The Polari Prize Podcast returns after a three-year hiatus, as part of a landmark new partnership with easyJet holidays announced in June 2024, with a new episode featuring 2023 winners Julia Armfield and Jon Ransom.
Polari Prize founder Paul Burston joins poet and host Sophia Blackwell to explore winning books and nominated authors from over the years, inviting authors for interviews about their writing process and craft. The first episode will broadcast on all streaming platforms on Thursday 14th November. A second episode, featuring interviews with the 2024 winners announced at the British Library on Friday 29th November, will air before the end of the year, with a new series scheduled for 2025.
On the new podcast, Paul Burston, founder of the Polari Literary Salon and Polari Prizes, comments: “It’s wonderful to be reunited with Sophia Blackwell for the Polari Prize Podcast. Sophia has been part of the Polari family for many years, both as a performer and as a fellow prize judge. She shares my passion for celebrating LGBTQ+ stories and is a pleasure to work with. In future episodes we’ll be reporting from this year’s prize ceremony at the British Library, talking to this year’s prize winners and catching up with previous winners.”
The podcast is one of the many creative initiatives coming forth from the three-year partnership with easyJet holidays, as part of their collective aim to enhance a “shared commitment” towards promoting queer voices and stories. The partnership sees the merging of two distinct brands in a mutual goal of amplifying literature exploring the LGBTQ+ experience. The collaboration will also see a series of live events, and further funding for the annual prize ceremony, prize giveaways and audience outreach.
Founded in 2011 by author and activist Paul Burston, the Polari Prize has grown in size and scope year on year, with a second category for non-debut books added in 2019, and a third, bi-annual category for children’s and YA books announced in 2022. At the 2023 winners’ ceremony for the prize, held at the British Library, easyJet holidays CEO Garry Wilson attended and pledged his support to the awards for the next three years. Named by the Sunday Times as one of the best places to work in 2023 and 2024, easyJet holidays was launched in 2019, offering great value beach and city breaks in more than 100 European destinations, taking two million people away on holiday last year.
On the partnership, Garry Wilson, CEO of easyJet holidays, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Polari Prizes to further our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We’re incredibly proud to be championing this important initiative and we look forward to enhancing and celebrating LGBTQ+ literature in 2024 and beyond.”
On the partnership, Paul Burston, founder of the Polari Literary Salon and Polari Prizes, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with easyJet holidays, whose generous support couldn’t have come at a better time. Interest in The Polari Prize has grown enormously over the past few years. This new partnership enables us to build on this success, celebrating LGBTQ+ literature and creating even more opportunities for LGBTQ+ writers.”
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, Adam Zmith, and last year’s winner Jon Ransom, for his debut The Whale Tattoo, which powerfully and sensitively explores grief, love and forgiveness.
The Polari Book Prize also 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), Joelle Taylor (C+nto & Other Poems), and last year’s winner Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield, a spellbinding and magical reckoning of love and loss, and what might lurk under the sea.
In its second year, The Children’s & YA Polari Prize occurs every two years, and is awarded to an LGBTQ+ book aimed at children and young people of all ages, published in the last 24 months. The inaugural winner in 2022 was Nen and the Lonely Fisherman by Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew (Owlet Press)
The Polari Prize winners’ ceremony will return to the British Library for a third year on Friday 29th November. For tickets, please see this link – https://tinyurl.com/3t39kzus