The UK and Ireland’s only dedicated prize for LGBTQ+ literature has announced its 2024 longlists for the Polari Book Prize and Polari First Book Prize, celebrating a wealth of genres and forms, including memoir, poetry, translated fiction and crime. The longlist for the Polari Children’s & YA Prize has also been announced, following its inaugural year in 2022.
A Polari Salon event will be held at Propaganda in Hull on Friday night to celebrate the longlist, with performances from Louise Beech, Barbara Brownskirt, VG Lee and Kostya Tsolakis.
This year’s longlists include highly acclaimed titles including lauded debuts Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth, Rosewater by Liv Little, Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson and Bellies by Nicola Dinan; powerful memoirs Transitional: In One Way or Another, We All Transition by Munroe Bergdorf and the posthumously published Word Monkey by Christopher Fowler; and the much-anticipated second novels from Naoise Dolan, and Jon Ransom whose debut The Whale Tattoo won last year’s Polari First Book Prize. Also longlisted is the latest poetry collection from award- winning spoken word performer and poet Kae Tempest, Divisible by Itself and One, and the Theakston Prize- shortlisted thriller Killing Jericho by William Hussey.
The Children’s & YA Prize covers an incredible array of fiction and non-fiction aimed at all ages – from picture books all the way through to YA, including The Fights That Make Us by the award-winning Sarah Hagger-Holt, and Jamie, the new standalone middle grade novel from bestselling author L.D. Lapinski. The Children’s and YA Prize is in memory of previous judge of the prize Emerson Milford Dickson, who tragically passed away last year.
Polari Prize founder Paul Burston said: “The quality, range and sheer volume of submissions this year presented a real challenge for the judges. With so many great titles to choose from, we really had our work cut out. Taken together, this year’s longlists represent a diversity of LGBTQ voices and genres, from dazzling debut novels to a much-loved author’s final memoir, provocative poetry, witty comic art and genre-expanding crime fiction. These are books worth celebrating.”
The 2024 longlist announcement follows the landmark partnership between easyJet holidays and the Polari Prizes in June this year. The partnership, pledged over a three-year period, sees the merging of two distinct brands in a mutual goal of amplifying literature exploring the LGBTQ+ experience. The collaboration will include a series of new creative initiatives, a new podcast, a series of live events, and further funding for the annual prize ceremony, prize giveaways and audience outreach.
Judging the Polari First Book Prize are author Rachel Holmes, author and writing coach Karen McLeod, author Jon Ransom (Polari First Book Prize winner 2023) and co-chair of Spread The Word Simon Richardson. Leading literary PR consultancy FMcM will continue its sponsorship of the Polari First Book Prize, having supported since its inception in 2011 with a pro-bono PR and marketing campaign, as well as the winner’s cheque for £1,000.
Now in its sixth year, the Polari Book Prize will be judged by author Julia Armfield (Polari Book Prize winner 2023), literary critic Suzi Feay, cultural sector leader Chris Gribble and author and comedian V.G. Lee. The Polari Book Prize will continue to be sponsored by D H H Literary Agency, with the winner receiving a cheque for £2,000.
Both prize panels will be chaired by founder, journalist and author Paul Burston.
The Polari First Book Prize 2024 longlisted titles are:
Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson (John Murray)
Local Fires by Joshua Jones (Parthian Books)
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle (Verve Books)
A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas (JKP)
Patterflash by Adam Lowe (Peepal Press)
Bellies by Nicola Dinan (Penguin)
Greekling by Kostya Tsolakis (Nine Arches Press)
Transitional: In One Way or Another, We All Transition by Munroe Bergdorf (Bloomsbury)
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould (Unbound)
Rosewater by Liv Little (Dialogue)
Jon Ransom said: “This is an exciting and diverse longlist, representing the very best of LGBTQ+ writing today.”
The Polari Book Prize 2024 longlisted titles are:
Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Bonnier)
The Gallopers by Jon Ransom (Muswell Press)
The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants by Orlando Ortega-Medina (Bywater Books)
Word Monkey by Christopher Fowler (Transworld)
Forty Lies by David Shenton (Knockabout)
One Last Song by Nathan Evans (Inkandescent)
Hard Drive by Paul Stephenson (Carcanet)
Divisible By Itself and One by Kae Tempest (Picador)
Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, tr. Jamie Richards (Scribe)
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan (Orion)
Judge Chris Gribble said: “Both the range and quality of submissions this year made the long listing task a real challenge for all of the judges. From graphic work to novels, essays to autobiography, poetry to history, the books that were submitted this year turned our minds outwards, backwards and forwards. We were shown new tellings of the past, had fresh light cast on our current times and were given glances of the future that we won’t forget in a hurry.”
The judges for the Polari Children’s and YA Prize are educator Rayyan Aboo, librarian Zoey Dixon, writer Erica Gillingham, author Sam Sedgeman and author Jodie Lancet-Grant, who also chairs. The Polari Children’s & YA Prize has a new sponsor, Ash Literary Agency, with the winner receiving a cheque for £1,000.
The longlisted titles for the 2024 Polari Children’s and YA prize are:
Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn (Andersen)
Out of the Blue by Robert Tregoning (Bloomsbury)
Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot (Scholastic)
The Fights That Make Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt (Usborne)
Jamie by L.D. Lapinski (Orion)
Gwen and Art are not in Love by Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury)
Away With Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)
All Bodies are Wonderful: An Inclusive Guide for Talking About You by Beth Cox, illustrated by Samantha Meredith (BSmall Publishing)
If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So (Little Tiger)
Timid by Harry Woodgate (Little Tiger)
Chair of judges Jodie Lancet-Grant said: “What a joy it’s been to judge the prize this time round. We’ve received such a brilliant array of joyful LGBTQ+ titles for kids and young adults, and it’s been particularly heartening to see how often characters’ queerness is such an incidental part of their story.”
