London's multi award-winning LGBTQ literary salon rocks up at Tunbridge Wells Literature Festival.
Hosted by author Paul Burston with guests Jake Arnott, Dillon Jaxx and VG Lee.
There will also be a creative writing workshop earlier in the day where one participant will be invited to join the bill.
Jake Arnott is the author of eight novels. His bestselling debut The Long Firm was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was adapted as a BAFTA award-winning BBC drama. His latest, Blood Rival, a psychological thriller based on the Oedipus myth was a The Times Book of the Month for October 2025, where it was described it as ‘viscerally entertaining.’
Paul Burston is the author of six novels and six non-fiction books and the editor of two short story collections.
He hosts the award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari and is the founder of The Polari Prize book awards for LGBTQ+ writers.
His bestselling memoir We Can Be Heroes was described by Russell T. Davies as “brutally honest” and by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo as “a compelling and hugely enjoyable memoir about a fearless life lived to the full.”
Dillon Jaxx is a queer, chronically ill writer. Their work explores the aftermath of trauma and grief, as well as the meaning of home, identity and language. Their work has been published in Poetry Wales, Magma, Poetry Ireland Review and The Alchemy Spoon amongst others. Dillon has been placed in numerous competitions and won the Rebecca Swift Writing Prize 2022, the Brotherton prize 2024, the Wolverhampton poetry competition 2024, the Live Canon International Poetry Competition 2025, the Artemisia Arts Prize 2025. Their debut poetry collection is being published by Nine Arches this summer.
VG Lee is the award-winning author of five novels and two short story collections, including Always You, Edina and Oh You Pretty Thing. Her sixth novel is the psychological thriller Our Shadow Selves, which was published by Muswell Press in March 2026.
Part of the Polari Prize 15th Birthday Showcase, funded by Arts Council England.