UPCOMING EVENTS
Welcome to our events page.
Unless stated otherwise, all events occur in
Desperate Literature, Calle de la Cava Baja 8, Madrid,
and are not ticketed!
If you would like to host and event with us or rent our space,
please email events@desperateliterature.com
ALL THE DETAILS ON RENTING OUR SPACE
Semana de Irlanda
con Eimear McBride
BILINGÜAL EVENT
Wednesday 11th March
19h30
CASA DEL LECTOR (MATADERO)
Celebramos la Semana de Irlanda con Eimear McBride e Impedimenta Editorial en una lectura y conversación bilingüe con el editor Enrique Redel.
Presentado por Desperate Literature y Tourism Ireland. Disfrutaremos de lecturas en inglés y español.
La conversación será bilingüe.
We celebrate Semana de Irlanda with Eimear McBride and Impedimenta Editorial for a bilingual reading and discussion with editor Enrique Redel.
Presented by Desperate Literature and Tourism Ireland. Readings in English and Spanish. Discussion in English.
Eimear McBride es una de las voces más poderosas e innovadoras de la actual narrativa en lengua inglesa. Un auténtico clásico moderno.
EVENT HELD WITH:
Tourism Ireland
Impedimenta Editorial
La Casa del Lector (Matadero)
Hipocondría / Hypocondria
with WILL REES
BILINGÜAL READING
conversation in English
Wednesday 18th March
20h00
“Everyone must read this book.” – Lucia Osborne-Crowley
“Extraordinary and utterly compelling.” – Adam Phillips
“An almost impossible balancing act.” – Merve Emre
“Part philosophical treatise, part memoir, part history, Rees’s genre-bending meditation on hypochondria references everyone from Freud to Kafka to Seinfeld in a provocative search to find out why, exactly, we believe we’re sick.” – The New York Times
A free-wheeling philosophical essay, Hypochondria combines incisive contemporary cultural critique, colourful literary history, and the author’s own experience of chronic health anxiety to ask what we might learn from the hypochondriac’s discomforting experience of their body. Hypochondria is expansive in its range of references, from the writings of Franz Kafka to original yet accessible readings of theorists like Lauren Berlant. Whether he is discussing Seinfeld, John Donne, or his own past, Rees reveals himself to be a wry and perceptive critic, exploring the causes – and the costs – of our desire for certainty.
FERAL NATURE
a one-day workshop
with JOAN FLEMING
Saturday 21st March (rescheduled)
€75
(10h30 – 18h00)
In this one-day writing workshop, award-winning author Joan Fleming will lead playful and generative exercises that invite absurdity, indecorum, and the ridiculous into your writing, via our focus on the natural world.
Expect to spend the day doing close-readings of marvellous short texts across fiction, poetry, and non-fiction; engaging in dynamic group discussion and brainstorming; and going inwards periods of quiet, focussed writing where you respond to a series of prompts designed to get you thinking differently about the possibilities of the page – and the possibilities of our fragile, strange, entangled connections with everything on earth that isn’t us.
The day will include:
- Morning session 90 minutes
- Break for coffee
- Late morning session 90 minutes
- Long lunch break with option for a menú del día with the group
- Afternoon session 120 minutes
Full Description:
Joan’s approach to writing workshops is to create an inviting, inclusive, dynamic container where we can think new thoughts together in a safe space for experimentation, and for sharing freshly generated work. Themes might include: our strange relationship with animals; blurring supposedly hard boundaries between the human and non-human; leaning into our feral inheritance; the curious intelligence of wild nature; and the grief that arises when we contemplate wild nature in deep trouble.
By the end of the day:
Expect to come away with three new pieces drafted, to revise, refine, and expand.
Joan’s particular interest is in taking your standard “nature writing” – i.e.., the call of the wild geese! awe! transcendence! – and getting a little weird with it. A little irreverent. A little absurd. Come and connect with the wild, the odd, the sad, the animal, the uncanny, the broken, and the eco-absurd.
