Well this is exciting news. According to the Guardian, the Women’s prize for fiction has nominated a non-binary trans author. The author in question is Akwaeke Emezi, a thirty-one  year old Nigerian author, who has been nominated for their first novel, Freshwater. Freshwater tells the tale of a woman called Ada, who has to deal with a ‘fractured self’ as new personalities emerge in her mind and threaten to take over Ada’s mind.

Emezi is one of seven authors up for the prize, with the judges considering the nomination a ‘historic moment’. The judges for their part say they were not aware of Emezi’s gender identity and simply nominated Freshwater on the strength of the book itself. Akwaeke Emezi lives in Brooklyn and has no doubt made an impact through their nomination, opening the gates to more representation in awards categories for fiction.

Books, after all, represent all people from across the world, unbound by gender or race. This nomination should surely push further work by trans authors forward and we’ll certainly be rooting for Emezi to take home the £30,000 prize.

 

 

Featured Image Via The Guardian