The Shining Girls author Lauren Beukes says the Arthur C Clarke Award’s decision to publish a women-only list of nominations should not be seen as “gender segregation”.
The award, presented to the “best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year”, was cloaked in controversy in 2013, when an all-male shortlist was presented to the judges for final consideration. In an attempt to turn that around, this year the Clarke Award has decided to separate the nominations along gender lines.
The initial list, revealed on Friday, contains all 33 women authors put forward for the award – including Beukes for The Shining Girls – with the men’s list expected next week.
Clarke Award director Tom Hunter says on its website that they hope the move “will be a positive contribution towards further raising the profile of women writers of science fiction in the UK and beyond”.
Beukes, who won the award in 2011 for Zoo City, said she admires the decision, but admits some may see it as problematic.
“I think it’s great that when there is STILL debate about what women can or should be writing, how and where women’s books get reviewed, the Clarke Award jumps in and specifically makes us look at that, to highlight how much terrific science fiction came out last year in the UK written by women,” Beukes told Books LIVE.
“The Clarke Award is the kind of prize, like the genre it represents, that is meant to stir up debate and self-reflection and prompt us to imagine a different kind of future.
“Of course it’s going to be crushing if it turns out there are 33 female nominees and 120 male, but if the numbers are horribly skewed, that also tells us something about publishing right now.”
Beukes, who is currently putting the final touches on her fourth novel, says she sees the gendered lists as a brave attempt by the Clarke Award to draw attention to the root of the problem of gender bias in publishing.
“I don’t see it as segregation, like the great Wikipedia Female Novelists debacle. They’re not setting up a separate prize for those alien ‘wimmin folk’, they’re holding up a mirror to the publishing world and using it as an opportunity to talk up great books.
“I’m interested to see how many men were nominated and how the gender balance shakes out in the short-list.”
If Beukes takes the honours this year she will join Pat Cadigan and Geoff Ryman with two Clarkes in her collection. China Miéville is the only author to have won three times.
The 2013 shortlist will be announced on 18 March and the winner on 1 May. Good luck to Beukes!
Book details
- The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
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EAN: 9781415202012
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Image courtesy of The Big Issue