Irish author John Boyne at centre of Polari Prize storm

The longlists for the 2025 Polari Prizes, announced on August 1, feature several African and African-descended writers. But what should have been a celebration of LGBTQ+ literature has instead become one of the most divisive moments in the award’s 15-year history.

The controversy centres on Earth, a novella in John Boyne’s The Elements series, which explores sexual abuse from different perspectives. Boyne, the Irish author behind The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, is one of the most commercially successful and widely read writers today.

He has publicly criticised aspects of transgender activism and gender identity politics, arguing that certain policies and demands have undermined the rights of women and gay people, particularly lesbians, by eroding sex-based protections and redefining same-sex attraction: “My ideology around the trans subject has never shifted, and it’s very simple and clear … I think if the rights of women come in conflict with the rights of trans women, then I think the rights of women have to take precedence.”

The Polari Prize was founded in 2011 by author and activist Paul Burston to recognise books by or about LGBTQ+ people published in the UK and Ireland. It has three categories: the Polari First Book Prize for debuts; the Polari Book Prize for works at any career stage except debuts; and the Polari Children’s and Young Adult Prize. Past winners include Angela Chadwick, Saleem Haddad and Jon Ransom, who won both the First Book and Book of the Year prizes in successive years. This year’s judging panel was chaired by Burston with Lou Morgan, Jon Ransom, Nicola Dinan and book blogger Bob Hughes.

A record number of submissions were received this year. Among the nominees are African writers Olumide Popoola (Like Water Like Sea), Jackie Kay (May Day) and Dean Atta (Person Unlimited) for the Polari Book Prize, and Jason Okundaye (Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain) and Mae Diansangu (Bloodsongs) for the First Book Prize.

Popoola’s novel follows Nia, a queer naturopath in London, a decade after her sister’s death, as she navigates grief, love and identity in a lyrical exploration of mental illness, motherhood and queer desire. Kay’s politically charged poetry spans decades of activism, from Black Lives Matter to feminist marches, with tributes to figures such as Audre Lorde and Angela Davis.

Atta’s candid memoir blends poetry and prose to reflect on life as a choirboy, drag performer and poet, exploring trauma, joy and radical self-acceptance. Okundaye’s debut offers an oral history of seven black gay men who shaped queer Britain from the 1970s, capturing a community forged in resistance to racism, homophobia and the Aids crisis.

Diansangu’s poetry fuses English and northeast Scots to explore queer carnality, black rage, colonialism and grief through mythic retellings.

The inclusion of Boyne on the longlist has sparked protest. Ten nominated authors withdrew their works: Okundaye, Diansangu, Sacha Coward, Sanah Ahsan, Amy Twigg, Ciara Maguire, Popoola, Robert Hamberger, Andrew McMillan and Rhian Elizabeth. Judges Dinan and Hughes also resigned. Some nominees, including Avi Ben-Zeev, chose to remain while criticising the decision.

In a statement, the Polari organisers said Boyne’s Earth — a novella about a woman confronting the man who abused her as a child — was selected on literary merit and that the prize did not exclude books based on the author’s wider views: “The Polari Prize is awarded to books in a spirit of celebration of the work and the stories they tell. We have always cherished freedom of expression in our determination to find our voice both as writers and readers. It is inevitable, given the challenges we face and the diversity of the lived experience we now represent under the LGBTQ+ Polari umbrella, that even within our community, we can at times hold radically different positions on substantive issues. This is one of those times.”

Books are one of the best ways to tackle difficult subjects, and this row is really about whether an author’s politics should block their work from recognition. Sidelining a prominent gay male writer from a prize meant to promote LGBTQ+ stories narrows the space for difference. Censorship solves nothing. Once we start judging books by ideological checklists, we shrink what we can read, write and think. Prizes such as Polari should be where clashing perspectives meet and arguments happen. If you want to challenge an idea, the answer is better ideas, not silencing the author.

The winners of the Polari Prize will be announced on November 27 at the British Library in London.

The complete longlists are:

Polari First Book Prize