Centre for New Writing’s Gareth Gavin named in Goldsmith Prize shortlist
Congratulations to University of Ƶ Senior Lecturer Gareth Gavin who has been recognised in the shortlist for this year’s Goldsmiths prize.
Published in April 2023, Gareth’s Never Was: A Novel Without a World has made this year’s six-book shortlist from 107 entries.
Director for Creative Ƶ’s Professor John McAuliffe wrote:
The Goldsmiths Prize always uncovers great books, and we're delighted that Gareth's brilliantly original and affecting novel has been recognised by the judges.
Never Was takes the reader from a limbo of lost dreams to a small salt-mining town in the North, exploring transness alongside class, addiction and grief, and examining the way identity is both inherited and re-invented.
Judge Ellen Peirson-Hagger, assistant culture editor at the New Statesman, the prize’s partner, said:
A feat of imagination [...], Never Was is a great trans novel, queering and querying expectations of character, type and truth itself.
The Prize, which celebrates “fiction that breaks the mould”, carries a prize of £10,000.
The Goldsmith’s Prize winner will be announced on 8 November 2023.