queer cartoonist David Shentonautobiographical graphic novel forty lies Longlisted for the 2024 UK LGBTQIA+ Literary Polari Book Prize. The book, published by Knockabout, brings together around 40 personal stories and memories from the 70-year-old author.
Jury for 2024 Polari Book Awards includes last year’s winning authors Julia Armfieldliterary critic Suze Fayhead of cultural department Chris Gribblewriter and comedian VG Leewith author and founder of Polari Paul Burston Serve as Chairman. Shortlists for the prize will be announced in September and the winner will be announced at a ceremony at the British Library in London on 29 November. The winning author will receive £2,000 (approximately US$2,500).
The summary is forty lies Describe this book:
“The book’s charade, a vague chronological patchwork of forty (or so) personal stories, has not been subjected to much factual scrutiny, but after the test of “Coming Out, the Times”, it is true and Honest. Friends, outrageous and outrageous, fun, sex, scenes, love, equal marriage and bereavement… this is my history, this is the history of every 70-year-old gay man in Britain today. Forty Lies = Life Story, basically, a comic book with a knitting pattern.
David Shenton is a British cartoonist and illustrator whose work focuses on queerness and queer issues. He has been creating comics since the 1970s, originally published in periodicals gay news, heand capital gay. He contributed to Fantagraphic’s 2012 anthology No Straight Lines: Forty Years of Queer Comics – and in 1987 stripping aids From Willyprods/Small Time Ink and 1988 Ah! (Artists speak out against rampant government homophobia) From crazy love.
Founded in 2007, Polari is a UK-based literary salon for award-winning LGBTQIA+ writers and performers. Since 2011, Polari has had its own annual literary awards, the longest-running of which is the Polari First Book Award for debut authors. The other two awards are the broader Polari Book Prize in 2019 and the biennial Polari Children/Youth Prize in 2022.
Comics have yet to find a place in the Polari Awards, but some progress has been made: Steven Applebyof actor – Published in 2020 by Jonathan Cape, UK and Metropolitan Books, US – Shortlisted for the 2021 Polari Prize; and Kate Charlesworthof Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide – An illustrated guide to lesbian and queer history 1950-2020 (Myriad Editions, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 Inaugural Book Award. To date, no one has been shortlisted for the Polari Children/Youth Award.
related
