The Green Carnation Prize 2011 longlist has just been announced (hat tip to Cheryl Morgan). It’s a delicious-looking set of queer books:
- By Nightfall – Michael Cunningham (Fourth Estate)
- The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge – Patricia Duncker (Bloomsbury)
- The Proof of Love – Catherine Hall (Portobello)
- Red Dust Road – Jackie Kay (Picador)
- The Retribution – Val McDermid (Little Brown)
- Purge – Sofi Oksanen (Atlantic Books)
- There But for The… – Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)
- Remembrance of Things I Forgot – Bob Smith (Terrace Books)
- Ever Fallen in Love – Zoe Strachan (Sandstone Press)
- The Empty Family – Colm Toibin (Penguin Books)
- Role Models – John Waters (Beautiful Books)
- Before I Go To Sleep – S.J Watson (Doubleday)
- Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson (Jonathan Cape)
Several of these names caught my eye–particularly Patricia Duncker. She was the academic I found so interesting on the BBC Radio 4 documentary, Cat Women of the Moon. I had no idea she wrote fiction. I’ll be taking a look at that one. And, oh, so many people whose work I admire: Val McDermid, Ali Smith, Jackie Kay. Catherine Hall is new to me, but her book sounds intriguing. Zoe Strachan is also new to me. (But why is it so many women on prize lists write about men?)
S.J. Watson’s novel, Before I Go To Sleep, sounds special. I think I’ll go download that one right now…
The shortlist will be announced on November 2nd, the winner on December 7th. Meanwhile, dear reader, we can’t lose. Excellent job, judges.
Nicola Griffith 
Oooh, thanks for the tip – this is one awards program I wasn't aware of, and I generally try to keep on top of all the LGBT relevant awards.
Definitely time to peruse the list and find some new additions to my TBR pile.
Sally, it looks as though the judges have made some very fine choices.
It does, Nicola. I'm looking forward to the new Winterson — I love that title, and I'm glad it won't be out for several months yet so I can try to catch up with some of the others.
I don't know why women so often write about men, but I'm glad since I usually like the result better than most of what gay men write. Maybe it's partly what Ursula LeGuin said (rather coyly) when she was asked that question: because she liked writing about aliens.