Barbellion Prize

{{Short description|Award for ill or disabled writers}}

File:Barbellion image.webp

The Barbellion Prize is a British literary award "dedicated to the furtherance of ill and disabled voices in writing".{{cite web |title=Home page |url=https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/ |website=The Barbellion Prize |access-date=29 June 2022 |language=en}} It is awarded annually to a writer, in any genre, who has a chronic illness or is living with a disability.{{cite news |title=A prize bash |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/a-prize-bash/ |access-date=29 June 2022 |work=TLS |date=19 February 2021}}{{cite web |last1=McDaid |first1=Heather |title=2021 Barbellion Prize longlist announced |url=https://www.publishingscotland.org/2021/12/2021-barbellion-prize-longlist-announced/ |website=Publishing Scotland |access-date=29 June 2022 |date=13 December 2021}}{{cite web |title=Barbellion Prize longlist 2020 |url=https://nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk/article/barbellion-prize-longlist-2020/ |website=National Centre for Writing |access-date=29 June 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Bayley |first1=Sian |title=Buckle wins Barbellion Prize for 'powerful' novel What Willow Says |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/buckle-wins-barbellion-prize-for-powerful-novel-what-willow-says |access-date=29 June 2022 |work=The Bookseller |date=12 February 2022 |language=En}} The prize was founded in 2020 by Jake Goldsmith, who has cystic fibrosis and whose memoir Neither Weak nor Obtuse was published in 2022 by Sagging Meniscus Books ({{ISBN|978-1952386398}}).{{cite web |title=Neither Weak Nor Obtuse |url=https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/neither_weak_nor_obtuse/ |website= |publisher=Sagging Meniscus Press |access-date=29 June 2022}} It is named after the pseudonymous W. N. P. Barbellion (1889–1919; real name Bruce Frederick Cummings), the author of The Journal of a Disappointed Man, who had multiple sclerosis and died at the age of 30.{{cite web |title=FAQs |url=https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/faqs |website=The Barbellion Prize |access-date=29 June 2022 |language=en}} In 2023, Goldsmith announced that the prize "will be put on an indefinite hiatus " and the 2023 prize would not be awarded, but that "We may be able to continue in 2024 under better circumstances".{{cite web |title=The Barbellion Prize |url=https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/ |website=The Barbellion Prize |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021075942/https://www.thebarbellionprize.com/ |archive-date=21 October 2023 |language=en}}

The prize is international and is open to new translations into English, and to self-published works, but not to unpublished work. Eligibility is "predicated on the author's presentation of life with a long-term chronic illness or disability ... that may substantially define one's life", and "Authors - such as those in a carer's capacity - who themselves are not disabled may be considered for the prize if their work is truly exceptional as an articulation of life with illness" but they will be given lower priority. The winner receives £1,000, a glass trophy, and a copy of Barbellion's The Journal of a Disappointed Man.