It’s not just old white men getting the the Hadada award anymore. It’s poorly behaving old white men. And a couple white women, here and there for optics. But no POC. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present a man famous for a few fantastic books and some face-spitting (not to mention some bad decisions with firearms–I wonder which way he votes?), Richard Ford.
The Paris Review’s decision to award its august lifetime achievement prize to Richard Ford has been criticised, with readers pointing to the American novelist’s history of poor conduct, such as when he spat in the face of fellow writer Colson Whitehead.
Ford will be presented with the Hadada prize in April by Bruce Springsteen, who once described Ford’s work as “poignant and hilarious”. Ford follows in the footsteps of previous winners including Philip Roth, Norman Mailer and Joan Didion, with the magazine saying that his “writing has been commended for its ‘linguistic mastery … rivalled by few, if any’ and for the ‘terse poetry’ he brings to his prose”.
