Polari: Celebrating LGBTQ+ writing talent – HYBRID EVENT

Enjoy fabulous performances from a diverse and talented line-up of LGBTQ+ writers. Hosted by author and journalist Paul Burston, the evening will feature readings from novelist Juliet Armfield who won the 2023 Polari Prize, novelist Paul David Gould, and poet and novelist Andrew McMillan.  

Event starts at 7pm with a 15-minute break, approx finish time 8.45pm. Followed at 9pm by Out + Loud LGBTQ+ open mic. 

 

About Polari Founded by author and journalist Paul Burston in a bar in Soho in 2007, award-winning literary salon Polari showcases and celebrates the best in LGBTQ+ poetry and writing. The Polari Prize is the UK’s only book prize for LGBTQ+ writing. It comprises three awards: Book of the Year, Debut book and children’s/YA prize. 

Paul Burston is curator and host of award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari and founder of the Polari Prize book awards for LGBTQ+ writers. In 2016, he featured in the British Council’s Global List of ‘33 visionary people promoting freedom, equality and LGBT rights around the world’. Paul is the author of six novels and five non-fiction books, and the editor of two short-story collections. His bestselling memoir We Can Be Heroes: A Survivor’s Story was published in 2023. 

Julia Armfield is a fiction writer who lives in London with her girlfriend who is fine and their cat who is garbage. Her work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020. Her debut novel, Our Wives Under the Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and won the Polari Prize 2023. 

Paul David Gould grew up in Huddersfield and graduated from the University of Birmingham with a First in Russian. After graduation, he spent four years in the former Soviet Union, which is where he made his start in journalism. Now working as a sub-editor on the Financial Times Weekend section, Paul still occasionally writes about Russia. Paul’s first novel Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants was published by Unbound Firsts in 2023. 

Andrew McMillan’s multi-award-winning debut collection physical is the only poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award. His second collection playtime (2018) won the inaugural Polari Prize, followed by a third collection pandemonium (2021) and 100 Queer Poems (2022), an acclaimed anthology he edited with Mary Jean Chan. His debut novel Pity (2024) spans three generations of a South Yorkshire mining family. He is Professor of Contemporary Writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

 

HYBRID EVENT – this is a Hybrid event, which can be attended in person at the venue or accessed online. Simply select the Live or Online ticket link for your preferred event viewing. For online access a link will be sent to you the day before the event takes place. 

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.  

 

Date: Saturday 27 April 

Time: 7pm-8.45pm 

Venue: Small Seeds, Castlegate (New Street junction), HD1 2UD 

Tickets: In-person £8 (£5 conc) free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers, Online £3

Age Guidance: 16+ 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/small-seeds  

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TO ATTEND IN PERSON: Book LIVE tickets

TO ATTEND ONLINE: Book ONLINE tickets