'The Last Samurai' author explains why she's turning down a $175,000 literary prize: 'There are things you can't do'
The American writer Helen DeWitt revealed what happened after she was chosen among the first eight winners of this year's Windham-Campbell literary prizes, worth $175,000, notes The Guardian.
She explained that she was ultimately forced to decline the award because she could not participate in the promotional activities required by it.
In a blog and a series of posts on X, the author of several cult books, including “The Last Samurai,” said she was told in February that she had won the prize, but that receiving the money was “conditional on extensive promotion,” including participation in a festival, a podcast and a six- to eight-hour filming session for a promotional video.
At the time, DeWitt said, he was “on the verge of a nervous breakdown” after a series of professional and personal difficulties.
“If you're trying not to give in, there are some things you can't do; it's hard to get people to accept that,” she wrote in a blog published the day this year's award winners were announced.
Learning of the publicity demands, she wrote that it was “impossible to imagine Pynchon or Cormac McCarthy, early in their careers, contemplating this with anything but horror”.
“If I'd had eight months off before the festival, I could have gone there, but how can I give it all up now that I've finally managed to find time to write after five very hard years?” she added.
