The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Authors Helen Oyeyemi and Maddie Mortimer, the New Statesman’s Ellen Peirson-Hagger, and lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, Tom Lee, will form the judging panel for this year’s prize.

Key dates:
27 January – submissions open
31 March – submissions close
4 October – six-book shortlist announced
8 November – winner announced

Listopia here with eligibility rules:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Some possibles (links on the Listopia if they are on Goodreads):

Richard Millard, Man-Eating Typewriter
Isabel Waidner, Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
Losing the Plot, Derek Owusu
August Blue, Deborah Levy
Shy, Max Porter
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Small Worlds
The Escalator, Andrew Budden
The End of Nightwork by Aidan Cottrell-Boyce
The Wake and the Manuscript by Ansgar Allen
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
With or Without Angels, Douglas Bruton
Kick the Latch, Kathryn Scanlan
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers
Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne
The Future, Future by Adam Thirlwell
Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché
Beasts of England by Adam Biles
Diary of a Writer by Toby Litt
Aurora by Seraphina Madsen
The Way the Day Breaks, David Roberts
Mrs S, K Patrick

Man-Eating Typewriter sounds fascinating but I wonder how much of it I'd be able to understand.

I'm very much looking forward to Cuddy. Hopefully Royal Mail will have resolved their international shipping issues by publication!

It seems much more experimental than his earlier works , one of which I know was passed over at the shortlist stage for prize for not being unconventional /experimental enough

endrju wrote: "Man-Eating Typewriter sounds fascinating but I wonder how much of it I'd be able to understand."

A book written in polari sounds very Goldsmiths Prize. Though writing a book in a secret language poses potential problems not just for the book but also for the secret language.

No other suggestions? Any of the Guardian debut books that are eligible and might fit (the GY book of year becomes a judge rule were also both debuts)? I added the K Patrick as closest to Goldsmiths type albeit feels a stretch

I don't particularly see the K Patrick as a Goldsmiths book but I loved the glorious writing.

I feared that was the case. So that's a book to knock off the list - any to add :-)

The prize even retweeted the Listopia but haven't had any twitter suggestions.

Roman Clodia wrote: "I don't particularly see the K Patrick as a Goldsmiths book but I loved the glorious writing."

I wasn't so sure about the Cecile Pin either, seemed more Women's Prize/Booker, the focus is more on storytelling, but the story is a bit hampered by the structuring of the material.

Not helping :-)

Story hampered by structuring of the material sounds perfect for the prize!

So no one has read or seen mention of a book that might qualify for the Goldsmiths Prize? Which tends to be the most predictable prize of all.

Paul wrote: "Not helping :-)

Story hampered by structuring of the material sounds perfect for the prize!

So no one has read or seen mention of a book that might qualify for the Goldsmiths Prize? Which tends t..."

It's more clumsy than inspired. It's essentially a pretty conventional novel.

I am going to have to instigate a one out two in rule - if anyone wants to suggest books don't belong on the list they need to suggest two that do :-)

Perhaps Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution?

David wrote: "Perhaps Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution?"

Assume you're taking the piss David!

I haven’t read it.

It’s published two months too early and the author is not eligible as not “citizens of the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) or the Republic of Ireland, or who have been resident in the UK or the Republic of Ireland for three years prior to the date of submission for the award” although interestingly she has masters from both Oxford and Cambridge

The new Kate Briggs novel which I see some have read in ARC looks a possibility.

Oh and GY as you have said a book isn’t a contender per the thread rule you need to name two that are?

Surely the MnG ARC consuming widely-read hive mind must have read something that qualifies.

Paul wrote: "The new Kate Briggs novel which I see some have read in ARC looks a possibility."

I agree, and another that you can add to your list of titles published by Dorothy, they're bringing it out later this year too.

Hooray! Thanks. And Dorothy do seem a very interesting press.

Hoping that the prize has moved on from its lack of racial diversity how about Chidi Ebere’s “Now I Am Here”

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And for my second contender - The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa by Stephen Buoro

Previous winner Mike McCormack's new novel, This Plague of Souls, will be out on 26 October, which makes it eligible for this year, but only just,

And it's UK Canongate / Irish Tramp Press published - not sure who gets to enter it for prizes in that case.

