Mostly white, north American – and relatively unknown: it’s the Folio Prize shortlist

It’s been billed as the alternative Booker Prize. Today the Folio Prize issued its first short list: mostly white, mostly north American and resolutely not dominated by literary megastars.

There’s a long poem, a book of short stories and two first novels. By assembling an academy of 187 globally recognised authors and critics, and abandoning political correctness, the prize organisers are making a point: many writers and small publishers feel the big major book prizes have become slightly captured by the bookselling industry, major publishers and established names.

The short list includes some authors of high repute – Jane Gardam, aged 85, is a double Whitbread Prize winner; Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers has been a big hit with readers in both the USA and Britain.

But for both Sergio de La Pava and Eimear McBride these are debut novels.

What I think they’re trying to do is defy the dominant genres that have emerged in literary fiction over the past 20 years: the magical realist account of life in the global south; the historical blockbuster series etc.

Prize founder and literary agent Andrew Kidd (a disclaimer, he represents me!)  says the list “ticks no boxes, balances the interests of no constituencies”.

In truth, this is an industry still reeling from the impact of e-books: even as they struggle to work out how the economics of e-publishing works, the industry faces a newly democratised space in which unknowns can churn out genre fiction with a massive following.

In this new world having a big, recognisable name is more important than ever; as is the certainty that a major author will stick to the genre and style they’ve become famous for.

The prize is an attempt to react in a different way — by celebrating literary merit first, author identity and genre predictability not at all. But it’s a gamble: by allowing any English language book published, by authors of any nationality, it recognises an emerging global culture in fiction – which not only disrupts national pecking orders, but will feel strange for readers in book markets that are still, essentially, national.

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