About Joan:
Joan Fleming is an award-winning author from Australia/Aotearoa. Her debut novel The Fig Book — a darkly funny madcap ecological folktale — is forthcoming with Mariner in the US and Allen & Unwin in Australia/NZ. In 2025 she was the Kaipukahu Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato. Her honors include the Biggs Poetry Prize, the Verge Prize for Poetry, the Harri Jones Memorial Prize from the Hunter Writers’ Centre, a Creative New Zealand writing fellowship, and a residency with the Michael King Writers’ Centre. She has been teaching creative writing at Antipodean universities for over a decade.
Casa Poética Open Mic
with special guest
Inés Martínez (Libero editorial)
Sunday 22nd March
17h30 – 20h00
Join the participants of our poetry discussion group @casapoetica.madrid in an open mic session!
Spanish poet @irene_torra will host this poetic afternoon, where guest poet Inés Martínez (Libero editorial) will share their experience of running a publishing house.
We’ll then open the mic and you can read your own poetry, a text by a poet you like, or simply join us and enjoy the readings.
This is a bilingual event (esp/eng) but ALL languages are welcome!
Please make sure to book your spot, as spaces are limited.
Cost €5
Drinks included!
‘Fresh Rhubbarb’
an evening of new fiction
headlined by Robert Loyko-Greer
Sat 28th
20h00
Robert Loyko-Greer is a co-founder of the Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize, and the co-editor, with Kate Ellis, of 22 Fictions: New Writing from Desperate Literature and Brick Lane Bookshop (CHEERIO Publishing). He works in London for Profile Books and their literary imprint Serpent’s Tail.
Reading an extract from his first novel, which features the disintegration of reality at an aviation safety conference.
MORE READERS PENDING!
QUIZ NIGHT
an absurd and magnificent evening
with Dom Czapla
Mon 30th March
19h30
More info coming soon, but keep your eyes out because these ridiculous evenings got us through the pandemic and now they’re back for one time only!
PAST EVENTS
PAJARO AZUL
a night of literary mythmaking
Mon 23rd February
20h
Lanzamos la sexta edición de la revista Pajaro Azul: el mito!
En esta revista hemos recopilado la creación de muchas artistas que, en cada una de sus disciplinas, han aportado su visión sobre este concepto. Hay mitos re-interpretados, nuevas cosmologías, mundos apocalípticos y mitos de los de siempre. Unos cuantos relatos, mucha ilustración, una sección de fotografía, poesía, y otras cositas.
El equipo:
Pájaro Azul es un colectivo artístico. Lanzamos revistas monotemáticas, cada muchos meses (a veces son años) y también organizamos talleres de escritura, collage, eventos y fiestas donde nos juntamos para crear juntas.
El grupo surgió en Madrid pero se ha ido expandiendo por la península y ahora tenemos pájaros desde Lisboa hasta Barcelona, pasando por Donosti y la Sierra de Gredos.
En cada una de las revistas, los diferentes artístas que participan en cada edición, proyectan el enfoque desde su disciplina. Ilustrando, escribiendo, a través de la fotografía o la poesía… Todas estas creaciones se recogen en una publicación física. La revista que ahora puede llegar hasta tu casa.
The Fig Book
fiction from visiting author Joan Fleming
Sat 21st February
20h
Join us for a reading from Joan Fleming’s forthcoming debut novel The Fig Book, a darkly funny, madcap ecological folktale about a newly engaged couple house-sitting for a wealthy artist in a grand, remote house, whose relationship unravels into a wonderfully absurdist romp that quickly descends into elemental darkness.
The Fig Book is forthcoming with Mariner (US) and Allen & Unwin (Au + NZ).
