Polari at Hastings Book Festival

Award-winning LGBTQ literary salon returns to Hastings for the Book Festival.

Hosted by local author Paul Burston with special guests:

Alice Denny - Brighton based performance poet and judge for the Polari Prize 2026

Dillon Jaxx - Bexhill based poet with their debut poetry collection 'like starlings falling'.

Simon Maddrell - whose debut book ‘lamping wild rabbits' is long-listed in the 2026 Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection. 

John McCullough - winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2012, back with his new poetry collection ‘Crowd Voltage’