The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

We have mentioned this prize before but don’t think it has had a thread. The UK’s only dedicated LGBTQ+ prize.

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, Diriye Osman, Mohsin Zaidi, and last year’s winner Adam Zmith, for his his keenly-researched history of poppers, Deep Sniff.
​
Established in 2019, The Polari 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) and last year’s winner Joelle Taylor for her electrifying poetry collection exploring the UK’s underground lesbian culture, C+nto and Othered Poems.

PRIZES ARE OPEN TO WRITERS BORN OR BASED IN THE UK AND IRELAND, WITH BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE 12 MONTHS UP TO FEB 1, 2023

The Polari Children’s and YA Prize will return in 2024, as a bi-annual award for books for children and young adults with LGBTQ+ themes or representation.

2023 longlists are out

THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE LONG LIST
• Love from the Pink Palace by Jill Nalder • (Wildfire)
• A Visible Man by Edward Enninful • (Bloomsbury)
• The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom • (Muswell Press)
• Whatever Happened to Queer Happiness by Kevin Brazil • (Influx Press)
• Rising of the Black Sheep by Livia Kojo Alour ​• (Polari Press)
• The New Life by Tom Crewe • (Chatto & Windus)
• None of the Above by Travis Alabanza • (Canongate Books)
• Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry • (Gallic Books)
• In Her Jaws by Rosamund Taylor • (Banshee Press)
• Is This Love? by CE Riley • (Serpent’s Tail)
• No Country for Girls by Emma Styles • (Sphere)
• Some Integrity by Padraig Regan • (Carcanet Press)

THE POLARI PRIZE LONG LIST
• Fire Island by Jack Parlett • (Granta Books)
• A Working Class Family Ages Badly by Juno Roche • (Dialogue Books)
• Other People Manage by Ellen Hawley • (Swift Press)
• All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt • (Jonathan Cape)
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart • (Picador)
• Mother’s Boy by Patrick Gale • (Tinder Press)
• The School House by Sophie Ward • (Corsair)
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield • (Picador)
• Rookie by Caroline Bird • (Carcanet Press)
• Cells by Gavin McCrea • (Scribe)
• Screen Age by Fenton Bailey • (Ebury Press)
• Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu • (Dialogue Books)

Like how they sensibly make the main prize explicitly for non debuts given they have a debut prize.

And I am going to make a 2024 prediction - Man Eating Typewriter given it is written in Polari.

Thanks Paul nice to see Rosamund Taylor's poetry on the list, she's a friend on GR and I loved the poems - haven't reviewed it yet because I feel weird about reviewing books by people I know. I also found the Hewitt fascinating. Although the general long list seems a bit tame overall.

Thanks for posting this, Paul. It does seem more on the safe side - no Cipher, for example - but that's not unique to this prize.

I added it to the prize calendar.

Shortlist out

THE POLARI PRIZE LONG LIST
• Fire Island by Jack Parlett • (Granta Books)
• All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt • (Jonathan Cape)
• Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart • (Picador)
• The School House by Sophie Ward • (Corsair)
• Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield • (Picador)
• Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu • (Dialogue Books)

For first books

A New Life
None of the Above
Rising of the Black Sheep
A Visible Man
Love from the Pink Palace
A Whale Tattoo

What did everyone think about Our Wives Under the Sea? I found it to be rather empty...of ideas, of surprises, of interest really. Nothing from it stuck with me at all. I know a lot of people really like it though, so I feel like I'm not getting what was so impressive about it.

I have read 4/6 of the shortlist for novels which is a bit of a shock to me

Elizabeth wrote: "What did everyone think about Our Wives Under the Sea? I found it to be rather empty...of ideas, of surprises, of interest really. Nothing from it stuck with me at all. I know a lot of people reall..."

I enjoyed reading it in the moment but forgot about it almost immediately afterwards, thought of it more as a decent, late night/ commuter read. I liked the Hewitt though, wasn't that impressed by 'Here Again Now' or 'A New Life'.

Elizabeth wrote: "What did everyone think about Our Wives Under the Sea? I found it to be rather empty...of ideas, of surprises, of interest really. Nothing from it stuck with me at all. I know a lot of people reall..."

I feel the same as you. I thought it had an interesting premise and had set itself up to be so atmospheric and suspenseful, but in the end was quite boring. I thought the two main characters were somewhat interchangeable and so much time was spent just pondering old dates between the two when all I wanted to know was what was going on at the bottom of the ocean!

Nearly everyone in my little corner of bookstagram seemed to love it but I wanted more.

Sophie Ward’s debut is one of my favourite books, but I have no idea what The Schoolhouse is doing anywhere near a prize shortlist.

Strong agree

What happened to Man Eating Typewriter - I mean it’s literally written in Polari

Eligible next year as per below

Paul wrote: "And I am going to make a 2024 prediction - Man Eating Typewriter given it is written in Polari."

Cut off is 1 Feb 2023 for this year.

Yes there’s that

The Goldsmiths Prize on Wednesday on the other hand ...

(although White Rabbit have had more Gordon Burn success before)

Paul wrote: "The Goldsmiths Prize on Wednesday on the other hand ..."

... did pick it

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield wins the overall prize

Jon Ransom wins the first book prize for The Whale Tattoo

They both sound good.

I'm really surprised that Armfield won.

At least it wasn’t The School House

I’m listening to Our Wives Under the Sea on audio and was immediately caught up in the story.