—
Joan Fleming is an award-winning author from Australia/Aotearoa. Her debut novel The Fig Book — a darkly funny madcap ecological folktale — is forthcoming with Mariner in the US and Allen & Unwin in Australia/NZ. In 2025 she was the Kaipukahu Writer in Residence at the University of Waikato. Her honors include the Biggs Poetry Prize, the Verge Prize for Poetry, the Harri Jones Memorial Prize from the Hunter Writers’ Centre, a Creative New Zealand writing fellowship, and a residency with the Michael King Writers’ Centre. She has been teaching creative writing at Antipodean universities for over a decade.
Three Women:
a radio play by Sylvia Plath
Fri 20th February
20h
A live version of the poem in three voices that Sylvia Plath wrote and was first performed on BBC radio in 1962. It follows the life of three women who enter a maternity ward to give birth, all with differing expectations and differing results.
This performance builds on the strength of the Plath‘s verses and respectfully adds movement and staging to the recital.
Performed by Violeta de Benito, Anya Izyumova, and Marián Martínez Mondéjar.
Directed by Rafael Carvajal
—
Violeta de Benito was born in Madrid in 1998 and grew up in a small town southeast of the city. She has been writing stories, diaries, and poetry since childhood, but it wasn’t until her early twenties that she began writing seriously. Her poetry is visceral, filled with intense and passionate imagery that explores themes such as mental illness, rural spirituality, and bodily pain. She was part of the Sexta Generación de Nuevas Miradas by Plataforma Placa in 2019 and has contributed to several magazines from the publisher-turcollective Ojos de Sol. At the end of 2020, she joined Ojos de Sol as a member, presenter, and organizer of poetry events. In early 2021, she became coordinator of the Youth Section of Editorial Ultramarina. In February of this year, she was selected to be part of an anthology of witch-themed poetry by Mariposa Ediciones. Currently, she balances her writing with her work in early childhood education, where she explores language acquisition from a young age and investigates new poetic uses of language with oneself and in relation to others, both children and adults.
Anya Izyumova was born in the Soviet Union in 1987, she experienced a profound sense of displacement when her mother took her to live in the United Kingdom at the age of seven. She later moved to Spain at 22, where she met her podenco daughter, Kira (or Koshka). She works as an English teacher while pursuing her literary dreams. She began reading and writing poetry in her childhood and writes in the three languages of her three countries. In 2026, her work will be published in an anthology by Factor Literario. Sylvia Plath was one of the first poets to inspire her, and she brings that sensitivity to Plath’s work in this performance.
Marián Martínez Mondéjar, also known by her poetic pseudonym Maryam Luna, is a Spanish poet, journalist, singer-songwriter, and composer of flamenco and world music. A graduate in Journalism from the European University of Madrid, she researched and wrote the manuscript Mihrimah Sultan: The Power of the Sultanas, which explores and challenges stereotypes of Muslim women. As a poet, she began writing at a young age and has participated in Madrid’s most prominent poetry readings, both in the underground scene and in more academic and international events. She created the internationally renowned blog 1000 Vidas y 100 Lunas (1000 Lives and 100 Moons), which has garnered thousands of visits in over 70 countries. As a composer, she composed and produced Desde Jaipur hasta Istanbul (From Jaipur to Istanbul), an unreleased recording (2022) that includes some of the lyrics from this collection, such as “Oro y Canela” (Gold and Cinnamon) and “Tangos de la Luna Nueva” (Tangos of the New Moon).
The Crib and Other Stories
celebrating Albertine Sarrazin
with Sonya Moor
Fri 13th February
20h
We present the previously untranslated stories for the first time in Madrid, celebrating the works and live of Albertine Sarrazin with her translator, Sonya Moor.
Her translation of Albertine Sarrazin’s The Crib and Other Stories is published by Cōnfingō, as is her collection The Comet and Other Stories.
Her stories are widely published in literary reviews and anthologies, including Best British Short Stories 2024 and Best British Short Stories 2022, and recognised for awards such as the Cinnamon Literature Award, Seán O’Faoláin International Short Story Competition and Bridport Short Story Prize.
