Join us October 29th to celebrate the roots of all things queer and fantastical!
- 7-8pm: Book reading and Q&A
- 8-8.30pm: Signings
- 9pm: Best costume book bundle award!
- 9-10pm: Mingling, dancing and hoof booping 🦄
Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But these are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots.
Queer as Folklore is an exhilarating journey across centuries and continents which reveals the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.
Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.
'One delight after another. Told with an open heart, a questing curiosity, and a healthy sense of mischief, Queer as Folklore is essential for every seeker of hidden histories' Patrick Ness, author of the 'Chaos Walking' series
'This book is a joy and a revelation. I have forever been obsessed with myths, legends and the occult ever since I was little. This gives a strong argument for why. It’s also really inspiring! Where’s my makeup brush?' Divina De Campo
SACHA COWARD
Sacha Coward has worked in museums and heritage for over 10 years. For the past three years, he has been freelancing as an historian, public speaker, and researcher. He has run LGBTQ+ focused tours for museums, cemeteries, archives, and cities around the world.
He has written articles for a huge number of publications, including Metro, Gay Star News, National Theatre, Art UK, Queer Bible, Royal Museums Greenwich, and Dig It Scotland, with a focus on LGBTQ+ history, underrepresented audiences in heritage and mythology and folklore.
Queer as Folklore is Sacha's first book.