Shortlists on shortlists: part 5 - Jake Hall

We asked the writers shortlisted for the 2025 Bread and Roses Award to recommend a book which has been shortlisted for the award in the last five years - and we're thrilled to share their thoughts in the coming weeks, before we announce the winner of the award on 15th September (click the link to join us for the online event)!

Our fifth blog post comes from Jake Hall, author of the extraordinary Shoulder to Shoulder: A Queer History of Solidarity, Coalition and Chaos. Shoulder to Shoulder is about the power of solidarity across queer movements, detailing how marginalised activists have always worked together in their pursuit of joint liberation.

Here is Jake’s contribution...

The last two years have been a whirlwind, but the greatest gift they’ve given me is new insight into radical publishing. I’ve travelled to independent bookshops across the country to promote Shoulder to Shoulder, and the conversations I’ve had along the way have filled me with hope, rage and joy. Most importantly, they’ve made me determined to keep writing; as far-right movements worldwide continue to rise, we cannot stop.

The Bread & Roses Prize has always guided my reading lists. I love that it’s a celebration not just of left-wing publishing, but of books that are funny, accessible and thought-provoking. The writing feels driven by personality and genuine curiosity, a labour of love by critical thinkers trying to make sense of the ever-changing shitshow that is the 21st century.

Afropean helped me understand how race and class have shaped the history of my own home city, Sheffield, as well as how racism and racial identity are constructed across Europe. Divided shaped so much of my understanding around what it would really look like to meaningfully decolonise healthcare. This Arab is Queer challenged and expanded my understanding of queerness, humanising people we rarely see represented.

I think increasingly of radical publishing as an ecosystem. We need the visionary writers, but we also need the passionate booksellers, and the publishers willing to take risks on books which challenge mainstream discourse of hatred and division.

It’s a tough time to be a visibly marginalised political writer — just last week, I learned that church groups across Kentucky were the latest to try and ban my first book, The Art of Drag, from their local library catalogues. But this culture war isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. Despite countless attempts at suppression, there’s an excellent legacy of radical publishing offering words of wisdom to guide us through the chaos. It will not disappear.