Isabel Waidner (born 1974) is a

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writer, musician, and cultural theorist based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. They have written three novels, ''Gaudy Bauble'' (2017, Dostoyevsky Wannabe), ''We are Made of Diamond Stuff'' (2019, Dostoyevsky Wannabe), and ''Sterling Karat Gold'' (2021, Peninsula Press). ''We are Made of Diamond Stuff'', set in the

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where Waidner's partner is from, was nominated for the 2019

Goldsmiths Prize The Goldsmiths Prize is a British literary award, founded in 2013 by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the ''New Statesman.'' It is awarded annually to a piece of fiction that "breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of ...

, and ''Sterling Karat Gold'' won the 2021 Goldsmith Prize. 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 ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

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, the

Cambridge Literary Review The ''Cambridge Literary Review'' (CLR) is a literary magazine published on an occasional basis. It is edited by Lydia Wilson, Rosie Šnajdr, Jocelyn Betts and Paige Smeaton and is run from Trinity Hall college at the University of Cambridge i ...

, and AQNB. Along with artist Richard Porter, Waidner is the co-founder of the Queers Read This event series hosted by the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA ...

, and the host of the ICA's literary talk series, This Isn't a Dream, hosted fortnightly via

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Biography

Waidner was born in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

region of Germany. After spending two years in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

where

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had ravaged their generation of gay men and transgender women, they moved to

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

in 1995 to be part of London's burgeoning

queer culture Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual m ...

and

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. 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 The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an ...

. After receiving their doctorate, titled 'Experimental fiction, transliteracy, and 'Gaudy Bauble': towards a queer avant-garde poetics', they taught creative writing at the

. They currently teach at

Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and previously Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public university, public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of ...

in creative writing and performance. The German translation of ''Gaudy Bauble'', translated by

Ann Cotten Ann Cotten (born 1982 in Ames, Iowa) is an American-born Austrian writer. Life and work At the age of five, Cotten moved to Vienna with her parents, who are both biochemists who worked in Vienna. She finished university there in 2006 with a work ...

, won the Internationaler Literaturpreis. Their first, second and fourth novels were shortlisted for the

Republic of Consciousness Prize The Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses is an annual British literary prize founded by the author Neil Griffiths. It rewards fiction published by UK and Irish small presses, defined as those with fewer than five full-time employees ...

, in 2018, 2020 and 2022 respectively. Spurred by the

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, they applied for British citizenship and became eligible for the Goldsmith 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. In addition to their writing, Waidner has also performed as part of the indie band Klang, releasing records through the UK labels

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pu ...

and

Blast First Blast First is a sub label of one-time independent record label Mute Records, founded in approximately 1985. It was named after a phrase taken from the first number of the radical Vorticist journal '' Blast'', published by Wyndham Lewis in 191 ...

Bibliography

* * * *

Awards

* 2018: Shortlisted for Republic of Consciousness Prize for ''Gaudy Bauble'' * 2019: Shortlisted for Goldsmith 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'' * 2021: Winner of Goldsmith Prize for ''Sterling Karat Gold'' * 2022: Shortlisted for Republic of Consciousness Prize for ''Sterling Karat Gold''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waidner, Isabel 1974 births Living people Non-binary writers