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Posted in: Comics | Tagged: kate chalsworth, polari, sensible footwear
Kate Charlesworth on Polari-Nominated Sensible Footwear Graphic Novel
The Polari Prize is the UK's only book prize for LGBTQ writing. Established in 2007, in the upstairs room of a bar in Soho, London, before growing and growing to taking over the Southbank Centre, there are now two awards – for emerging and established writers. The longlist for this year's Polari First Book Prize was announced on June 23rd and the shortlist will be announced on July 31st. They invited the nominees to give us a taste of their books, and that included Kate Charlesworth talking about her graphic novel Sensible Footwear published by Myriad. Winners get a £1000 prize and a lot of publicitz. Fingers crossed for Kate…
Sensible Footwear is a glorious political and personal history that gives Pride a run for its money; but, like Pride, it wears its heart at the centre, making the invisible visible, and celebrating lesbian lives from the domestic to the diva. Before today's LGBTQI universe expanded from the Big Bang of Stonewall, postwar Britain was like so much of the world today, hostile towards and virtually in denial (and worse) to anything we might now call queer. In 1950 male homosexuality carried a custodial sentence; blackmail, violence and the fear of exposure were ever-present. Female homosexuality had never been an offence in the UK, effectively rendering lesbians even more invisible than they already were – often to themselves. Most who knew they were 'different', or came to that realisation later on, often felt they were the only ones to feel that way. Growing up in the North was a rich and colourful experience for Kate Charlesworth, but at the time there were very few signposts to difference. Like countless other girls and women, Kate took what role models were on offer, and failing that, made them up, in the spirit of that classic old dyke joke: 'What do lesbians use?' 'Their imagination…'
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