As a PhD candidate, she is researching word–image relations in short fiction.
With Livi Michael, she coproduces Small Pleasures, the podcast about great short stories and greatness in the short story form.
Sin tregua:
Memorias políticas
de una militante feminista
con Carmen Martín Rojas
y Jessica Gamboa Valdés
Viernes 6 de Febrero
20h
Este libro es una crónica cruda y emocionante de la vida de Andrea Dworkin: niña lectora rebelde frente a las injusticias y la hipocresía; joven ávida de conocimiento, militante pacifista y viajera; mujer que sufrió en carne propia la prostitución y la violencia machista. Las experiencias vividas la llevaron a comprometerse sin concesiones con la libertad de las mujeres hasta el final de su vida, convirtiéndose en una activista y escritora de renombre internacional.
—
Jessica Gamboa Valdés, hija de Cecilia y nieta de Zoila. Licenciada en Trabajo Social, máster en psicología comunitaria y en estudios de la diferencia sexual. Docente de trabajo social. Sostiene una práctica política feminista autónoma radical de la diferencia en la colectiva Feministas Lúcidas de Santiago de Chile, cofundada con Andrea Franulic y otras, el año 2013.
Carmen Martín Rojas es hija de Isabel y nieta de Juana y Manuela. Es traductora de dos libros de la filósofa feminista radical elemental Mary Daly: Ex Órbita, un Viaje Deslumbrante (2022) y Brujedario, Primer Diccionario de las Tejedoras de Palabras (2024), ambas obras publicadas en Sabina Editorial. Desde 2018 está en relación política con las mujeres de Feministas Lúcidas, quienes le desvelan otras realidades.
Carmen Oliart. Editora y socia de Sabina Editorial desde 2014. Es además autora de los libros Siguiendo a Emily Dickinson (2015) y María Goyri. Una mujer asombrosa (2020).
Violeta Gil
Andábamos Maravillados
noche de poesía
(evento bilingüe)
Jueves 5 de Febrero
20h
«Andábamos maravillados,
nos quitamos la ropa vieja y nos pusimos la nueva.
Absorbíamos fuerza de cada nuevo suelo
y ya no contuvimos nunca más el aliento».
Ingeborg Bachmann
Después de haber publicado su primera novela y de haber seguido profundizando en su trabajo como creadora escénica, este es el esperado regreso de Violeta a la poesía. “Andábamos maravillados” es un concierto, una conversación sobre el amor entre personas de dos generaciones cercanas pero muy distintas entre sí, una celebración, una pregunta, un baile y una confesión. Este trabajo supone para Violeta un regreso a aquello que le provocó el interés por la literatura en primer lugar. Con la voluntad de atender a un deseo antiguo, un amor por las palabras y su belleza, han surgido estos nuevos textos, que al mismo tiempo hablan del mundo en qué vivimos, nos cuestionan, nos atragantan y tratan de movernos.
—
Violeta Gil, licenciada en Filología Inglesa e Interpretación, en 2005 funda La Tristura, compañía en la que escribe, dirige y produce piezas que se muestran y triunfan a nivel nacional e internacional.
En 2019 publicamos su primer libro de poemas “antes de que tiréis mis cosas”, y estrena el espectáculo poético performativo del mismo nombre en colaboración con el músico y compositor Abraham Boba. Tras el éxito de la gira y después de publicar su primera novela, en 2025 publicamos su segundo poemario: “Andábamos Maravillados”, que también se expande en una pieza escénica junto al músico Marcos Nadie.
Casa Poética
discussion group
with special guest
Sana El Mokaddim
Feb 1st
17h-19h
Join the participants of our poetry discussion group @casapoetica.madrid in this special session with guest poet Sana El Mokaddim!
