Transgender author Torrey Peters has been nominated for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary prizes, for her novel Detransition, Baby.
With Wednesday’s longlist announcement, the Chicago native reportedly becomes the first transgender author who identifies as a woman to be included on the list, according to the Guardian.
“I’m very honored to have DETRANSITION, BABY long-listed for the Women’s Prize,” Peters posted on Twitter. “I was eligible this year due to work by those before me — especially Akwaeke Emezi. Once again, I am indebted to a sacrifice made by a black trans person.”
I’m very honored to have DETRANSITION, BABY long-listed for the Women’s Prize. I was eligible this year due to work by those before me—especially Akwaeke Emezi. Once again, I am indebted to a sacrifice made by a black trans person. Congratulations to my fellow longlisters. https://t.co/K80hP6FLkC
— Torrey Peters (@torreypeters) March 10, 2021
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In 2019, Emezi, a black transgender person who identifies as nonbinary, was nominated for the award. A year later, Emezi said they would not allow their future books to be included in the competition because organizers reportedly said, “The information we would require from you regards Akwaeke Emezi’s sex as defined by law.”
“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.
Forget about me—I don’t want this prize—but anyone who uses this kind of language does not fuck with trans women either, so when they say it’s for women, they mean cis women.
And yes, this does mean that them longlisting FW was transphobic.
— akwaeke emezi (@azemezi) October 5, 2020
Last year, organizers clarified that the contest was open to a “cis woman, a transgender woman, or anyone who is legally defined as a woman or of the female sex.”
Peters’s nominated novel follows the experience of a transgender person who identifies as a woman whose former partner has detransitioned and is now fathering a child. Her novel is competing against 16 other titles.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Women’s Prize Trust but did not immediately receive a response.
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The decision to nominate Peters’s book comes as the Left and the Right battle over the inclusion of transgender people in gendered competitions.
On his first day in office, President Biden mandated that schools receiving federal funding allow transgender people to participate in sports for whichever gender they identify as. The matter is posed to become a legal battle between the administration and several Republican-controlled states that see the decision as an incursion on rights.
