- 15:00 - 16:00 - Drag Tales Story Time for Kids
WORKSHOPS
- 12:30 - 14:30 - Your Favourite Queer Authors Workshop from Queers For Books
- 16:30 - 18:00 - How to Start Writing About Your Life Experiences a workshop from Lucy Webster - CANCELLED
TALKS/PANELS
- 15:00 - 16:00 - Panel of Independent radical book shops of London organised by Common Press
- 16:30-18:00 - Your Favourite Queer Authors Favourite Queer Authors! panel talk from Queers For Books
Panel of Independent radical book shops of London
Featuring:
- Aisha Shaibu Lenoir (she/her) from The Common Press
Aisha is a prominent LGBTQ+ activist, cultural producer, and founder of Moonlight Experiences. She loves all things community, nightlife and travel. Based in London, Aisha is one of the Top 100 LGBTQ+ trailblazers changing the world. She has been an architect of diverse parties, festivals, and events collaborating with brands, institutions, and communities on events designed within an intersectional framework. Aisha’s activism and community contribution extends to the work she does as Head of Community Engagement for UK Black Pride, Trustee for Give Out, and supporting with running Glass House; a new multi-disciplinary LGBTQ+ venue in East London.
- Al Anderson (he/him) from Housmansbooks
Al Anderson is a poet and bookseller from Birmingham, now living in London. He is the Events Coordinator at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross, London's longest running radical bookshop. Apart from his work at Housmans, Al is a widely published writer, mainly of poetry and occasionally essays. He lives in Bow with his cat, Gilbert.
- Marin Scarlett (she/her) from Scarlett Letters
Marin Scarlett is the founder of The Scarlett Letters, a new radical bookshop in Bethnal Green that aims to platform marginalised communities and underrepresented voices in publishing. A longtime activist for reproductive justice and sex worker rights, she also works as an organiser with Decrim Now and volunteers with Supporting Abortions for Everyone (SAFE). Her writing and artwork have been published by Novara Media, Red Pepper, Salty Media, Lumpen Journals, SWARM, Under the Red Umbrella zine and in the anthology Truth and Lies.
- Jorge Gárriz from Romancero Books
Jorge Gárriz is the founder of Romancero Books CIC, a cultural platform and an online bookstore promoting Spanish and translated literature in the UK. He is the founder of the Festival of Queer Spanish Literature in London, which 5th edition will be happening in November.
Previously he joined the team at Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest and was a member of Strange Perfume, a queer collective of artists and thinkers, curators of the Strange Perfume Queer Book Art Fair hosted in the South London Gallery and in The Chetham’s Library, Manchester in partnership with Book Works.
Jorge currently works as cultural manager at Instituto Cervantes in London.
Your Favourite Queer Authors Favourite Queer Authors!
Featuring:
Elias is the editor of the groundbreaking anthology This Arab is Queer. He has written many short memoirs as well as incredible journalism for Star Observer, The Guardian, Gay Times etc. He offers a unique insight into being gay and Palestinian, growing up in Australia, now living in London. In his own words “It’s important to show that it doesn’t matter where we are; we are still Arab, we are still queer, and our experiences are valid.”
Cherae is the author of Magic of the Lost trilogy, Fate’s Bane and Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf. Cherae describes her writing as “stories for sword lesbians, those who love them, and those who fight beside them”. They’re a gym lover, language learner and traveller.
- Lois Shearing (they/them)
Lois is the author of Pink Pilled: Women and the Far Right, It Ain’t Over Till the Bisexual Speaks and Bi the Way: The Bisexual Guide to Life.
They are a bi activist, freelance journalist and writer. They run an LGBTQ+ sewing club , and are a self confessed “getter of too many tattoos”.
Sadiya Ansari is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist based in London. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Irish Times, the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, the Walrus, and more.Sadiya has worked across platforms as a reporter, editor, manager and producer, and has taught journalism. Her work focuses on covering communities historically neglected by the media, specializing in reporting on migration — from labour market integration of Syrian refugees in Germany to queer asylum seekers struggling to secure status in Kenya.
Fiona Keating is the author of Smoke and Silk a historical mystery book set in Victorian Londons first Chinatown. She is also a journalist and editor with a specialism in history and archeology. Born in Malaysia with Chinese/Irish heritage and a Crime Writing MA, she now lives happily with her partner in Greenwich.
Ellen Jones - author of Outrage: Why the Fight for LGBTQ+ Equality Is Not Yet Won And What You Can Do About It. An author, strategist and award winning campaigner, Ellen uses humour, empathy and lived experience to inspire change and activism. In her own words “I’m a very purple autistic lesbian”
- Chaired by Moss (he/they)
Moss is the Queers for Books Founder and Facilitator. He has an Ecology and Culture MA, specialising in trans ecologies. Currently they work as your friendly local queer barista. He can usually be found beneath a tree with a book, playing with his cat Fen, or throwing his weight about at the gym. Fuelled by the belief that reading, making connections and expressing ourselves freely and safely are radical and important, they built Queers for Books.