THIS WEEK


Lead Story: Interview & Opinion Lorraine Wilson interview


Industry-level recognition for disabled authors is as important as ever


Penny Batchelor interviews ADCI Literary Prize 2024 winner Lorraine Wilson and considers whether agents are doing enough to make the publishing industry a truly inclusive space


Penny Batchelor @penny_author S


ometimes momentous things punctuate an ordinary moment. Such was the case for novelist Lorraine Wilson, who was siting at her desk procrastinating and arguing with her cat when she heard the news that she had won the ADCI Literary Prize for her third novel, Mother Sea—described by judge Nii Ayikwei Parkes as “a wonderfully realised, quietly political novel that speaks to some of the most urgent issues of our time”. “It’s a huge honour,” says Wilson. “I’m so


proud to be part of the ADCI communit, so to get to be a part of this prize means so much to me. I think awards are strange things for authors because they’re so subjective. You can’t pin your sense of writerly worth to them. But they are hard proof that your book has resonated with readers at some level, which is just a wonderful thing to know.” ADCI stands for Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses. Publisher Clare Christian and I founded the prize in 2022 with the support of the Societ of Authors and sponsors. We wanted to showcase brilliant adult fiction writen by disabled and/or chron- ically ill writers who include positive disabilit representation in their novels, and encourage a sea change in the publishing industry—apt, considering this year’s winning title. Mother Sea includes nuanced portrayals of depression while telling the story of an island communit facing the threat of displacement because of rising sea levels, a neonatal tetanus


06 26th July 2024


LORRAINE WILSON: WINNER OF THE ADCI LITERARY PRIZE 2024


epidemic and the shady pressures of the Commonwealth Office. “It’s about the meet- ing point of western science and traditional knowledge, grief and faith and trying to reconcile all the disparate parts of yourself into something you can love,” says Wilson. Her previous novels This is Our Undoing (2021) and The Way the Light Bends (2022), were, along with Mother Sea, longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards. She has won two Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards, as well as a British Fantasy Award for her short fiction, and was a finalist for the Kavya Prize, Saltire Best Novel Award and two further British Fantasy Awards. Wilson describes her fiction as “siting in a genre-blurring lit/spec space… I think the very lovely awards recogni- tion for these books shows there’s a readership out there for books that move beyond the conventional moulds of genre and diversit, which fills me with so much hope.” Her home, in the East Neuk of Fife, is a constant source of mental peace and inspira- tion for the former conservation scientist, who


had to give up her job when she became ill. When I ask about juggling ill health and writing she says her work has to fit around the limits of her health and family. “Being a published author means being beholden to other people’s timelines on everything from edits to social media to events, but my body doesn’t care whether I’ve got an event tonight. In fact, having a deadline or an event land on my desk is going to cost me. So it’s a constant balancing act of trying to structure all these shiſting parts of the job to protect your health, of deciding whether doing ‘x’ thing is worth the pain cost, of weathering the days when you can’t write, or can’t atend an event, even though you really, really want to. I’m very lucky though, in that I’ve been supported so well by all of my publishers, and have an amazing communit of writer friends.” How does she think the publishing industry can beter assist ADCI writers? “I am hugely relieved to see hybrid events enduring, despite some shrinkage aſter the end of pandemic lockdowns. Online events offer so much acces- sibilit, not just for the 20% of the population living with disabilities, but for anyone living outside the publishing hotspots, anyone with carer/parental/work responsibilities or financial constraints. So I am all for hybrid and digital events continuing and growing.” Then she points out the monetary concerns some disabled writers face. “Disabilit oſten incurs a ‘tax’ of higher travel costs, so I’d love to see publishers and organisations look at proactively offering more financial backing for authors to atend events. I would also, and this applies to all marginalised authors not just disabled ones, love to see our books consistently defined by the story first, not by our marginalisation.” Her next book,We Are All Ghosts in the


Forest, is published in November 2024 with Solaris Books. She describes it as “set in a near future where the internet has broken and the world is haunted by its digital ghosts. It’s a book about trust and friendship, and people trying imperfectly to navigate an unfathom- able world.” Aren’t we all?


NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2025 ADCI LITERARY PRIZE OPEN IN THE AUTUMN, WITH SUBMISSIONS WELCOMED FROM BOTH PUBLISHERS AND SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS. FOR ELIGIBILITY DETAILS PLEASE SCAN THE QR CODE (RIGHT)


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