Polari Prize Explained

The Polari Prize is an annual UK literary prize for LGBTQ+ literature. Established by Paul Burston and the Polari salon, the prize has been awarded annually since its launch in 2011.^[1]

• The Polari First Book Prize is restricted to first books by writers who were born or work in the UK and Ireland.^[2]
• In 2019 a further award was introduced, the Polari Prize for Book of the Year.^[3]

Polari First Book Prize

!Year!Author!TItle!Publisher!Notes

2011	James Maker	AutoFellatio	Inkandescent
2012	John McCullough	The Frost Fairs	Salt Publishing
2013	Mari Hannah	The Murder Wall	Pan Macmillan
2014	Diriye Osman	Fairytales for Lost Children	Angelica Entertainment
2015	Kirsty Logan	The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales	Salt Publishing
2016	Paul McVeigh	The Good Son	Salt Publishing
2017	Saleem Haddad	Guapa	Europa Editions
2018	Fiona Mozley	Elmet	John Murray	^[4]
2019	Angela Chadwick	XX	Dialogue Books
2020	Amrou Al-Kadhi	Life as a Unicorn	Fourth Estate	^[5]
2021	Mohsin Zaidi	A Dutiful Boy	Square Peg	^[6]
2022	Adam Zmith	Deep Sniff	Watkins	^[7]
2023	Jon Ransom	The Whale Tattoo	Muswell Press	^[8]

Polari Prize for Book of the Year

!Year!Author!Title!Publisher!Notes

2019	Andrew McMillan	playtime	Jonathan Cape
2020	Kate Davies	In the Deep End	HarperCollins
2021	Diana Souhami	No Modernism Without Lesbians	Head of Zeus
2022	Joelle Taylor	C+nto & Othered Poems	The Westbourne Press
2023	Julia Armfield	Our Wives Under the Sea	Pan Macmillan

Notes and References

1. Web site: Polari Prize . 2023-10-03 . polarisalon . en.
2. Web site: Polaris Salon . 2023-10-03 . Polarisalon . en.
3. Web site: 2019-10-23 . Chadwick, McMillan win 2019 Polari Prizes . 2023-10-03 . Books+Publishing.
4. Web site: 2018-10-23 . ‘Elmet’ wins 2018 Polari First Book Prize . 2023-10-03 . Books+Publishing.
5. Web site: 2020-10-16 . Davies, Al-Kadhi win 2020 Polari Prizes . 2023-10-03 . Books+Publishing.
6. Web site: 2021-11-01 . Souhami, Zaidi win 2021 Polari Prizes . 2023-10-03 . Books+Publishing.
7. Web site: 2022-11-16 . Taylor, Zmith win 2022 Polari Prizes . 2023-10-03 . Books+Publishing.
8. News: Creamer . Ella . 2023-11-24 . Julia Armfield and Jon Ransom win the Polari prizes for LGBTQ+ books . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-11-25 . 0261-3077.