Sana’s work reflects deeply on language, voice and flesh — the theme of our winter term readings. Her family’s migration story permeates her life experience, and her poetry powerfully addresses the coexistence of two worlds in her body and her tongue. Sana will be joining us in a collaborative close reading of her poem ‘Al Andalus’, followed by a reading and conversation on her writing and other artistic endeavors. In this poem, Sana describes, analyses and questions where words come from, how they are used to define reality, and pushes us, readers, to do the same — reminding us of the stories and the History behind the words we use.
Please make sure to book your spot or contact Irene (irenetorra.poesia@gmail.com) for details.
Cost €9
Death of Descartes
with Michael S. Bekele
Fri 9th Jan
20h
Shadow Ticket
A Book Club
with Elizabeth Duval, Sara Barquinero
y Alfredo Suárez
Sat 20th Dec
12h
In English y Español
15 places available.
PLEASE BOOK HERE
It is important to have read the book before coming.
We offer a 10% discount on copies to anybody attending!
Calabobos
Luis Mario
con Lucía Reyes
Dec 17th
20h
«Una de esas novelas raras y extraordinarias que contienen un mundo» Layla Martínez
Celebramos Calabobos con lecturas y una discusión!
En Cantabria «calabobos» responde a una llovizna menuda que cae de forma imperceptible, por eso en esta novela llueve todo el rato y sus personajes están mojados permanentemente. Rodeado de paisajes bellos a la par que violentos y a través de una oralidad descarnada, maleducada, y un cántabru tosco y fiero, el protagonista de esta historia habla de la brutalidad silenciosa de un pueblo desamparado, que cala poco a poco en su gente sin que ni siquiera se den cuenta, mientras trata de encontrar a su hermana antes de que llegue la pleamar.
Han tenido que pasar varios años para que Luis Mario se diera cuenta de que vivía empapado y, una vez seco, ha podido escribir sobre la Mujer Oso, el Hombre Pez, mujeres que amamantan a perros, hombres que destripan vacas y vacas que caen al mar. Sobre Mariuca y Nanda La Chona, infusiones que todo lo matan, percebes con el sexo descomunal, gorriones que brotan de la tierra, vainas llenas de dientes, viejas que se alimentan de críos o un feto dentro de un mejillón. Pero, por encima de todo, ha escrito sobre un sitio que se niega a cambiar. Calabobos supone la invención de un nuevo relato mitológico, hermosísimo y afilado como las rocas de un acantilado.
Luis Mario (Cantabria, 1992) ha publicado tres novelas: El rastro que dejan las gotas (autopublicada, 2019), Cadencia de estornino (Salto de página, 2021) y Bello trozo redondo de mar (Sr. Scott, 2023). Trabajó durante años como creativo publicitario para marcas como Nike, Audi y Unicef, pero lo dejó todo para viajar por el mundo y escribir la que fue su primera novela. También impartió clases de inglés en un campo de refugiados sirios en Grecia y montó una biblioteca en un pueblo de Camboya. Actualmente trabaja como creativo publicitario autónomo desde un pueblito de Cataluña, donde también imparte y comparte un taller de escritura con sus vecinas.
Casa Poética Open Mic
with special guest
Gabriel Vargas Zapata (Venezuela)
Dec 14th
16h-18h
Join the participants of our poetry discussion group @casapoetica.madrid in an open mic session!
Spanish poet @irene_torra will host this poetic afternoon, where guest poet Gabriel Vargas Zapata (Venezuela, 1982) will share their work, discussing migration, writing and identity.
We’ll then open the mic and you can read your own poetry, a text by a poet you like, or simply join us and enjoy the readings.
This is a bilingual event (esp/eng) but ALL languages are welcome!
Please make sure to book your spot, as spaces are limited.
Cost €5
Drinks included!
Al umbral de la Plaza Mayor
con el autor
Olivier Sterckx, Ricardo Bustos, y
Reino de Cordelia
Dec 12th
19h30
Nos acompañará el autor Olivier Sterckx, Ricardo Bustos, presidente de la Asociación Residentes de la Plaza Mayor de Madrid y Aledaños, promotora de esta iniciativa, junto a Jesús Egido, editor de Reino de Cordelia.
