Queer Brit publisher INKANDESCENT kicks off 2025 with Nathan Evans’ new book ALL THE YOUNG QUEERS

Queerguru’s fav Brit queer publishers Inkandescent are kicking off 2025 with a fab debut collection of short fiction by Nathan Evans, who was previously longlisted for the prestigious Polari Prize for his novella One Last Son.

All The Young Queers 16-24 years old include the story of a  young queer who goes on their first protest. Another goes up to Oxford and finds first love. One seeks connection in submission. Another young queer discovers their superpower. Spanning metrosexual metropolises and unknown universes, from the end-of-the-twentieth-century to the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, these tender tales explore issues from climate-crisis to chemsex; they are told with humour and inventiveness

Evans is actually one half of Inkandescent which he founded in 2016 with Justin David to shine a light on writers underrepresented in mainstream publishing. Publications include: AutoFellatio by James Maker, winner of the inaugural Polari First Book Prize; The Pale Ones by Bartholomew Bennett, which The Guardian called an ‘impressive debut’, The Pharmacist by Justin David, who Times Literary Supplement described as ‘a singular voicein gay literature’; Address Book by Neil Bartlett, an Observer Book of the Year 2021; Mainstream anthology of diverse stories with writers including Kit de Waal. They were a finalist for Small Press of the Year in the British Book Awards 2022.

Evans own  poetry has been published by Fourteen Poems, BrokenSleep, Dead Ink, Impossible Archetype, Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Society of Literature. His collection Threads was long-listed for the Polari First Book Prize, his second collection CNUT is published by Inkandescent. He was long-listed for the 2020 Live Canon Poetry Competition and shortlisted for the Carlo Annoni Prize 2020 for play SwanSong.