The Hurston/Wright Foundation for Black Writers has handed Chimamanda Adichie the 2021 North Star prize, which was protested by Nigerian-Indian writer Akwaeke Emezi.
Former Adichie’s writing workshop student, Akwaeke Emezi, has been a vociferous critic of the ‘Purple Hibiscus’ author since she made her opinions on transgender people public in 2017 during an interview with Channels 4.
“My feeling is, trans women are trans women. I think the whole problem of gender is about our experiences and how the world treats us. If you lived in the world as a man with the privileges the world accords to men, then you switched gender, it’s difficult for me to accept that we can then equate your experience with that of a woman who has lived from the beginning in the world as a woman; who has not been accorded those privileges that men are,” Adichie explained when questioned on whether transgender women should be considered as women.
Emezi, well known for her debut novel ‘Freshwater’, stated Adichie’s ideas were transphobic and that she should be “de-platformed.”
In reaction, Adichie released ‘It Is Obscene: A True Reflection In Three Parts,’ a heated essay in July.
Emezi, who is non-binary, came to Twitter on Monday to protest the Hurston/Wright Foundation for giving the North Star Award on Adichie.
“The literary world truly does not care about trans people and makes it a point to let us know. Imagine what the industry is like for Black trans people who cannot even expect support from Black literary spaces. To platform and award someone as blatantly transphobic as this woman after her actions this year is deliberate,” she said.
Emezi withdrew their book, “The Death of Vivek Oji,” from consideration for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in October 2020, after the organizers demanded Emezi’s “sex as defined by law” in the eligibility criteria. She also slammed the criteria for being “transphobic and specifically anti-trans women.”
TIME named Akwaeke a 2021 Next Generation Leader in June, and she questioned how they would handle a career in the “hostile” literary world.
“I know it’s obvious to a lot of people that institutions are inevitably violent and will reward the tools of their violence. I agree that we should bend our worlds into being because this one wants us dead. I’m still wondering how to have a career in a space this hostile.
“As I said in November last year—I know nothing will happen to her because this world and the publishing industry value her more than the lives or wellbeing of trans people, which is something she knows as well.
“I do appreciate when these literary spaces make it clear where their allegiance lies, like to the tokens of the empire, certainly not to the most vulnerable members of their communities,” she stated.