En una conversación cercana y enriquecedora, compartirán las distintas etapas del proceso creativo: desde la idea que dio origen al proyecto, hasta los entrañables aportes fotográficos de los vecinos y los reportajes que dan vida a sus páginas.
Será una ocasión única para descubrir cómo la memoria colectiva se transforma en literatura visual y afectiva. ¡No faltes! Te esperamos para celebrar juntos este homenaje a la Plaza Mayor y sus historias vivas.
Madrid Launch of
‘The Relegation Reader’
FRI 5th Dec
20h
Please join us for the Madrid launch of The Relegation Reader, an anthology bringing together the work of some of the most exciting writers from the U.S, U.K., and Europe. Readings and conversation from Spanish contributors Óscar García Sierra and anthology editor Will Mountain Cox.
Óscar García Sierra is from León and lives in Madrid. He is the author of the poetry book Houston, I’m the Problem and the novels Facendera and Ropa tendida.
Will Mountain Cox is from Portland, Oregon, and lives in Paris, France. He is the author of the novel Roundabout.
About ‘The Relegation Reader’:
At a moment when artificial intelligence is challenging writers in every facet of artistic production, The Relegation Reader celebrates writing in its rawest, most evocative form. Each piece is an emerging star in a constellation of new poetry and prose that illuminates our shared world.
In this collection, edited by Paris-based author Will Mountain Cox (Roundabout and With Paris in Mind: Talking with Artists of This Generation), twenty-six contemporary writers in the US, UK, and Europe offer a fresh view of identity, technology, memory, and place.
Rafael Carvajal
New Voices:
en evening of poetry
(evento bilingüe)
Fri 28th November
20h
Speaking unedited verse in a new voice, in tongues, like the devils of the new testament.
Rafael Carvajal nace en Málaga en 1964. En 1976 emigra a Estados Unidos donde publica: Deep enough to dive in, Dogs and the flowers chey piss on y Bucketful of wing nuts a finales de los 80 con Drew Blood Productions Limited. También se involucra con el movimiento Open Mike, recitando en ciudades como Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Boston y más. En 1995 retorna a España instalándose en el madrileño barrio de Lavapiés donde toma contacto con el ambiente poético de Madrid y participa en diferentes recitales. Ha publicado, Mi psicóloga me dice que se jubila, colección hecho en Lavapiés, Amargord, Misántropo con buen corazón con L.U.P.I. ediciones, El cantón libre y ácrata de Lavapiés – Salvoconducto 95 y ,ahora, 25 odas y un poema interminable con Inflamavle ediciones que también produjo el documental sobre su vida y obra, Yo maté a Ralph Greene, disponible en Filmin. Desde 2022 ha colaborado con la compañía Teatro de los Invisibles en la obra Contención mecánica sobre las práctica psiquiátrica de atar a pacientes a la cama. En la obra hace de sí mismo como loco, activista y poeta.
The Desperate Literature
Prize Salon:
Celebrating the Shortlist
Fri 21st November
20h
‘Generous, soulful distillations. A tasting flight of prosaic kerosene. Each story ignited a flare in a forsaken corner of my mind. I can’t wait to experience more from these voices.’
—Henry Hoke
We celebrate one of our most exciting selections yet! Our 2025 shortlist covers a spectrum of experimental and boundary pushing fiction.
From a Faulknerian river story to the lushest, queerest body horror — from cross-country feminist malaise to cross-border love — prophets, mothers, labourers — a tedious apocalypse, post-capitalist hope — these eleven stories are brimming with magic, longing, and humour.
Join us for an evening of readings and then some drinks!
Joanna Walsh
Amateurs!
