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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ella Creamer

Polari book prize cancelled after row over gender-critical novelist

John Boyne.
Author John Boyne. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/the Guardian

A prize celebrating LGBTQ+ literature has cancelled its awards this year, after a row over the longlisting of an author who has described himself as a “Terf” – the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.

From a total longlist of 24, 16 authors and two judges withdrew from this year’s prize, and more than 800 writers and publishing industry workers signed a statement protesting against the inclusion of John Boyne, the author best known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

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