Polari has been awarded a grant from Grants for the Arts, to help fund a major 22 date tour. 

​The Polari Prize Tenth Anniversary Tour will showcase writers long and shortlisted for this year’s Polari Prize awards for emerging and established LGBTQ+ literary talent, as well as past winners from the Prize’s ten year history, dating back to 2011.

​The tour will kick off at Huddersfield Literature Festival on March 25 and continue until February 2021. The centrepiece of the tour will be a special event at London’s Southbank Centre in October, when this year’s Polari Prize winners will be announced as part of London Literature Festival. 

​The tour will also include events in York, Hastings, Bradford, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Newcastle and at London’s legendary nightclub Heaven and gay sauna Sweatbox.

​Founded by author Paul Burston, Polari began in 2007 in a bar in Soho. Since 2009, we’ve been based at London’s Southbank Centre. We also tour regularly, funded by Arts Council England.

​Writers and performers who’ve appeared at Polari include Adele Anderson, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Jake Arnott, Neil Bartlett, Dustin Lance Black, John Boyne, Russell T Davies, Maureen Duffy, Stella Duffy, Cerys Evans, Bernardine Evaristo, Patrick Gale, Alexis Gregory, Philip Hensher, Celia Imrie, Jackie Kay, VG Lee, David McAlmont, Val McDermid, Karen McLeod, PJ Samuels, Joelle Taylor, Tracey Thorn, Paula Varjack and Sarah Waters.

Past Polari Prize winners include John McCullough, Mari Hannah, Kirsty Logan, Diriye Osman, Paul McVeigh, Fiona Mozley, Angela Chadwick and Andrew McMillan.