Ali Smith hails “industry-changing” Goldsmiths Prize as award enters its third year

Writer Ali Smith has called the Goldsmiths Prize a “miracle” which has changed the literary landscape and encouraged publishers to embrace experimental works.

The author, who won the Goldsmiths Prize last year for her work How To Be Both, said the award had “changed the industry” just three years after it launched.

In a ringing endorsement of the £10,000 award created by Goldsmiths, University of London in association with the New Statesman, Smith said: “The change it’s made is that publishers, who never take risks in anything, are taking risks on works which are much more experimental than they would’ve two years ago.

“That to me, is like a miracle. And that’s the Goldsmiths prize.”

She added: “The prize has already its two years running changed the industry.  That’s what it took, for Goldsmiths to launch a prize which was novel about the novel and understood the novel form. Already the industry is acting on something which Goldsmiths knew all along; which is that the novel is completely alive, completely experimental and energetic at base, always will be revolutionary, and at the same time the readers love that.”

The Goldsmiths Prize was launched in 2013 with the goal of celebrating fiction at its most novel. Eimear McBride was the inaugural winner for her work A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing – with the victory coming nearly a decade after the work was rejected by publishers for being too experimental. 

Smith’s praise comes as the judges prepare to announce the six shortlisted novels for the 2015 prize on 1 October. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 11 November at Foyles in Charing Cross Road, London. 

Speaking earlier this month after being made an Honorary Fellow by Goldsmiths, Smith said of her desire to win the Goldsmiths Prize: “When I first saw the spec for the Goldsmiths Prize, I thought, ‘God, I really want to win that’. It must be the first time in my life I ever thought I wanted to win anything.

“Honestly, because I don’t like attention but I saw that this, it’s so about the book, its so about the form, the ways in which books are made and so about the way in which that live things that happens in form and in life comes together and make something new. 

“That’s what the novel form is and Goldsmiths honors that proper spark of creativity.” 

Goldsmiths Prize Literary Director Tim Parnell said: “We always hoped that the Goldsmiths Prize would be more than just another book prize. We wanted it to stimulate debate about the novel and to encourage publishers to take more risks. So it’s especially pleasing to hear Ali’s assessment of its impact.” 

For more information on the prize visit www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-prize.

Watch the interview with Ali Smith