How We Built Internet Culture
and Why It Matters
Monday 10th November
20h
“Amateurs! is a eulogy and a manifesto for the internet revolution that came and went before our eyes, on our screens, beneath our fingertips: the revolution of the amateur.”
Helena Aeberli, Los Angeles Review of Books
The story of how you created internet culture and why it matters
Since the nineties, platforms have invited users to create in return for connection. From blogs to vlogs, tweets to memes: for the first time in history, making art became the fundamental form of communication.
What started as fun soon became currency, something vital to finding friends, work, and love. Then, as ‘meatspace’ job security eroded, online creativity became work itself. Now an internet presence is no longer optional, platforms increasingly charge users. Whatever it is we’re creating online, it isn’t amateur anymore. But is it art?
In this scintillating philosophical history of the internet, Joanna Walsh, author of Girl Online, examines how and why creativity became the price of digital existence.
Joanna Walsh is a multidisciplinary writer for print, digital and performance. The author of twelve books (several co-written with DIY AIs that she coded), her publishers include Semiotext(e), Bloomsbury and Verso. She is the creator of the digital narratives, seed-story.com and miss-communication.ie. Her work has been performed/exhibited at venues including IMMA, the ICA, BETA Festival Dublin, and Sample Studios Cork. She founded and directed the online activist projects @read_women (2014-18), and @noentry_arts (2019_2024). She was the 2020 Markievicz Awardee for Literature, the 2017 UK Arts Foundation fellow for literature; an Anthony Burgess Centenary Writer Fellow at the University of Manchester and a 2024 DAAD Artists in Berlin awardee (refused in solidarity with the Palestine).
Lauren Francis-Sharma
Casualties of Truth
Friday 14th November
20h
“I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN”
– Xochitl Gonzalez
“Casualties of Truth is a page-turner so engrossing that you never get distracted by the exceptional grace of its storytelling. Tense yet character-driven, Lauren Francis-Sharma has created a brilliant rumination on how we use the malleable clay of memory to sculpt our understanding of ourselves and the world.”
—Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Invisible Things
From the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed ‘Til the Well Runs Dry, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, D.C., and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lauren Francis-Sharma, a Pushcart nominated writer, is author of Book of the Little Axe, a 2020 finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award in Fiction. Her critically acclaimed novel, ‘Til the Well Runs Dry was awarded the Honor Fiction Prize by the Black Caucus of the ALA. Her third novel, Casualties of Truth, a finalist for the 2025 Caricon Prize, was inspired by her time at South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Hearings. Lauren wrote the foreword to the latest edition of Cry, the Beloved Country, serves as Award Chair for the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and is the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
Fatema Abdoolcarim
Tremble
an evening of poetry
Monday 17th November
20h
‘Tremble is a gift of profound proportions, conveying with her signature brilliant and caring gaze the variable inner and outer textures of life.’
– Gabrielle Bates
Tremble, Fatema Abdoolcarim’s debut collection of poems, is an intimate and involving sequence on fertility and faith. A memoir in verse, these poems relate encounters with the animal other, the uncertain, but always echoing the tender rituals of family, food, prayer. Abdoolcarim thinks through what it means to care – and to mother – at a time where atrocity makes those systems of loving seem out of reach. Tremble traces the sensual and unknown spaces of desire, creating a hopeful lyric in spaces of private and global loss.
Fatema Abdoolcarim was born and raised in Hong Kong to a Peshawari Pakistani mother and a Gujarati Indian father, and tells stories shaped by the textures of her upbringing and community. Trained in photography and fine arts in the US, she taught herself filmmaking with a DSLR. Her debut short documentary Heidi (Locarno, 2016) and her narrative short Sweet Lime (ZINEBI’65, 2023) have screened internationally. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester, where her research explored female desire in Islamic miniature painting. Her debut poetry collection, Tremble (Monitor Books), is out now. She is currently developing her first feature film, Hum, and a collaborative cookbook with poet Rebecca Hurst, inspired by the art of Leonora Carrington.