ‘woman,’ but it’s hard to tell if their actions are genuine or in response to the recent controversy. I’ve had enough with companies and organizations trying to save face.”
Despite Emezi formally denouncing the organization, their novel “Freshwater” is still listed on the prize’s website alongside other works nominated in 2019.