Allison Adair won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize for her manuscript, The Clearing. The prize honors "the legacy of one of the most original and accomplished poets to debut in recent years, and to reward outstanding emerging poets for years to come." It was created by Milkweed Editions in partnership with Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka and the Alan B. Slifka Foundation. Chambers will receive $10,000 and publication by Milkweed in June 2020.
The winner was chosen by poet and judge Henri Cole, who said: "The Clearing is a lush, lyrical book about a world where women are meant to carry things to safety and men leave decisively. Out of dry farming soil come these wise, mineral-like poems about young motherhood, mining disasters, miscarriages, memory, and much more. Allison Adair's poems are haunting and dirt caked, but there is also a tense beauty everywhere. I found The Clearing devastating."
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Didier Decoin and John Harvey were co-winners of "Britain's most dreaded literary prize," the Bad Sex Award for "the year's most outstandingly awful scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel." The Guardian reported that Decoin won for passages in The Office of Gardens and Ponds, while Harvey earned the dubious honor for Pax.
"Faced with two unpalatable contenders, we found ourselves unable to choose between them. We believe the British public will recognize our plight," the judges said. The Guardian noted that "in a clear callback to the controversial decision to award two Booker prizes this year, when chair of judges Peter Florence claimed, 'We tried voting, that didn't work... We couldn't separate them,' the Bad Sex judges said they were unable to choose even 'after hours of tortuous debate.... We tried voting, but it didn't work. We tried again. Ultimately, there was no separating the winners.' "