Isabel Waidner

Waidner was born in the Black Forest region of Germany. After spending two years in Frankfurt, where HIV/AIDS had ravaged their generation of gay men and transgender women, they moved to East London in 1995 to be part of London's queer culture and community.{{Cite web|title=Expat identities: a queer migrant's reinvention abroad|url=https://propertylistings.ft.com/propertynews/united-kingdom/5776-expat-identities-a-queer-migrants-reinvention-abroad.html|date=30 April 2019|access-date=2021-11-24|website=propertylistings.ft.com|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Waidner|first=Isabel|date=2021-06-21|title=An Alternative Art History of the 1990s|language=en|work=Frieze|issue=220|url=https://www.frieze.com/article/isabel-waidner-alternative-90s-history-2021|access-date=2021-11-24|issn=0962-0672}} After arriving in London, they worked at various minimum-wage jobs until they were awarded a scholarship for a PhD at the University of Roehampton.{{Cite web|date=2021-06-19|title=Isabel Waidner: 'Different doesn't need to be scary. It can be fun'|first=Anthony |last=Cummins|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/19/isabel-waidner-different-doesnt-need-to-be-scary-it-can-be-fun|access-date=2021-11-24|website=The Guardian|language=en}} After receiving their doctorate, titled "Experimental fiction, transliteracy, and 'Gaudy Bauble': towards a queer avant-garde poetics", they taught creative writing at the University of Roehampton.

Waidner is nonbinary.{{Cite web |last=Galluscio |first=Erica |date=2023-02-02 |title=The PEN Ten: An Interview with Isabel Waidner |url=https://pen.org/the-pen-ten-an-interview-with-isabel-waidner/ |access-date=2024-01-02 |website=PEN America |language=en}}

Waidner has written four novels: Corey Fah Does Social Mobility (2023, Hamish Hamilton), Sterling Karat Gold (2021, Peninsula Press), We are Made of Diamond Stuff (2019, Dostoyevsky Wannabe), and Gaudy Bauble (2017, Dostoyevsky Wannabe). We are Made of Diamond Stuff was nominated for the 2019 Goldsmiths Prize and Sterling Karat Gold won the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize.{{Cite web |last=Waidner |first=Isabel |date=25 June 2019 |title=Class, queers & the avant-garde in new British writing with Caspar Heinemann & Isabel Waidner {{!}} {{!}} atractivoquenobello |url=https://www.aqnb.com/2019/06/25/class-queers-and-the-avant-garde-in-new-british-writing-with-caspar-heinemann-and-isabel-waidner/ |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=www.aqnb.com}} They are also the editor of the anthology Liberating the Canon: An Anthology of Innovative Literature (2018, Dostoyevsky Wannabe) and have written for numerous publications including Granta, Frieze, the Cambridge Literary Review, and AQNB.{{Cite web |date=2018-02-05 |title='This is Publishing and Writing as Borderline Activism' — An Interview With Isabel Waidner, by Thom Cuell |url=https://minorliteratures.com/2018/02/05/this-is-publishing-and-writing-as-borderline-activism-an-interview-with-isabel-waidner-by-thom-cuell/ |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=minor literature[s] |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Waidner |first=Isabel |title=Seeing into the future through the deepwater horizons of Linda Stupart & Carl Gent's All Of Us Girls Have Been Dead For So Long {{!}} {{!}} atractivoquenobello |url=https://www.aqnb.com/2019/08/02/seeing-into-the-future-through-the-deepwater-horizons-of-linda-stupart-carl-gents-all-of-us-girls-have-been-dead-for-so-long/ |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=www.aqnb.com}}

Along with artist Richard Porter, Waidner is the co-founder of the Queers Read This, an event series hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). They were the host and curator of the ICA's literary talk series, This Isn't a Dream, which was live-streamed fortnightly via Instagram Live between January and May 2021.{{Cite web |title=ICA {{!}} This isn't a Dream: Conversations with Writers |url=https://www.ica.art/live/this-isn-t-a-dream-conversations-with-writers |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=www.ica.art}}{{Cite web |date=2021-10-07 |title=Isabel Waidner (Creative Writing) shortlisted for Goldsmiths Prize 2021 |url=https://www.qmulsed.co.uk/2021/10/07/isabel-waidner-creative-writing-shortlisted-for-goldsmiths-prize-2021/ |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=All Things SED |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Queers Read This |url=https://archive.ica.art/whats-on/queers-read/index.html |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=archive.ica.art |language=en}}

