Granta is a British literary magazine widely regarded as a pillar of the establishment. Every ten years they publish a list of “top British novelists under 40”. Previously the list has featured the likes of Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Jeanette Winterson and Zadie Smith. This year’s list has just been published. The Guardian has a run down. They note that for the first time the list has more women on it than men. The list is also very multi-cultural, with authors who have connections to China, Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Bangladesh and Pakistan. There is, however, another aspect of diversity in the list I’d like to point to.
Helen Oyeyemi has been a nominee for the Shirley Jackson Awards. Sarah Hall and Steven Hall (no relation as far as I know) have both been Clarke nominees, and Sarah has won the Tiptree. Ned Beauman also writes science fiction (I bought The Teleportation Accident, though I confess I didn’t get on well with it). Admittedly none of them were published by specialist genre imprints, but that shouldn’t stop us making them welcome.
Like I said, Granta is a pillar of the British literary establishment. The culture war: we haz won it.
Now I look forward to a series of articles by straight, cis white men complaining about how the Granta list is “broken”. 😉
You are right that the two Halls are unrelated. As you say Sarah Hall wasn’t published by a genre imprint but Sarah has mentioned her liking some SF in interviews and at lit festival events and she is happy to be recognized as having written SF and fantasy, and may do again in the future.
Yeah, she was interviewed in Mslexia recently and was very positive about the SF community.
Also I’ve seen Steven chatting with Jeff Noon on Twitter. That should probably terrify us.
The 1983 list includes this Christopher Priest fellow …
Yeah, but he doesn’t seem to have done so well. Can’t even get on the Clarke short list, poor chap.
……. and the boundaries, they are a-faaa ding
Back in the ’90s, a person who answered my queries regarding his writer’s group got all snooty at the mention of multiculturalism in writing. He was of the opinion that mainstream interest in writers who were not white and male would only be a passing fad.
Too bad I never kept his contact info, as I’d be interested to see his reaction to this Granta issue.