You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Srinivasan's Right to Sex named Blackwell's Book of the Year
Amia Srinivasan's "important and influential" non-fiction title The Right to Sex (Bloomsbury) has been named Blackwell's Book of the Year.
The collection of essays spans the subject of sex in all its complexity, examining pornography, consent, desire and sexual status, among other topics.
The winner was one of three shortlisted titles up for Blackwell’s Book of the Year, having been announced as Blackwell’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year in November. Also shortlisted was Light Perpetual (Faber) by Francis Spufford in the Fiction Book of the Year category and Adam-2 by Adam Chisholm (Nosy Crow) for Children's Book of the Year.
The Right to Sex was heralded as a "conversation-changing text" by all panellists. Becky Chatwell, children’s bookseller for Blackwell’s on Broad Street, Oxford, said "Adam-2 is my favourite children’s book of the year, but The Right to Sex was not only well written and researched, but accessible. In the future, this will be an important and influential text on any discussions of feminism and sexual politics."
A spokesperson for Bloomsbury said: "We are overjoyed to be the publishers of Blackwell’s Book of the Year. The Right to Sex is groundbreaking, essential reading, from one of the great young thinkers of our times, and we are very grateful to all the Blackwell’s booksellers who have hand-sold this brilliant book across 2021. We are all lucky in the publishing industry to have Blackwell’s support for serious non-fiction."
Srinivasan is a professor of social and political theory at the University of Oxford. She said: "It's a thrill for The Right to Sex to be named Book of the Year by the wonderful booksellers of Blackwell's—the very people who make independent bookshops what they are: havens of thought and joy in a world which could do with more of both."
The shortlist was voted for by Blackwell’s booksellers across the UK. The ultimate winner was then selected by a panel of five Blackwell’s booksellers from the online team and shops around the country: Becky Chatwell at Oxford, Euan Hirst from the retailer's online arm, Stephanie Goulden in Edinburgh, Paul Thornton at Manchester and the Cambridge store's Martin Brown.
Last year's winner was A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll (Knight's Of).
