Smith Criticizes Literary Awards

Zadie Smith “launched a blistering attack on literary prizes,” according to The Telegraph. This article quotes the author as saying literary awards are “only nominally” about the literature and instead are “really about brand consolidation for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies and even frozen food companies.”

Smith is the recipient of several major literary awards so her comments were labelled hypocritical by the organizer of the Man Book literary prizes. “Why has she been happy to accept money from these prizes and sponsors, who she now attacks,” Ion Trewin wondered.

I’ll have to look into this one deeper. This whole article is so short, it just feels like there has to be more context and more discussion surrouding this interaction than what we’re getting here.