First trans woman makes Women's prize longlist, alongside Dawn French and Ali Smith

Torrey Peters among 16 finalists, with chair of judges Bernardine Evaristo lamenting lack of older writers

• ‘I used to think fiction was indulgent. Judging the Women’s prize reminded me it is essential’

A trans woman has been nominated for the Women’s prize for fiction for the first time, with Torrey Peters making the longlist for the £30,000 award for her acclaimed debut Detransition, Baby.

Reviewed in the Guardian as “witty, elegant and rigorously plotted”, Detransition, Baby follows trans woman Reese, her former partner Amy, now Ames, who has detransitioned, and cis woman Katrina, with whom Ames has been having an affair, and who is now pregnant. Prize judge Elizabeth Day described it as “a modern comedy of manners”.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Dialogue)

Related: I used to think fiction was indulgent. Judging the Women's prize reminded me it is essential

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