Souhami, Zaidi win 2021 Polari Prizes

In the UK, writers Diana Souhami and Mohsin Zaidi have won the 2021 Polari Prizes for work that explores the LGBT experience, reports the Bookseller.

Souhami won the £2000 (A$3642) Polari Prize for her biography No Modernism Without Lesbians (Head of Zeus), which was described by judges as ‘a bold, fresh new look at the early 20th-century cultural canon through the lens of four lesbians: Sylvia Beach, Bryher, Natalie Barney and Gertrude Stein … their lives and work became central to fostering the Modernist movement in interwar Paris’.

Zaidi won the £1000 (A$1821) Polari First Book Prize for his memoir A Dutiful Boy (Square Peg), which judges described as ‘a moving and ultimately uplifting account of his experiences as a young boy in denial about his sexuality’.

The winners were chosen from shortlists announced earlier this year.

Category: International news