Polari Print: UCL undergraduates open LGBT publishing house

Photography by Daria Mosolova

Daria Mosolova chats to Harry Mizumoto and Elliot Smith, UCL students that have teamed up to open an LGBT publishing house.

It’s a surprising fact that in 2020, a progressive capital like London saw the opening of the UK’s only publishing house dedicated to intertextual LGBTQ+ writing, Polari Print. More surprising yet is that at the forefront of this venture stand two UCL undergraduates, Harry Mizumoto and Elliot Smith, who founded the establishment after completing the first year of their Comparative Literature studies.

In the 20th century, London was the crucible of queer literary tradition, home to the likes of Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, and T.S. Eliot. This reputation seems incongruous with the lack of queer literary platforms in Britain today, in comparison with the rest of Europe and the United States, where the phenomenon has long been widespread. The limited number of specialised publishers that did briefly exist were either bought out by larger companies or went out of business altogether, such as Gay Men’s Press, which closed down in 2006.

Polari seeks to correct the deficit, by establishing a platform on which the community can interact, gain opportunities, and share experiences. “The problem that we see in Britain is that there is no connection between different queer people. We are all really fighting for the same thing so we might as well start talking to each other,” remarks Elliot.

Derived from Italian parlare, polari is the name of a slang language used by the British LGBT community in the years pre-1969 decriminalisation of homosexuality. The purpose of the language was to provide a way for people to communicate without being apprehended by the police and the general public at the time when homosexuality was persecuted. “We decided to use this name because the idea of communication amongst queer people was really important to us, as well as the history of both persecution and rights and liberation,” explains Elliot.

Initially envisaged as a private company, the students are now hoping to establish Polari Print as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). This differs from the former as in order to register as a CIO, one must prove that the organisation serves the public good. Being a nonprofit, all surplus earnings must be used to fund the philanthropic purpose of the charity, instead of being divided between shareholders. When developing their business model in the summer of 2019, Harry and Elliot attended UCL’s “Launch a business startup” programme, although they were among the few humanities undergraduates to participate. “It was really odd because they were all working in AI and machine learning and we were the sole art kids in this group,” says Harry.

Aiming to reestablish a centralised core of the capital’s queer community, Polari Print are seeking to diversify their work by holding events and workshops alongside the publishing process. In the upcoming weeks, the charity will be hosting the launch of their zine as well as a workshop in collaboration with The Outside Project, a UK organisation tackling LGBT homelessness. The venture has attracted additional members to join the publishing team, including Seren John-Wood who is now in charge of design and events, as well as Natacia Qi who manages social media and marketing.

Photography by Daria Mosolova

Now, the publishing house receives submissions under the subdivisions of contemporary writing by underrepresented queer authors, as well as classic texts that have been locked away in archives in the time before decriminalisation. “We were contacted by a PhD student who has just received a stack of lesbian diaries written by this woman who worked as a nurse in 1800s,” Harry says of their latest classics submission. 

This account of a lesbian nurse’s life is recorded in an outdated version Pitman’s shorthand, an abbreviated symbolic form of written English. Having been locked away in a church for decades, the manuscript was passed on by a priest to the PhD student, who now faces the task of decoding the text. Polari are looking to release the translated version of the Lesbian Diaries this summer.

In addition, Polari are working on a triennial zine, the upcoming issue of which is themed ‘Yesterday’. Directing focus at the queer past of London, the release of the issue appropriately falls in February - LGBT history month. Elliot, who volunteers at multiple LGBT archive projects in the city, has spent significant time recuperating literary works that have been neglected by the public eye. “I’ve looked into a lot of really old lesbian, gay and trans works and thought that they would be an interesting springboard from which to write about queer history. So we have liberated these from some of the archives and are going to have contemporary pieces alongside them,” he explains. The following zine issues will carry on the trend, concerned with themes of ‘Today’ and ‘Tomorrow’.

According to the National LGBT Survey carried out by the UK Government in 2019, only 56% on the respondents claimed to feel comfortable being LGBT in the country. When asked about how this might relate to a lack of cultural representation, Harry explains: “There are identities that haven't been talked about as much, like asexuals, trans identities, gender queer people, people who don't really fit into either male or female and that is something that I personally struggled with going to an all-girls school in Tokyo.” 

According to Harry, the LGBT representation available today suffers from being profit driven, as once the queer identity becomes aligned with the capitalistic agenda, it only perpetuates stereotypical narratives. “It’s supposed to be something that is aseptic and clean and the reality is quite different. I kind of see the world through literature so it would have been helpful for me to find representation in a book.” they added.

Among multiple money-making publishing corporations, Polari Print stands out as it privileges their cause over monetary gain. Striving to establish a cutting-edge, inclusive source of queer narratives that have previously been deemed ‘risky’ by the industry, it’s a humanitarian venture that indicates the presence of progressive thought at UCL, and London by extension.

This article was amended on 29th February 2020.