Join us at the Common Press for an enriching and insightful conversation on queer parenting with authors Kirsty Logan and Hannah Silva. At this event, they will be discussing their brilliant new books "The Unfamiliar" and "My Child, the Algorithm," and exploring unconventional narratives on parenthood and queer identity.
Copies of both books will be available to purchase on the night.
Don't miss this chance to engage with these extraordinary authors as they discuss the complex and beautiful world of queer parenting.
About the books
The Unfamiliar
An unconventional, unexpectedly funny, brutally honest memoir about infertility, pregnancy and motherhood 'You and your partner want a baby. But your two bodies can't make a baby together.' If you want a baby but your body says otherwise - If you don't know the polite way to say thank you for the sperm - If you're waiting for the sound of a brand-new heartbeat - If you know it takes a village to raise a baby but have no idea who should be doing what -If you're lurching between bliss and bewilderment - If you don't fit the shape of what you've been told a mother should be - Reach for The Unfamiliar and don't let go. Moving and immersive, and written with wisdom, disarming humour and raw honesty.
My Child, the Algorithm
A living exploration of undoing and redoing queer single parenting and love, in conversation with an AI algorithm and a toddler. As Hannah Silva navigates friendship, dating and life as a queer single parent in London, her toddler and the algorithm contribute humour, play and insight. With the help/disruption of these unreliable narrators, Hannah deconstructs her story, and constructs a new one.
She unravels everything she has been taught to want, finding alternative ways of thinking, loving and parenting today. Queer, creative, sexy and compassionate, My Child, the Algorithm is non-fiction at its finest.
About the authors:
Kirsty Logan (she/her) Kirsty Logan’s latest book is The Unfamiliar (Virago, 2023), a memoir of queer pregnancy and parenthood. She is also the author of Now She is Witch (Harvill Secker, 2023), two previous novels, three story collections, two chapbooks, a 10-hour audio play for Audible, and several collaborative projects with musicians and visual artists. Her books have won the Lambda, Polari, Saboteur, Scott and Gavin Wallace awards. Her work has been optioned for TV, adapted for stage, recorded for radio and podcasts, exhibited in galleries and distributed from a vintage Wurlitzer cigarette machine.
Hannah Silva
Hannah Silva (She/they) is a writer and performer at the vanguard of innovative and interdisciplinary research into the creative potential and implications of generative AI. Silva has been working with technology as a creative tool for two decades and has an international reputation as a sound poet. ‘Talk in a bit’ (Humankind Records) was included in the Wire’s Top 25 Albums of 2018. ‘An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love’ for BBC Radio 4 starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm, a memoir on queer parenting and love written in conversation with a GPT algorithm and a toddler. Silva has authored seven other plays for BBC Radio 3 and 4, won the Tinniswood Award for best script and numerous placements in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Silva holds a PhD in the analysis of poetry in performance and is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University.
About the Host:
Jess Rose (she/her) is a photographer and researcher based in E17. She’s interested in photographing togetherness, with a focus on live and unrepeatable events. She is currently working on a collection of images which explore the relationship between children and their non-birth mothers, inspired by her wife and son. If you’re interested in having your portrait included, you can contact her at jess@itstheroses.com
Date: 2nd November
Time: 7pm
Location: The Common Press
Enter via the bookshop
The event will be held in our bar and is wheelchair accessible.
There are a limited number of free tickets available for this event - if you cannot afford the minimum pay-what-you-can ticket type, please email us at books@commonpress.co.uk and we will add you to the guest list, no questions asked.