Polari First Book Prize for queer fiction: long list announced

The Polari First Book Prize, named after ‘London’s peerless gay literary salon’ Polari, was founded in 2007 and is awarded to a first book (poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction) which explores the queer experience and is open to any work of poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction published in the UK in English (within 12 months of submission deadline). Among this year’s judges is chair and host, Time Out’s Gay and Lesbian Editor Paul Burston; he and his team announced the final long list at the London Literature Festival last night (winners will be announced on September 19). Burston says “It’s an exciting list which we can all agree on and really get behind. As well as novels, we have books of poetry and memoirs in a variety of formats including self-published books and digital downloads, which reflects the changing shape of publishing today”.

Polari First Book Prize long list:
Julian Corkle Is A Filthy Liar – DJ Connell
Same Again Please - Michael B Jones
London Triptych – Jonathan Kemp
The Bird Keeper – Issy Festing
Love, Hope and High Heels – Clare Campbell
I Don’t Remember You – Stephanie Lennox
Children of the Sun – Max Schaefer
Autofellatio – James Maker
Homo Jihad – Timothy Graves
C’est La Vie – Bruce Hodson

For info, see paulburston.com.

Tags: books, gay, joe storey-scott, Lesbian, london literasture festival, long list, paul burston, polari first book prize, rachel holmes, southbank centre, suzi feay