Man-Eating Typewriter has been shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023, alongside Amy Arnold’s Lori & Joe, Kate Briggs’ The Long Form, H. Gareth Gavin’s Never Was, Benjamin Myers’ Cuddy and Adam Thirlwell’s The Future Future. The judges for this year’s prize are Tom Lee, Maddie Mortimer, Helen Oyeyemi and Ellen Peirson-Hagger.
From the Goldsmiths Prize website:
The Goldsmiths Prize was established in 2013 to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the University and to reward fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. The annual prize of £10,000 is awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and which embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best.
Judge Maddie Mortimer on Man-Eating Typewriter:
"In this extraordinary technical feat, Richard Milward plunges us into the dizzying landscape of 1960’s London with the story of Raymond Novak, an anarchist promising to commit the crime of the century, and the publishers hoping to capitalize on his violence.
"With remarkable command over the Polari slang that dances, spins, spits and slashes its way across the page, Milward has created a very rare beast of a book; one that is propulsive, relevant, outrageous, and often alarmingly beautiful. Here is a novel that lays bare the depravity of human impulse, whilst testing the limits of language and form with masterful ease and reckless glee.
"Man-Eating Typewriter emerges as a refreshing example of the most fun a person could have on a page and has all the transgressive energy of a cult classic in the making."
The winner will be announced on 8th November.
Read more about this year’s shortlist on The Guardian HERE.