The German translation of Gaudy Bauble, translated by Ann Cotten, won the Internationaler Literaturpreis.{{Cite web|title=Waidner wins £10k Goldsmiths Prize with Sterling Karat Gold {{!}} The Bookseller|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/isabel-waidner-wins-10k-goldsmiths-prize-1288158|first=Ruth|last=Comerford|date=10 November 2021|access-date=2021-11-24|website=www.thebookseller.com}} Their first, second and third novels were shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, in 2018, 2020 and 2022 respectively. Spurred by the Brexit referendum, they applied for British citizenship and became eligible for the Goldsmiths Prize. Waidner has written extensively about working-class queer and transgender people, nationalism, and how "the British novel tends to reproduce white, middle-class values and aesthetics", with their work standing in opposition to these motifs.{{Cite web|date=2021-11-10|title=Why Isabel Waidner won the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/goldsmiths-prize/2021/11/why-isabel-waidner-won-the-2021-goldsmiths-prize|access-date=2021-11-24|website=New Statesman|first=Johanna |last=Thomas-Corr|language=en-US}}

Between 2002 and 2004, Waidner performed as part of the indie band Klang, releasing records through the UK labels Rough Trade Records and Blast First.

They currently teach at Queen Mary University of London in the School of English and Drama.{{Cite web |last=Peirson-Hagger |first=Ellen |date=2021-11-03 |title=Isabel Waidner: 'The British novel reproduces white middle-class values and aesthetics' |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/goldsmiths-prize/2021/11/isabel-waidner-the-british-novel-reproduces-white-middle-class-values-and-aesthetics |access-date=2021-11-24 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}

• {{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Gaudy Bauble|year=2017|publisher=Dostoyevsky Wannabe|isbn=9781999924522}}
• {{Cite book|title=Liberating the Canon: an Anthology of Innovative Literature|year=2018|editor-last=Waidner|editor-first=Isabel|publisher=Dostoyevsky Wannabe Experimental|isbn=9781999924508}}
• {{Cite book|last=|first=|title=We Are Made of Diamond Stuff|year=2019|publisher=Dostoyevsky Wannabe|isbn=9781999924539}}
• {{Cite news|title=Sterling Karat Gold|year=2021|publisher=Peninsula Press|isbn=9781913512040}}
• {{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Corey Fah Does Social Mobility|year=2023|publisher=Hamish Hamilton, Penguin|isbn=9780241632536}}

• 2018: Shortlisted for Republic of Consciousness Prize for Gaudy Bauble
• 2019: Shortlisted for Goldsmiths Prize for We are Made of Diamond Stuff
• 2020: Shortlisted for Republic of Consciousness Prize for We are Made of Diamond Stuff
• 2020: Winner of Internationaler Literaturpreis for Gaudy Bauble{{Cite web|last=Welt|first=Haus der Kulturen der|date=2020-06-11|title=Geile Deko|url=https://www.hkw.de/en/programm/projekte/2020/internationaler_literaturpreis_2020/shortlist_2020/isabel_waidner_ann_cotten_geile_deko.php|access-date=2021-11-24|website=HKW|language=en}}
• 2021: Winner of Goldsmiths Prize for Sterling Karat Gold
• 2022: Shortlisted for Republic of Consciousness Prize for Sterling Karat Gold{{Cite web |last= |date=2022-03-29 |title=Republic of Consciousness Prize 2022 shortlist announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2022/03/29/212155/republic-of-consciousness-prize-2022-shortlist-announced/ |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}}
• 2022: Shortlisted for Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for Sterling Karat Gold

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sed/staff/waidneri.html Official website]

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Category:1974 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century British novelists

Category:Academics of Queen Mary University of London

Category:Academics of the University of Roehampton

Category:Alumni of the University of Roehampton

Category:British anthologists

Category:British non-binary writers

Category:German emigrants to England

Category:German non-binary people

Category:Goldsmiths Prize winners

Category:Non-binary novelists

Category:Writers from Baden-Württemberg