These Are The Best LGBTQ+ Books Of The Last Year

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The Polari Prize 2024 shortlists have landed

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The UK and Ireland’s only dedicated prize for LGBTQ+ literature has announced its 2024 shortlists: the Polari Book Prize, the Polari First Book Prize and the bi-annual Polari Children’s & YA Prize.

What Is The Polari Prize?

Not limited by genre or form, the Polari prize commends the year’s best fiction, memoir, poetry, translation and more. It is the UK and Ireland’s only dedicated LGBTQ+ book prize, and the First Book Prize was launched by author and activist Paul Burston back in 2011. In 2019, The Polari Prize was added to the roster, awarding LGBTQ+ writers beyond their debut works, while the Children’s & YA Book Prize was established in 2022 and is awarded every other year.

This year, all three prizes will be awarded. Here’s who made the shortlist.

Who Is On The Polari Prize 2024 Shortlist?

‘This year’s shortlists celebrate the diversity and richness of LGBTQ literary talent in the UK and Ireland today,’ shares the prize founder Paul Burston. ‘These are books which explore sexuality, gender, history and politics with humour, passion and insight. They remind us of the power of queer storytelling at a time when some would see our books and stories banned. Read them with pride.’ The acclaimed titles on the shortlists are:

Polari Book Prize

Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Bonnier)
The Gallopers by Jon Ransom (Muswell Press)
The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants by Orlando Ortega-Medina (Bywater Books)
Forty Lies by David Shenton (Knockabout)
Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, tr. Jamie Richards (Scribe)
Hard Drive by Paul Stephenson (Carcanet)

‘The Polari Book Prize 2024 shortlist typifies the wide variety of voices, perspectives and experiences people have come to expect from this singular prize,’ shares last year’s winner Julia Armfield. ‘I am thrilled with the final decisions and I hope readers will be moved and energised by the books they find here.’

Polari First Book Prize

Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson (John Murray)
Local Fires by Joshua Jones (Parthian Books)
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle (Verve Books)
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)

‘The breadth of writing (and fresh breath) in the shortlisted titles makes me want to sing out loud,’ comments author and judge Karen McLeod. ‘Intelligent, playful, and emotionally rich, I am wowed by the confidence and boldness in the writing.’

Polari Children’s & YA Prize

Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn (Andersen)
Out of the Blue by Robert Tregoning (Bloomsbury)
The Fights That Make Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt (Usborne)
Gwen and Art are not in Love by Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury)
Away With Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger)

‘The shortlist this year doesn’t only show the best in LGBTQ+ writing for children and young adults – it really does include some of the best writing of any kind in the genre,’ says chair of judges Jodie Lancet-Grant. ‘We have been extremely impressed with the level of entries.’

Who Is On The Judging Panel?

Polari Prize founder Paul Burston will chair the judging panel for both the Polari Book Prize and the Polari First Book Prize. For the former, he will be joined by Julia Armfield (Polari Book Prize winner 2023), Suzi Feay, Chris Gribble and author and V.G. Lee. Judging the Polari First Book Prize are Rachel Holmes, Karen McLeod, Jon Ransom (Polari First Book Prize winner 2023) and Simon Richardson.

The judges for the Polari Children’s & YA Prize are Rayyan Aboo, Zoey Dixon, Erica Gillingham, Sam Sedgeman and Jodie Lancet-Grant, who also chairs.

‘The quality, range and sheer volume of submissions this year presented a real challenge for the judges,’ shares Polari Prize founder Paul Burston. ‘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.’ Let’s take a look back at the Longlists…

Polari Book Prize Longlist 2024

The Polari Book Prize 2024

‘Both the range and quality of submissions this year made the long listing task a real challenge for all of the judges,’ says judge Chris Gribble. ‘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 10 titles up for the £2,000 prize are:

Word Monkey by Christopher Fowler (Transworld)
One Last Song by Nathan Evans (Inkandescent)
Divisible By Itself and One by Kae Tempest (Picador)
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan (Orion)
Killing Jericho by William Hussey (Bonnier) – shortlisted
The Gallopers by Jon Ransom (Muswell Press) – shortlisted
The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants by Orlando Ortega-Medina (Bywater Books) – shortlisted
Forty Lies by David Shenton (Knockabout) – shortlisted
Hard Drive by Paul Stephenson (Carcanet) – shortlisted
Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado, tr. Jamie Richards (Scribe) – shortlisted

Jon Ransom is nominated for his second novel, The Gallopers. Last year, his debut novel The Whale Tattoo bagged the Polari First Book Prize.

Polari First Book Prize Longlist 2024

The Polari First Book Prize 2024

‘This is an exciting and diverse longlist, representing the very best of LGBTQ+ writing today,’ shares judge Jon Ransom. Ten debut works were longlisted for the First Book Prize, with the shortlist whittling the selection down to six. The full longlist is as follows:

A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas (JKP)
Patterflash by Adam Lowe (Peepal Press)
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould (Unbound)
Rosewater by Liv Little (Dialogue)
Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson (John Murray)
Local Fires by Joshua Jones (Parthian Books) – shortlisted
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle (Verve Books) – shortlisted
Bellies by Nicola Dinan (Penguin) – shortlisted
Greekling by Kostya Tsolakis (Nine Arches Press) – shortlisted
Transitional: In One Way or Another, We All Transition by Munroe Bergdorf (Bloomsbury) – shortlisted

Polari Children’s & YA Prize Longlist 2024

The Polari Children’s & YA prize

The Polari Children’s & YA Prize covers an array of fiction and non-fiction aimed at all ages, from picture books all the way through to YA. ‘What a joy it’s been to judge the prize this time round,’ says Chair of judges Jodie Lancet-Grant. ‘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.’

The 10 titles up for this £1,000 prize are:

Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot (Scholastic)
Jamie by L.D. Lapinski (Orion)
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)
Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn (Andersen) – shortlisted
Out of the Blue by Robert Tregoning (Bloomsbury) – shortlisted
The Fights That Make Us by Sarah Hagger-Holt (Usborne) – shortlisted
Gwen and Art are not in Love by Lex Croucher (Bloomsbury) – shortlisted
Away With Words by Sophie Cameron (Little Tiger) – shortlisted

Awarded every two years, the 2024 Prize is awarded in memory of Emerson Milford Dickson, previous judge of the prize, who tragically passed away last year.