Polaris Prize 2023 preview pt 2

Debby Friday, Gayance, Dan Mangan, Sadies, Snotty Nose Rez Kids

The time is nigh! The gala is tomorrow night, Tuesday Sept 19: it’s being held at, in the words of previous shortlisters Japandroids, Massey Fucking Hall.

Reminder: The first part of this post is here. I’ve made a Tidal playlist of the shortlist here. I wrote about the long list here. Public tickets to the gala are available here. Because you read this newsletter, you can enter the promo code Polaris50 to get half-price tickets.

(If you’re looking for this week’s live music listings, they’re here.)

Reader Jay Millar, who works at Book*hug Press, wrote in with this astute comment on my previous Polaris post. Because I believe most of you read these as emails but not on the app/website, I’ll repost his comment here:

Thanks for the thoughts on the shortlist and even more for the alt-list. Christine Fellows takes the prize there in my opinion. What a delightfully intelligent album (through this does not surprise me).

As someone who has to deal with shortlists all the time in the literary world where the marketplace is more or less obliterated by things like the Giller (fiction) or the Griffin (poetry) or even Canada Reads (which has nothing to do with literature and everything to do with celebrity/popularity) it is good to be reminded that we can make our own lists; for all the attention they bring to deserving artists prizes also eclipse a massive number of creative works that are released into the world.

And, now that I think about it, such prizes are often more interested in their own brand and absorbing work into that. I’ve also seen those prizes waning a little too, perhaps out of habit -- sort of like, wait, are we really doing this again?

You’ve provided a good model to exercise: we should be talking and thinking about what isn’t “on the bus.” Thinking about why things aren’t there also allows for a crack in the facade of false objectivity prize lists, although it requires people with the bandwidth to engage more thoroughly in the work before such lists appear, and sadly with the sheer volume of creative work appearing every day, that’s a tall order!

Thank you Mr. Millar!

Reminder of my September subscription special:

On that note, for paid subscribers, here we go:

Debby Friday – Good Luck