Launch Party: Dear Lina by Jess Glaisher
Online
£5.00 – £60.00
4 Jun 2021
19.30 - 21.30
Online
In partnership with:
Write Like A Grrrl
England is recognisable on the surface: the buildings are the same, there is still a government, the tube still runs through London. For Lina, however, the England she knew when she was little, when her mum was still around, has disappeared completely.
Celebrating 6 months since publication, come and join author Jess Glaisher to officially launch her debut novel, Dear Lina, which has been called ‘a queer dystopia for our turbulent times’.
Jess is a queer disabled writer and activist, and proud Write Like a Grrrl alumnus. In order to celebrate the Write Like a Grrrl community, Jess is inviting three Write Like a Grrrl alumni to be a part of the launch. If you’d like to be considered, please fill out this form by midnight on 28th May 2021.
More about Dear Lina:
Arriving home one day to find her mum gone, Lina finds in her place a leather-bound notebook containing hundreds of pages of her mum’s handwriting: letters of advice and memories; all the things her mother would no longer have the chance to teach her. Through these pages, Lina learns that her mother, Eve, left in the middle of the night to avoid being arrested for her immigrant status. The Government crackdown on immigrants meant that she either had to flee or risk the same fate as her friends; friends who were taken away from their homes and families, but never made it back to their country of birth. Taking Eve’s advice, Lina leaves her life behind, and sets off on a journey north to Scotland to find freedom and, she hopes, her mother.
The launch party event will be virtual to include people with access needs (including the author!) and visitors from far and wide. We are in the process of exploring options for having the event interpreted live by a BSL interpreter – if you’d like to talk to us more about this, or want to be notified as and when we confirm this, please just drop us a line.
Tickets are on pay-what-you-can-afford basis, with an option to give a donation. All proceeds being equally divided between the author, For Books’ Sake and Write Like a Grrrl. We know the unprecedented surrealness of 2020/21 has hit some of you hard, so we’ve set aside a number of free tickets for those of you who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. If you want one of these, please just email us.
Headliner
Jess Glaisher
Jess Glaisher is a queer disabled activist, whose writing focusses on LGBTQ+ character representation, mental health visibility, and the lives of women. Her debut novel Dear Lina was published by Audible, and has been called ‘a queer dystopia for our turbulent times.’ Her work has appeared in the For Books’ Sake anthology (Re)Sisters and in Novelty Magazine, Severine Lit, The Tiny Narrative, and on Dear Damsels. She has written a Tiny Letter about mental health called The Stories I Tell Myself, and a blog about living with endometriosis called Eight Years and Counting.
Host
Chloe Green
Chloe Green is a comedian, copywriter and creative facilitator living in South East London. By day she supports charities and political campaigns to articulate themselves, come up with campaign plans, and make lots of dosh – by night she’s co-founder of hit LGBTQ+ comedy night The LOL Word, an avid (if painfully slow) reader, and aspiring children’s book author. She’s also a proud alum of Write Like a Grrrl, which was worth its weight in gold for the brilliant gang of friends, alone – one of whom is the inimitable Jess Glaisher.
