Being a Judge on the Orange Prize Youth Panel
By Clarissa Pabi / Spinebreakers Crew
Six of the Spinebreakers teen editors were on a Youth Panel for the Orange Prize for Fiction. They read the same books as the official judges and chose Bernadine Evaristo's Blonde Roots as their winner.
Here they are with their winning author Bernadine Evaristo at the Awards Ceremony held at The Royal Festival Hall, London.
From left: Rossana, Lily, Joe, Bernadine Evaristo, Max, Francis, Clarissa.
Clarissa has written about her experience of being on the judging panel:
“This book has the X-factor!” said Clarissa Pabi, as the bowl of Haribo was blithely passed round the Orange Prize Youth Panel’s first meeting. I wondered after saying that, whether “This book has the X-factor” Clarissa Pabi could ever appear on the back of one the books or near its epigraph?
Not my name per se, but rather the part about the X-factor. And even if I did, would anyone want to read it? I suppose it was not just a throwaway comment, but a product of our teenage milieu.
The criteria for judging the 20 books was encapsulated by this term, and the meeting went on with us describing books like this and as “Joycean” and “almost Gogolian.” But it was not a tug-o-war between our pollysyllabicism and slang; or the language we use outside the classroom and the language we use in it. There was no difference. It was an immensely intelligent discussion, outside the classroom, and that’s what I loved.
We talked for instance at the end about whether knowing the authors were female had affected how we read. Some books seemed to embody “femininity” and in others the use of language became androgynous.
I saw the prize as a sort of “Women’s got talent”, with Francis as Simon Cowell, Rossana as Cheryl Cole, myself as Amanda, and Joe, Lilly and Max as the other judges, each of us having our contenders. One of my favourite’s was Blonde Roots. Bernadine Evaristo addressed the holocaust of slavery in an extremely unique and exciting way. It was not an emulation Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses, it was more like Phillip Pullman meets Roots. His Dark Materials meets Her Light Materials. Structurally the middle section was interesting, as it was as series of anti-abolition articles, by Doris’ owner and this almost put the reader in the position of Doris, as they have wade through the anti-abolitionist mumbo-jumbo, just like she has had to do as his pseudo-secretary, in order to finish the book. Gina Ochsner’s novel was also enthralling, with characters like Olga who’s like a Matilda of languages, and Ochsner’s disorientating structure exploring the breakdown of the Soviet Union.
For me, juggling reading the long list with coursework, and more coursework was eased by the blogging, and posts often turned into essays as you really got into the book. We’ve had over 1500 views and I keep saying to myself I’m sure it’s not just me or any of the others judges revisiting the site, double clicking the refresh button! People are actually interested in what we think, which is fantastic. It was also lovely to listen to what Kate Mosse said about us.
I think the whole experiment elucidated the different ways we read as teenagers and as adults. Six students became the examiners, or rather the pseudo-examiners. And I would give the Orange Prize an A* for the brilliant idea and the experience.
More about the panel...