Authentic LGBTQ+ literature has never been more important and the Polari Prize addresses this directly. The UK's first and only prize for LGBTQ+ literature, established to promote writing that explores the LGBTQ+ experience announced it's 2022 winners this evening, the 15th November following a shortlist showcase event in their new home at The British Library. 

The Polari First Book Prize is awarded annually to a debut that explores the LGBTQ+ experience whereas The Polari Prize celebrates an overall book of the year, excluding debuts. 

This year, the winner of the Polari First Book Prize is Adam Zmith with his debut Deep Sniff (Repeater Books). Described by our Expert Reviewer as "celebratory in spirit, and personal in perspective" this book explores the history of poppers and their relation to gay male subculture. In Deep Sniff, Zmith scours the archives in order to create a rich account of this under-acknowledged drug as well as the lives of those who use it, with an expansive popular history of desire across time. 

The 2022 Polari Prize has been awarded to Joelle Taylor for C+nto & Othered Poems. Taylor's new collecton of poems explores sexuality and gender as well as the female body as a political space in lyrical, expensive, imagisitc and intimate poetry. C+nto & Othered Poems has also been named by Bernadine Evaristo as her Book of the Year in the New Statesman. 

Both of this year's winners highlight the importance of clubland in providing a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community to be their true selves. The books also explore what their true selves may look like and acknowledge that one may still feel marginalised within the LGBTQ+ community.