21st Century Literature discussion

The shortlist was announced last night - I was at the event which included a wonderful lecture by Ali Smith, and got to meet some of my friends from the Mookse and the Gripes group.

These are the shortlisted books:

H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker
A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume
Playing Possum by Kevin Davey
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
First Love by Gwendoline Riley
Phone by Will Self

Of these, I've read Sara Baume and Jon McGregor and would be pleased to see either win, though I have a very soft spot for Reservoir 13.

Now that sounds like the way to enjoy these announcements, Hugh! Thanks for posting.

Fiction at its most novel
Prize intro

"Our six shortlisted books offer resistance to the received idea of how a novel should be written. Variously, they break the rules on continuity, time, character arcs, perspective, voice, typographical conventions and structure. As such, there is a wildness to all of our chosen books that provokes in the reader a joyful inquiry about just what a novel might be there to do." (Dr Naomi Wood, Chair of Judges)

http://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-prize/

I needed to go look for what characteristics distinguish the Goldsmith Prize vis a vis others for literary novels.

I am not sure there is any firm dividing line or any clear criteria. The other group have been making predictions and produced about 25 candidates. Only Playing Possum was a total surprise and that one wasn't even on GoodReads at the time of the announcement. I would love to see Reservoir 13 win something but I have reservations about whether it is innovative enough...

I think it is pretty distinctive vs. the Booker as it prizes innovation ('fiction that breaks the mould') as a requirement, which the Booker certainly doesn't.

There are Booker books and Goldsmiths books with some, not only some, overlap. Hence why we managed on the other group to pick 5 of the 6 shortlisted books (the 6th was completely obscure) - indeed my initial 8 guesses had 4 of the shortlist. (And it was a completely different list to the Booker, which was also largely books that had been predicted).

I have compared to Booker above but sane would apply to most other prizes. The Booker is only really distinguished in UK by the sheer prestige attached, whereas the Goldsmiths is genuinely distinct.

There is a very good New Statesman article

https://www.newstatesman.com/2014/09/...

Thanks Paul for the link to the interesting article and the explanation re the differences among the Booker/Goldsmiths/Folio awards.

I am quite evangelistic about the Goldsmiths!

Another article - with the same title but a different publication:

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/pu...

which focuses on The Republic of Consciousness Prize, which also rewards innovation and also only is open to small independent presses, and has now displaced the Goldsmiths in my affections.