For a bibliophile, the invitation to chair the JQ Wingate Prize was like winning the lottery. Nothing makes me quite so happy as a stack of unread books on my nightstand. Suddenly, I had dozens, with more arriving on my doorstep every day. How on earth was I to sift through all of them and produce even a long list, much less a winner?
Thankfully, I had three other judges to share the journey with me, working collectively to whittle the numerous boxes of books down to a long list, then a short list and eventually to our winner.
Sadly, some of my favourites didn’t meet the necessary criteria – literary merit; substantive Jewish content of interest to the general reader; easily available in the UK. For example, Fascism by Madeleine Albright and Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch were both brilliant. I imagine their publishers submitted them because the author was of Jewish heritage. But while both books have clear implications for Jews and other minorities, neither had a distinctive Jewish message. So, to my regret, they were unable to move on through the process (although they both now have prominent places on my personal bookshelf and I highly recommend them)
In coming up with our long list, the real challenge from my perspective was that our contenders spanned multiple genres. Unlike most literary prizes, JQ Wingate can be awarded to either fiction or non-fiction, which means we were comparing Israeli journalist Yossi Klein Halevi’s Letters to My Palestinian Neighbour to British writer Deborah Levy’s autobiographical The Cost of Living to American novelist Dara Horn’s fanciful historical fiction Eternal Life. In my opinion, each merited a prize for its own genre.
As we were considering such a broad spectre of books my fellow judges and I were delighted to discover that, while all of the long-listed books were of high literary standard, they also reflected a diversity of genres, subject matter, author’s gender, and author’s nationality.
Whew! On to the next hurdle – the short list. Each book was judged on its own merit, disregarding any other considerations or comparisons. Much of our debate centered on the question of what constituted ‘substantive Jewish content’ (e.g. what makes a book “Jewish” for the purposes of the JQ Wingate prize criteria). Our definition of ‘Jewish’ was understandably broad, embracing not only religion but also culture, identity, history, ethnicity and the land of Israel.
Deciding on the short list was always going to be a challenge, as there were passionate voices advocating for very different choices. But after MUCH deliberation, we got there. Strikingly, our short list leaned heavily towards fiction, but this was not an escapist fiction that shied away from contemporary issues. Instead, many of our short-listed novels took on similar themes to some of our favourite, non-fiction contenders. But the genre of fiction allowed the author to explore subjects like identity and memory in ways that went beyond the fact-based confines of non-fiction. For example, Evacuation by Raphael Jerusalmy creatively pondered how the senselessness of war can sit alongside the determination to remain in the land. And Memento Park by Mark Sarvas examined how the secrets of World War II immigrants can impact the next generation, despite a parent’s best attempt to jettison the past.
The final task of choosing a single book for the award was excruciating. We were debating the merits of each book until the very end.
In that sense, judging JQ Wingate was indeed a bit like the lottery, with each long and short-listed book equally worthy of winning. I urge you to stack the entire long-list next to your bedside table and make your own decision. Because the true winner of the JQ Wingate Prize is not the recipient of the award but rather us, the readers, who get to enjoy such a wealth of Jewish literary riches.
The winner of the 2019 prize will be announced during an event with the judges at JW3 on Monday February 25. The evening will be chaired by the BBC’s Emily Kasriel.
