Todd and Haddad among Polari shortlistees…
Matthew Todd, Bantam author and award-winning editorial director of gay magazine Attitude, is among the six authors shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize, awarded annually to a writer whose first book (whether poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction) explores what it is to be LGBT.
This year’s “eclectic” shortlist, spanning crime fiction, short story and memoir, was revealed on Monday evening (31st July) at the Polari Literary Salon in London’s Southbank Centre. It brings together three male and three female writers, hailing from Kuwait to Cardiff, whose work was said by the judges to offer a range of perspectives on the LGBT experience.
Todd (pictured), currently editorial director of Attitude, is shortlisted for Straight Jacket (Bantam). The book explores why statistics show a disproportionate number of gay people suffer from mental health problems and offers advice how to overcome difficult issues.
Joining him on the shortlist are Chitra Ramaswamy, Saleem Haddad, Jules Grant, Crystal Jeans, and Orlando Ortega-Medina.
Haddad is shortlisted for Guapa (Europa Editions UK), the story of a young gay man set in a post-Arab Spring dictatorship in the Middle East over the course of one day, highlighted as part of W H Smith Travel’s gay literature promotion to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.
Ramaswamy is shortlisted for Expecting (Saraband), a memoir about the author’s experience of pregnancy while in a relationship with another woman.
