Wednesday 4th of March
6.30 to 9pm
Join us to celebrate the launch of the debut novel Prairie Oyster from acclaimed poet, Sophie Robinson, with a conversation between Sophie and Shon Faye, followed by time for audience questions and a book signing.
Everything falls into place: she will get sober, she will eat well, she will start sleeping properly, she will work hard, she will resurrect her career, she will make The Lakes, she will charm Mitch, she will be somebody
Pearl is a thirty-something filmmaker balanced precariously on the edge of an addiction-fuelled breakdown. But when she is invited to interview her idol and crush, lesbian cult filmmaker Mitch Meyer, her stilted life restarts.
Buoyed and seduced by Mitch's interest in her and her work, Pearl swaps alcoholism for romantic obsession, and London for a summer in New York with Mitch. All the while she is haunted by a project she has been toying with for years: a film about Veronica Lake, a 1940s film star who drank herself into obscurity.
‘Had me laughing, wincing, cheering, recognising, admiring – and turning pages, rapidly' MAGGIE NELSON
'A masterful contribution to the canon of queer women's literature. A smart and uncomfortable dissection of longing' SHON FAYE
'Sophie out-jars The Bell Jar with this dark and gleaming masterpiece' EILEEN MYLES
'Unflinching, unexpected, radical, lyrical, and wholly original' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH
'I loved this lyrical fever dream of a novel. Melancholic, hopeful, seedy, dazzling, tender, brutal. Just gorgeous' EMMA VAN STRAATEN
'Best novelistic treatment of addiction I've read in years' KIERAN GODDARD
'Robinson's prose is as addictive as Pearl's wanting. A fearless look into the dark' LAUREN MCQUISTIN
'This lush and detailed dive into the flayed-open femme heart is irresistible - wild, cringey, addictive, relatable' MICHELLE TEA
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sophie Robinson's debut poetry collection Rabbit (Boiler House Press, 2018) was the Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice, and poems from it were highly commended by the Forward Prize. Her work has been published in Granta, the Guardian, BOMB Magazine, The Believer, N+1, The Poetry Review and The White Review. Prairie Oyster is her first novel.
Shon Faye is the author of two Sunday Times bestselling books, The Transgender Issue and Love in Exile.