My debut novel Dear Neighbour comes out on 15th June 2023, and I want to celebrate it with you!

Please join me and an assortment of very special guests for a night of readings, performances and celebratory shenanigans, supported by my lovely pals at For Books’ Sake. Above everything, Dear Neighbour is a love letter to the power of community, so I cannot wait to celebrate it with my community – and yep, that means you!

Get ready for what I know is going to be a brilliant night launching this book into the world, hosted by my brilliant friend and author Paul Forster, and featuring performances by me and some incredible special guests (more details on that below).

About the event:

Date: Thursday 15th June 2023
Venue: Feel Good Club, 26-28 Hilton St, Manchester M1 2EH.
Timings: 7pm-10pm (doors from 7pm for a 7.30pm start)
Tickets: £10 advance tickets are available now! A limited number of tickets will also be on sale on the door, subject to availability.
Accessibility: The venue is all one level, with ramp access into the building, snake path through the venue and disabled toilet. Readings and performances will be via microphone and PA, and there will be background music during the breaks. If you have any questions about access, want a free carer’s ticket or need a seat reserving for you on the night, please just get in touch.

About the book:

Five strangers. Four weeks. One letter that will change everything…
Dear Neighbour tells the story of Alice, a single mum living in Leeds, her next-door neighbour Bill, a widower still grieving his wife’s death a decade earlier, and the other residents of their street. It’s a novel about the power of community and found family, and the real definition of home. A love letter to the necessity of resilience, resistance and empathy, you can read more about it here, or pre-order your copy here. Blackwell’s will be at the launch event selling copies of the book on the night.

Line-up:

Debz Butler

Debz Butler is a writer, poet, performer and the former host of Testify Poetry. She’s been published both in print and online and has performed where ever will have her – she’s the one you probably saw do the Mooncup poem that time. She is also a Jane Claire Bradley mega fan and is excited to scream about Jane’s book to anyone within a 5 mile radius. (Note from JCB: Debz made me include this!)

Avadrian Night

Avadrian Night is a pansexual, trans writer, artist, witch, arts events producer and film and festival curator. Avy’s creative practice of poetry, fiction writing, performance and visual art explores LGBTQAI+ and alternative, subcultural socio-political history, witchcraft, psychic ability, all things deliciously creepy and supernatural, mental health and trauma, nostalgia, the natural world and the evolution of animals, and the sex positivity and sexual liberation movement. They enjoy challenging and subverting the established tropes of gender, sexuality, race, class, kink and identity. Avy is co-founder/co-producer of Mosh Film Fest, founder of Aesthetic Realms and creative producer of Tree Fish Productions.

Greg Thorpe

Greg Thorpe is a writer, curator, and the current Festival Director for GAZE, Ireland’s international LGBTQ+ film festival. His fiction reimagines moments in history from queer perspectives, and his non-fiction focuses on art, culture and autobiography. His writing has appeared in Best British Stories, The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Aesthetica, Confingo and Foglifter.

Rosie Garland

Rosie Garland has a passion for language nurtured by public libraries. She writes poetry, long and short fiction and sings with post-punk band The March Violets. Latest collection What Girls do the Dark (Nine Arches Press) was shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2021. Her novel The Night Brother (Borough Press) was described by The Times as “a delight…with shades of Angela Carter.” Val McDermid has named her one of the most compelling LGBT+ writers in the UK today.