Judge Rayyan Aboo said: “The longlist selected had been a difficult decision because all books were so good. Each and every book had powerful storytelling and rich narratives - all authors should be proud. However, only a few books had to be selected and after a long discussion, the books chosen among us were the ones that stood out.”
The Polari First Book Prize is awarded annually to a debut book that explores the LGBTQ+ experience, and has previously been won by writers including Kirsty Logan, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Mohsin Zaidi, Adam Zmith, and last year’s winner Jon Ransom, for his debut The Whale Tattoo, which powerfully and sensitively explores grief, love and forgiveness.
The Polari Book Prize also awards an overall book of the year, excluding debuts, and previous winners include Andrew McMillan (Playtime), Kate Davies (In At the Deep End), Diana Souhami (No Modernism Without Lesbians), Joelle Taylor (C+nto & Other Poems), and last year’s winner Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, a spellbinding and magical reckoning of love and loss, and what might lurk under the sea.
In its second year, The Children’s & YA Polari Prize occurs every two years, and is awarded to an LGBTQ+ book aimed at children and young people of all ages, published in the last 24 months. The inaugural winner in 2022 was Nen and the Lonely Fisherman by Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew (Owlet Press)
The shortlist announcement will follow on Monday 30th September, and the winners’ ceremony will return to the British Library for a third year on Friday 29th November.
Notes to Editors
About the Polari Prize | The Polari Prize is the UK and Ireland’s only dedicated LGBTQ+ book prize, founded by author and activist, Paul Burston. The Polari First Book Prize was launched in 2011. Winners include Fiona Mozley, Saleem Haddad, Paul McVeigh, Kirsty Logan, Diriye Osman, John McCullough, Mari Hannah, James Maker, Angela Chadwick, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Mohsin Zaidi, Adam Zmith and Jon Ransom. The Polari Prize was founded in 2019 and awarded to Andrew McMillan in its inaugural year, to Kate Davies in 2020, Diana Souhami in 2021, Joelle Taylor in 2022 and Julia Armfield in 2023. The Children’s & YA Book Prize was established in 2022 and won by Terry Eagleton and James Mayhew. For further details on the prize and tour, please visit https://www.polarisalon.com/
About Paul Burston | Paul Burston is an author, activist and founder of Polari Literary Salon and Polari Prizes.A founding editor of Attitude magazine, he has written for many publications including the Guardian, Time Out, The Times and Sunday Times. He is the author of five non-fiction books, the editor of two short story collections and the author of six novels. His memoir We Can Be Heroes was published by Little A in June 2023 to rave reviews from across the industry including from Russell T. Davies and Bernardine Evaristo. ES Magazine called it ‘probably the gay book of the year’. In 2016, he featured in the British Council’s Global List of ‘33 visionary people promoting freedom equality and LGBT rights around the world.’
About Jodie Lancet-Grant | Jodie Lancet-Grant is the author of the nationally acclaimed 2021 picture book The Pirate Mums, which, read by Sue Perkins, was the first ever Cbeebies bedtime story to feature a family with two mums. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Times, the Independent and The Telegraph and she is a passionate advocate of LGBTQ+ representation in children’s culture. She is Chair of Judges for the Children’s and Young Adults category of the Polari Prize, the UK’s only prize for queer writing. Jodie also works as Communications Director at Pan Macmillan on high-profile non-fiction books for Bluebird. The Marvellous Doctors for Magical Creatures is her second picture book, published with Oxford University Press.
About easyJet holidays | easyJet holidays, which launched in 2019, is one of the major players in the tour operator industry, having taken almost 2 million people away in 2023. It offers great-value beach, city and lakes holidays to over 7000 hotels, in more than 100 destinations across Europe, directly through its website and through over 5000 travel agent partners. The ATOL-protected holidays can be secured with a deposit of just £60 per person, including flights, hotel, 23kg luggage and transfers on beach holidays. easyJet holidays is a member of ABTA, and all packages are covered by its Ultimate Flexibility, offering freedom to change a booking, a refund guarantee, and best price guarantee. In 2024 the holiday provider also started operating from Switzerland, France and Germany.
Winners of the Sustainable Future Award at the Globe Travel Awards, easyJet holidays’ sustainability strategy, ‘Holiday Better’, focuses on three key pillars – create better holiday choices which is about making sustainable travel affordable and accessible to everyone; keep our holidays special which is maximising the benefits and minimising the negative impacts of travel and tourism, and transform travel for everyone which means embedding sustainability into business decisions and behaviours and driving meaningful change in the industry. The tour operator has partnered with UN Tourism to help develop the first environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework for tourism businesses, co- designing a measurement tool that is meaningful and feasible for better monitoring how tourism businesses impact, and depend on, people, planet and prosperity. easyJet holidays has been named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2023 and 2024, as well as being named one of the Best Workplaces in Travel 2023.
About FMcM | An award-winning communications consultancy that specialises in literature and the arts, with an impressive client list and a big reputation. We are FMcM. Whether working on book campaigns, on literary prizes and festivals, or on pioneering industry initiatives, we represent some of the most inspiring and exciting brands, authors and publishers in the literary landscape. With over 20 years at the cutting edge of the industry, we are specialists in everything from poetry and literature in translation, to blockbuster history titles, crime fiction, to literary debuts and commercial bestsellers.
About D H H Literary Agency | We are an editorially led agency run by passionate book lovers. With a range of experience from bookselling and collecting, in house editorial, and television, our agents are commercially aware, well-connected and skilled at helping authors develop their ideas. Founded by David H Headley in 2008, our agency is dedicated to discovering and nurturing talented authors, whether debut or established, providing attentive, honest and personalised representation.
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