Polari First Book Prize shortlist announced

The shortlist for the Polari First Book Prize was announced last week at the Polari Literary Salon at the Southbank Centre.

For the first time this year, the five shortlisted books will be displayed at selected W H Smiths travel outlets across the country.

The Polari First Book Prize is for a first book which explores the LGBT experience and is open to any work of poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction published in the UK in English within the twelve-month deadline for submissions (this year Feb 1, 2014). Self-published works in both print and digital formats are eligible for submission.

The winner will be presented with a cheque for £1,000, courtesy of the Société Générale UK LGBT Network.

The winner will be announced on October 8 2014 in the Purcell Room during the London Literature Festival.

The Shortlisted books are:

I Am Nobody’s Nigger by Dean Atta (Westbourne Press)

Petite Mort by Beatrice Hitchman (Serpent’s Tail)

Fairytales for Lost Children by Diriye Osman (Team Angelica)

God’s Other Children – A London Memoir by Vernal W. Scott (self-published)

The Rubbish Lesbian by Sarah Westwood (Mimwood Press)

The judges this year are:

Paul Burston (Chair of Judges) – author, journalist and host of Polari

Bidisha – critic and broadcaster

Matt Cain – author and former Culture Editor for Channel 4 News

Suzi Feay – literary critic and broadcaster

Rachel Holmes – author and former Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre

V G Lee – author and comedian

Paul Burston, Chair of judges, said: “The judges were impressed with the quality and diversity of books submitted this year. These five books represent a wide range of voices from a variety of backgrounds, making for a very exciting shortlist.”

The Polari Literary Salon launched in 2007 in the upstairs room of a pub in Soho and was named ‘London’s peerless gay literary salon’ by The Independent on Sunday. It is now housed at the Southbank Centre, where monthly events showcase the best in established, new and up-and-coming LGBT literary talent and performance.

The Prize’s media partner is Square Peg Media, publishers of g3 and OUT In The City magazines.

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