When an author says she had to decline a $175,000 prize, what does it say about the publishing world? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Helen DeWitt turning down the Windham-Campbell literary award caused controversy. But her bold act highlights that such prizes aren’t always as meritocratic as they might seem “All you need is a five-minute spot on a morning TV show,” a colleague told me recently. “Then everyone will buy your novel.” I tried to picture myself, with my horror of being filmed, in thick orange makeup, perched on a sofa in a brightly lit studio while trying to talk about how the French critic Hélène Cixous inspir...

By Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett