Helen DeWitt is throwing a tantrum because she couldn't collect a $175,000 literary prize.tl;dr>Apparently Helen DeWitt is destitute and living in a fan's apartment in Amsterdam without wifi>Was offered a prize from Yale but had to do a Zoom interview and attend a festival to accept it>Says she couldn't find any wifi in all of Amsterdam so she couldn't do the interview or get the money>Throwing a tantrum nowhttps://x.com/helendewitt/status/2041955705444261921https://paperpools.blogspot.com/2026/04/we-lose-again-windham-campbell-prize.html
If she won they should just give her the money. They don't give a shit about rewarding quality writing, they just want to hire talking heads to promote their brand.
>>25197852>Must try again to find wifi.>I find there is a public library about a 30-minute walk away, so I go there. There are plenty of places to hook up a laptop, but the instructions for Wifi are all about how to connect a phone. Do not have the fortitude to ask a member of staff or other visitor so leave.KWAB
>>25197895That tweet storm makes her sound like a bumbling low functioning autitic lolcow
>He would like to talk on the phone to agree on a date; they would only need one day for shooting video and b-roll [what is a b-roll] and portrait photo.>[What is a b-roll? According to Google’s AI, it is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main, primary footage (A-roll) to enrich the narrative, add visual interest, and provide context.]one of the greatest living writers, apparently
>>25197852>>25197895>>25197905Gonna be honest, her being such a goofball is making me want to read her books. It's kind of endearing.Helen we love you
>>25197950Lightning Rods is funny. It really only does one thing but does it extremely well. Just the right length too.
>>25197852>tomboy >writes about a bunch of nerdy stuff>is known for being unlucky and a weirdo>looks like she cuts her own hair she has my vote for /lit/'s first lady
>>25197852How do you get to age 70 with a modicum of success while being this incompetent. I understand the depression reasoning, I had to retake a year of University due to inability to function, I was also an opiate/oid addict for around 4 years, but if someone said they had £/$175,000 to give me; even at my lowest, dopesick, shit streaming out of my arse and every cell in my body crying out in agony, I'd jump through any and all logistical or bureaucratic hoops to ensure that I got that money, even if I went out of the house in PJ's unwashed, and did an interview in which I looked like shit and mumbled my way through some questions.
>>25197898true writer
>>25198902Absolument dégueulasse
>>25198896>As I've said, I am staying in an apartment where the wifi doesn't work, and it's very hard for me to write emails on my phone. She must be autistic
>>25198952>if you don't like typing full comprehensive emails on your phone, you're autistic!likely some underage with the newest iphone from daddy's credit card thinking longform phone texting is normal
>>25198952>walks 30 minutes to library>wifi instructions are for phone, cant figure out laptop>leaves instead of asking someone for help
>>25198960>if you don't like typing emails on your phone for $175,000, you must be autisticYeah
>Please respond to this email immediately, confirming your acceptance of the requirements to participate in prize announcement videos and festival events (virtual or in-person, as circumstances permit), contribute to a special issue of The Yale Review, participate in media outreach and special projects (which may include interviews, podcasts, or other forms of media), and hereafter to include some version of the phrase "recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize" in your author bio.This Yale Prize sounds more like it's buying endorsements off of authors to gain prestige, rather than actually supporting the arts like the MacArthur fellowship. Honestly, if I had to perpetually advertise this prize, I'd turn it down. I'm not a $175,000 prostitute.
>>25197852don't know whether to feel bad for her or laugh at her.
I saw that this board enjoyed Last Samurai, so I read her newest book Your Name Here. I thought it sucked
>We Lose AgainShe really thinks she's been cheated out of the money, rather than her failing because of her own incompetence. It's yale's prize, not hers, and they're free to give or not give it however they want.
>>25199144This sadsack defeatist attitude is all over Your Name Here. It’s about half that and half her fawning over the emails of a russian journalist larping as Mark Fisher
>>25197895>Do not have the fortitude to ask a member of staff or other visitor so leaveShe's literally me
So much of Your Name Here was about writing emails on the computer, it’s astounding that this woman doesn’t know how to connect to a public WiFi network
>>25198981If what you're saying is true, then why did all of Cormac's bios get updated to state he is a MacArthur Genius after he was awarded the grant?
The levels of career failure she's achieved since The Last Samurai is genuinely impressive, and it isn't even alcohol or drugs to blame like the great screw ups (Fitzgerald, Capote), it's just autism.
>>25199308His publishers freely chose to include it, given the prestige of the grant. I doubt the MacArthur folks require it, given they themselves say the prize is "no-strings attached".
>>25197895>Do not have the fortitude to ask a member of staff or other visitor so leave.If you're effectively homeless and you can't be arsed to ask someone to help you fix the wifi so you can get 175 000 dollaridoos then you have bigger issues at play.
I could respect her refusing the prize out of principle, like Sartre refusing the Nobel, but refusing the prize because you're too autistic to do what they ask, and, moreover, demanding that they accommodate your autism, is really shit.
>>25197852Her best work is remembered by a movie it isn't even tied to.
>>25197898Lolcow culture is inherently female coded. Obsessing over them is on the level of gossip, which only fags and women do.
>>25199411>career failure>fitzgerald and capoteHuh? Both were majorly successful in their time and are upheld by posterity as giants of 20th century literature. Sure they shortened their lives in orgies of drink, and Capote had a decadeslong bout of writer's block, but their careers were one in a million.
>>25199517Didn’t know that, very based of Sartre though, not surprising given the Marxist turn of his later life (or was his existentialism really all that different?)
>>25197898>>25199182>>25199508>Do not have the fortitude to ask a member of staff or other visitor so leave./ourgirl/
>>25200602Didn't he eventually come out as Anarchist after awhile?
anon shilled your name here a while back and I enjoyed it (thanks), lightning rods too.
>>25199411From what I've seen from a cursory glance at Goodreads is that she had a book out in 2022 that has a higher number of reviews than Last Samurai by 2,000 reviews. I haven't looked at sale data, I'm sure it sold less than LS, but she's obviously managed to write something at least halfway decent since 2000.
>>25197852Did she try getting a job?
>>25197852>>Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan-Lmao
What a retard lol.
