Books Read
Afrosf: Science Fiction by African Writers edited by Ivor W. Hartmann
The Sea is Our: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia edited by Jamyee Goh and Joyce Chng
Currently Reading
Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald
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What are award shortlists for?
Obviously their main purpose is to SELL A SHITLOAD MORE BOOKS FOR HUNGRY PUBLISHERS!!! recognize and celebrate the best works published in a specific timeframe and a given context. That celebratory aspect, in particular, is reflected in my Facebook and Twitter feeds moments after a shortlist is announced as friends, rightly, congratulate the nominees.
But once people have provided virtual pats on the back to the finalists, once the glow of platitude and praise has dimmed, what purpose does an award shortlist serve? Is it there to be read? Is it there to spark conversation? Is it there to further the debate – what there is of it – about the genre?
I ask because this week the Kitschies, one of my favorite awards, announced its list of nominees. When I reported this on my blog earlier in the week I applauded the diversity on the list – both in terms of gender and race – and the fact that there was a distinct lack of multi-series books present (a particular peccadillo of mine). I also made the throwaway remark that given the winners are announced on March 7 I wouldn’t have the time to read the nominees. However, a comment on my Facebook feed about the short timeframe – from nomination to award (which occurred last year as well) – again prompted the question: What are award shortlists for? Because if they are there to spark discussion about the work or speculate on who might win or discuss how the nominees reflect the state of genre / literature at a specific point of time – two weeks isn’t enough time to explore these thoughts.
Now, to be fair, the Kitschies is an outlier. Most other genre and literary awards provide – at least – a two month gap before a winner is announced. And in the case of the Man Booker or the National Book Award, a longlist is featured before the shortlist is arrived at, which is still followed by a 6 or 8 week period before a winner is awarded. So the vast majority of awards do provide readers and critics time to digest the nominees and commentate.
But is this what award shortlists are for? Are they there to start a discussion or are they just a reason to backslap a mate or favorite author that’s been nominated?
The thing is, unless there’s controversy, awards list generate very little commentary. In fact, if there’s one positive that’s come out of the Sad / Rabid Puppy shenanigans it’s that it has compelled people to take notice of the nominees – to either defend or criticise the choices. And while much of the discussion is the incoherent rants of the politically biased, at least there’s some sort of dialogue about the field. It’s rare that we get the monumental and brilliant rants of people like Christopher Priest when he fired both barrels at the Clarke Award judges in 2012. Or the more considered, but always entertaining reviews / critiques of the same awards by Adam Roberts.
And maybe those who coordinate the Kitschies have figured this out. Why wait two months to award the winners when no-one is going to pay much attention after the back slapping and the congratulations have faded from people’s Facebook’s feed. It might as well be two weeks of tumbleweeds than two months.
So what are award shortlists for?
I want them to be a dialogue between readers and critics and fans about the state of the genre. I want that discussion to be vibrant and angry and ranty and funny and most of all an engagement with the texts that have been nominated. I want award shortlists to be more than just monuments, a historical marker that might be noted and discussed 50 years from now as an example of the genre at a point in time, but a living, breathing expression of some fucking awesome books… or not, as the case may be.
But maybe I’m kidding myself. Maybe awards shortlists are really only meant to be about the platitudes and praise. And maybe if there was less of them – not an award for every sub genre and sub sub genre – people would have the time and inclination to actually discuss the nominees. (And don’t forget the marketers and publishers…)
I truly don’t have an answer, but your thoughts would be appreciated.
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I’ll be discussing the two anthologies I read this week – Afro Sf and The Sea is Ours – on the next exciting instalment of The Writer and the Critic podcast. That episode will be recorded in the second week of March. In the meantime you can support the podcast on our newly minted Patreon page.
I think it shows the shifting priorities of the field. The older awards were set up by fans and with a clear idea of the rhythms and puposes of fandom. The point if the awards was to bring people tigether, give them something to discuss and celebrate excellence. The Kitschies were set up by people a lot closer to publishing than fandom and so the awards mirror the needs of publishing: Create buzz around titles, build buzz for winners before first load of buzz dies down, sell books, have a party, move on to the next year.
I think this shows the shifting priorities of the field as I think the interest in discussing shortlists has waned. You’re one of the few people who has gone out of their way to review entire shortlists, the Priest rant is now 4 years old and Roberts isn’t reviewing genre anymore.
You’re right, of course. Attentions spans, 24 hour news cycle, clickbait etc. No one has the patience to give a fuck anymore. I find it depressing.
Winning an award might boost sales, I don’t know if being short-listed does. Seen any figures? I wonder if there is a different impact by stature of award?
Nup, haven’t seen figures. Though for the bigger awards, I’m sure a nomination helps. Especially if they can stick Man Booker nominee on a reissued front cover.
I’ve seen some figures as part of my course. Winning or being shortlisted for certain awards seem to guarantee a certain amount of sales (eg. the Booker does, even more than a Nobel prize for lit if I remember correctly) but for a lot of other awards the sales boost is very minimal, and probably similar to that of a visibility boost you might achieve in other ways more easily. Part of the sales boost of the award seems related to its ‘prestige’ but also to the visibility of the award itself. So an award which is cleverly promoted and has a good media presence might actually result in more sales than one that is super prestigious but doesn’t really engage the reading public as much.
I’d actually be interested to see the current sales boost for awards like the Stella Prize, because I think they have done a good job making themselves visible in Australia and I think the shortlist has some impact on sales but I can’t recall how big it was and I only saw stats after the first one was awarded.
But awards play other roles and continue to proliferate regardless of any impact on sales. If you feel like reading a scholarly take on ‘awards frenzy’ and the roles awards play in literary fields it might be worth reading Economy of Prestige by James English. It helped me better understand some aspects the love/hate relationship between writers and awards and was quite interesting.
Personally, I do buy books that appear on certain shortlists that suit my taste and the Kitschies is one of them and probably would have read more if a shortlist was announced earlier. But I’m not sure what the reason for the short time frame was, it could have just been a logistics thing rather than a strategy of some kind.
I wonder, too, Ian.
Consider the Locus Award “shortlist” which is something they’ve been doing lately with the Locus Award For that, the voting at that point is *closed* and they already know who won. So what does a shortlist even mean?
I think for the short time frame its (at its best) a way to highlight the kind of books that are worthy of winning, short of the actual winner itself. A point of discussion, as it were. At least, if I were running an award, that’s what my short list would be.
I think the Kitschies were hoping that several items will already have been read by the connoisseurs of the field. A less guaranteed prospect as publishing keeps expanding… Do the Kitschies have a matching two stage voting system like other awards?
I feel the existence of a shortlist has a point, as I do know readers who have said the shortlists of certain awards have been a more reliable metric for them of quality in a given genre than the actual winner, which is often not their favourite on the shortlist.
So, all around, it does boost the award’s prestige to have a short list.
The whole thing of WHEN to release it is where the weirdness arises. As you say, two weeks feels way too short even if you’re hoping your intended audience will say, “Okay, I read those three, let’s check out these last couple”. And I really don’t see any purpose to splitting the winner’s announcements for Locus into two phases, other than imitating the habits of other awards where the shortlist has yet to be voted on or finalized. I suspect they would get the same buzz if they did it all at once, like the podium for a race.