Julia Armfield wins Polari Prize 2023
Julia Armfield's debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea (Picador) was named winner of the overall Polari prize for 2023. Our Wives Under the Sea (Picador) tells the story of Leah, who unexpectedly returns from a disastrous deep-sea dive, and her wife, Miri, who grapples with the ways Leah changed while under water. The novel “opens up what we believe is possible from queer writing,” said judge Joelle Taylor, who won last year’s prize for C+nto & Othered Poems, which explores butch lesbian counterculture in London. “It is a strange, speculative, poetic and thrilling novel – a heart turner as much as a page turner.”
Organisers said: “This year, both winning titles explore complex landscapes and elusive narratives that ask the reader to imagine all possibilities, build new stories and inspire hope; expanding on what LGBTQ+ literature can be.”
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