Polari Prizes 2024 Awarded

Returning to the British Library, Nicola Dinan, Jon Ransom and Sarah Hagger-Holt were announced as the winners of the 2024 Polari Prizes at a sparkling winners’ ceremony.

Nicola Dinan took home the Polari First Book Prize for her tale of young love and transformation Bellies (Penguin), Jon Ransom received the Polari Book Prize for his story of a tense and mesmerising love triangle The Gallopers (Muswell Press), making him the first ever winner of two successive Polari Prizes, and Sarah Hagger-Holt was awarded the bi-annual Polari Children’s and YA Prize for The Fights That Make Us (Usborne), a heart-warming tale of acceptance which draws on LGBTQ+ history.

This year, both adult winning titles have love stories at their hearts and central plot points of theatre, with unforgettable characters pushing the boundaries of what LGBTQ fiction can offer. 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 Jon Ransom.