Woodgate and Smyth shortlisted for inaugural Polari Children's Prize

The inaugural shortlist for the Polari Prize’s Children’s and YA Category features Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winners Harry Woodgate and Ciara Smyth.

The shortlist was announced at independent children’s bookshop The Book Nook in Hove on 10th September. 

The Polari Prize is the UK’s only book award to honour LGBTQ+ writing.

Woodgate is shortlisted for Grandad’s Camper (Andersen), which won the Illustrated category at the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize earlier this year. It was joined by Smyth’s Not My Problem (Andersen) which triumphed in the Older Readers’ category.

They were joined by Nen and the Lonely Fisherman by Ian Eagleton and James Mayhew (Owlet Press), The Accidental Diary of B.U.G by Jen Carney (Puffin) and Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar (Hodder).

The shortlist whittled 12 longlisted books to five, and was decided by a panel of judges made up of children’s librarians Liz Chapman, Emerson Milford Dickson and Zoey Dixon, and founder of inclusive book subscription box company Little Box of Books Lynsey Pollard, together with Jodie Lancet-Grant.

The shortlists for the Polari Prize and the Polari First Book Prize were announced earlier this month. All three category winners will be announced at a ceremony at the British Library on 15th November.