Why are you surprised it won, Elizabeth?

Why are you surprised it won, Elizabeth?"

The premise is intriguing, but she doesn't do anything with it. There are no ideas in the novel, just a description of a really boring and non-notable relationship. That was my feeling about it, anyway. Clearly there are people who found more to like than I did!

Elizabeth wrote: The premise is intriguing, but she doesn't do anything with it. There are no ideas in the novel, just a description of a really boring and non-notable rel..."

Totally agree.

I quite liked it but it does not really go anywhere

I’m only on Chapter 10 and hoping it picks up. I’m only half listening while I work so I’m not giving the story a fair hearing.

The Polari First Book Prize 2024 longlisted titles are:

Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson (John Murray)
Local Fires by Joshua Jones (Parthian Books)
Sunburn by Chloe Michelle (Verve Books)
A Trans Man Walks into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas (JKP)
Patterflash by Adam Lowe (Peepal Press)
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)
Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants by Paul David Gould (Unbound)
Rosewater by Liv Little (Dialogue)

Of those I have only read Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants, which I helped crowdfund.

The Polari Book Prize 2024 longlisted titles are:

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

Haven’t read any of those sadly but One Last Song was on my radar and I k ow a few here have sampled it. The author is also cofounder of the publisher although this isn’t self-published in that sense as press do publish other books.

One of each list was on the Dylan Thomas Prize - Kae Tempest and Joshua Jones.

I haven't read any but Viola Di Grado is on my TBR list and plan to get to Nathan Evans very soon.

I thought we might see the Faber edition of Napalm in the Heart here but perhaps it's eligible next year.

I liked Blue Hunger and thought it does clever things with ideas of desire and language.

Shortlist is out although not in a neatly copyable format. Guardian write up (think the books I’ve read didn’t make the cut)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Shortlisting on one category a judge on the other category is a Goldsmiths level of prize incest

I was pleased to see Neon Roses get some recognition - by no means a perfect novel imo but still very much enjoyed reading it.

I would love to see Local Fires win.

Jon Ransom follows up his First Book Prize last year with winning the main prize this year for The Gallopers.

Nicola Dinan wins the First Book Prize
for her novel Bellies.

Sarah Hagger-Holt has been awarded the biannual Polari children’s and YA prize for her children’s story The Fights That Make Us

The novel is set in North Norfolk (it opens near to Wolferton, which is I think where the author went to school) and begins on the aftermath of the devastating 1953 floods, which was a seminal event my mother often talks about.

Write up in Guardian;

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Judge resigns and authors ask for their books to be withdrawn from consideration

The action is in response to author John Boyne’s novel Earth being including amongst the nominees, critics say statements made by Boyne are transphobic and go against the values of the award.

https://www.outinperth.com/polari-pri...

I'm just learning about the news re: the Polari Prize. As a trans person, I find it incredibly disappointing. Beyond the statement from the Polari people, there are also videos on You Tube, in particular "The Polari Prize situation is DISGUSTING" from Willow Talks Books, who is a trans woman, and "Meta wins AI case, terf times for the Polari Prize..." from Ben Reads Good, a queer cis ally, both of whom based in the UK and are much more atop of the news than I am, that you can check out for more regarding the reaction to the whole Polari prize situation.

I had been wondering whether to post on this. What a mess.

The Prize put out a statement which from X and Instagram seems to have had the effect of not really satisfying anyone (perhaps not surprisingly on X, given political slant there, a reasonable number of comments asking why they even felt the need to release a statement).

https://x.com/polariprize/status/1953...

Generally I’d say a writer’s views shouldn’t disqualify them from a prize - if this was the Booker I wouldn’t see an issue. And I can get the Prizes point of view that “even within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues”. But this is a prize specifically to promote and support LGBTQ+ authors and the statement ends “Polari is committed to inclusion, not exclusion” - the TE in TERF is literally the opposite of that.

NB worth saying, and one reason why I was a bit sensitive about posting, one of our forum members is a judge of the prize this year, although of the Debut Novel one.

I just discovered the polari last year, and was really looking forward to it.

This seems like such a baffling decision. I was all prepared to find a storm in a waterglas, but this nomination is truly ridiculous. Where have we arrived that TERF stands for a legitimate difference of opinion? Are we getting bi-phobic nominees next?

Even without the political climate changing so rapidly in the UK and the US for Trans people, this would be hard to understand, but as it is, the political message seems confused. I feel sad for all - authors and judges - caught up in this.

Yikes, X is such a foul platform. The replies to the Polari tweet are a pit of horrors.

X/twitter makes me unsettled (reason why I left social media except this one). So many opinionated warrior keyboards with no sensibility or interest in understanding. Sad to see Nicola getting attacked for a position she made for herself, not Boyne.

Equally I see Paul Burston who founded the prize getting attacked, which feels wrong.

I think it is wrong, Paul. It should have been a heated conversation (as in the Women's Prize this year), but cancel culture is brutal. It is a PR failure, but hopefully they can control some of the backlash, as the Prize is important. I wonder if Dinan's decision to leave was sudden or if she raised her concern internally, and then decided to leave.

So I had to look up what the acronym TERF stood for to have any idea what the issue is. I agree with Paul that "Generally I’d say a writer’s views shouldn’t disqualify them from a prize." I mostly do not reject a book because of an author's position on something but admit it has happened. Carl is right about "cancel culture."