Memoir, non-fiction, and critically acclaimed literary fiction from a mixture of independent presses and larger publishers dominate the dynamic shortlists for this year’s Polari Prize and Polari First Book Prize, the UK’s only dedicated awards for LGBTQ+ literature. This year's judges are Sophia Blackwell, Rachel Holmes, Adam Zmith, Karen McLeod, Joelle Taylor, VG Lee, Suzi Feay, and Chris Gribble. 

Rising of the Black Sheep by Livia Kojo Alour is also shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize, but is currently unavailable via Bookshop.org.

Established in 2011, 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 and last year’s winner Adam Zmith, for his keenly-researched history of poppers, Deep Sniff.

Established in 2019, The Polari Book Prize 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) and last year’s winner Joelle Taylor for her remarkable collection C+nto & Othered Poems which explores butch lesbian counterculture in London.

The Polari Prize will return to the British Library for a second year for the winner ceremony on Friday 24th November 2023