ON STIGMA with Michael Handrick

Michael Handrick is an acclaimed writer whose work explores the role that stigma plays in influencing our mental health - stigma around masculinity and class as well as sexuality. In his new book, Difference is Born on the Lips, he speaks about his own experience as a victim of same-sex abuse and explores the idea of ‘toxic masculinity’. Michael will be interviewed by fellow-author author Daniel Harding (Gay Man Talking) and together they invite us to discuss how LGBTQ+ communities understand these interrelated problems and how we can address them.

Michael Handrick’s debut book, Difference Is Born on the Lips, explores same sex abuse amongst other social stigmas around class, masculinity and sexuality, exploring the impavts these have had on his own mental health. Handrick's work has been previously shortlisted for Penguin Random House’s WriteNow awards and Kit de Waal’s Common People anthology. He said: “Growing up on a council estate having a book published was my dream. This book wasn’t the one I ever expected to write, but it’s one that is needed. It contains stories and voices that have gone too long unvoiced and not listened to. This book came from a place of pain in order to help heal and start conversations.”

In partnership with Flint books. Part of QUEERCIRCLE’s exploration of creative health and well-being

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