Just reading Death of The Author by Marc Nash

Some of you may know him for his in depth literary fiction reviews on You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/@MarcNash

I first came across him via Not The Booker as he was nominated by Jackie Law and others for the prize the first year I judged and was my vote for the win (sadly overruled)

He in turn introduced me to the wonderful Daniel “Ezra Maas” James

His latest book is brilliant and very Goldsmith-y (it even has an explicit reference to the prize)

I do not think this is eligible as the publisher seems overseas but it’s the sort of book that I think would really appeal to the Goldsmith fans in this group.

My review of it

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Note the book is only I believe available direct from the publishers, Corona\Samizdat

Shy seems a contender to me

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Excellent reviews, Graham. Death of the Author sounds very good. Max Porter is a genius so no surprise you were impressed by Shy.

It’s on one level a lot more conventional than Lanny but takes off at the end.

It looks like only a few from this group read The Death of Francis Bacon. I was curious about it, but I know nothing about the artist Francis Bacon and books that Neil loves the most elude me.
I loved Grief is the Thing With Feathers and Lanny so I will get Shy.

Good to know that is one I won’t have to cross off the Listopia!

Porter was an inspiration behind Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies so one judge at least might back it.

The book that was first on my first prediction post (although the post wasn’t in order) is out this week and getting a lot of attention - Man-Eating Typewriter.

Eg in The Literary Review “This is the sort of novel they say no one writes any more. It is wilfully, indulgently experimental. It is disgusting and violently sexual. It is chaotically metafictional, baroquely footnoted and told by competing deceptive narrators. There are plot clues hidden in the text and embedded in font changes and anagrams. It makes use of arcane, invented languages and is written substantially in the gay-underworld slang Polari. It is a daring, meandering, brilliant book.”

I had a flip through Man-Eating typewriter, and the polari was surprisingly readable. Pleased to see it getting attention.

The ‘violently sexual’ concerns me. Is it rape or consensual, lusty passion?

Kate Briggs The Long Form almost seems designed for this prize with its focus on the form of the novel, presented in a rather different story wrapped than one might expect (a mother coping with her newborn baby). And highly intertextual - there are 18 pages of notes at the end of sources the book draws on or repurposes.

Has Cipher Press been featured with this award before? Their books seem like a perfect fit for this prize.

I added Never Was, Brainwyrms, and Daddy Boy to the Listopia. The Rumfitt could be doubtful since it may not have been ready during the submission period (although it is just eligible, assuming it publishes on time).

I didn't add Truth & Dare since it's not on Goodreads, but it could be a good fit: https://www.cipherpress.co.uk/truth-dare

I also didn't add Lákíríboto since I wasn't sure of Ayodele Olofintuade's UK connections. it was also previously self-published; not sure if that matters for the Goldsmiths.

A new Alison Rumfitt novel - that's very exciting! Ordered that immediately.

Some of those sound awful I have to say

I suspect if Cipher Press produced a book you liked they would voluntarily wind themselves up!

David wrote: "I added Never Was, Brainwyrms, and Daddy Boy to the Listopia."

Daddy Boy I'm not sure is eligible - author looks to be American and live there. Cipher bought the UK rights from McSweeney's. And I think it's a memoir as well.

Truth and Dare looks is a short story collection so also not eligible

I think you're right. I took it off the Listopia.

I wasn't sure about the short story rule. A book like A Shock was shortlisted, but I suppose that's more a novel made up of connected stories.

David wrote: "I wasn't sure about the short story rule. A book like A Shock was shortlisted, but I suppose that's more a novel made up of connected stories."

There was the time David Szalay's All That Man Is was Booker featured despite being a book made up of a collection of short and unconnected stories.

"You were nearly a novel my little cherry pip. Yes. Out you popped, out of your author's tumkin, and everyones shouting: “It’s a novel, it’s a novel!” And then someone said: “But it hasn’t got recurrent characters and a story arc!” And then I said: “A novel without recurrent characters and a story arc? God be praised, it’s a miracle. A novel without recurrent characters and a story arc!” And then Sir Thomas More pointed out that a novel without recurrent characters and a story arc is a short story collection. And everyone was really disappointed."
(With due apologies to Blackadder)

Mind you that's nothing to the time Fitzcarraldo snuck a book with a white cover on to the International Booker list.

The War of The Poor getting longlisted for a prize for “finest long-form fiction” was another classic - rather reminiscent of Voltaire and the Holy Roman Empire

The War of the Poor was more of a pamphlet.

What about To Battersea Park by Philip Hensher

Already on the Listopia!

I think if that it The Long Form are on the list may depend on whether the judges are interested in novels which are at heart more about novels/writing than the life issues (Covid, motherhood) they include.