The Coast is Queer is a new festival in the UK dedicated to LGBTQ+ literature. The festival bills itself as “a radical new festival featuring some of the best LGBTQ+ literature” and they are “Bringing together writers, performers, academics, activists and readers for a weekend of events, workshops, panel discussions and performances to celebrate queer lives and writing.”
Presented by New Writing South & The Marlborough Theatre, The Coast is Queer will be held in the seaside city of Brighton, a resort known for being welcoming to the LGBTQIA community. The events will be held at The Spire in the Kemptown area of Brighton. The Spire is a creative space for theatre, dance, circus and other performances based in the beautiful, grade II St. Mark’s Chapel.
Co-founder of The Coast is Queer Literature Festival, Lesley Wood told Diva Magazine: “Primarily we wanted to do it in Brighton because there’s a strong LGBTQI community and we really felt like there should be a queer literature festival somewhere. If it’s going to be anywhere for the first time, we should do it here in Brighton.”
Lesley also added, “It’s more important than ever that queer voices are heard and that our community is represented and not just blending in with a heteronormative culture. We need to stand up and say we’re here and we’re doing this for ourselves and anybody else who wants to be an ally. There’s so many brilliant new young writers coming up through the ranks and it’s really difficult for people to get their work out and get it heard. I think it’s really important that there’s a strong queer voice and a whole set of role models for those writers to get their work out there and get it heard.”
Speakers at The Coast is Queer literary festival include; Juno Dawson (The Gender Games & This Book is Gay), Dean Atta (Black Flamingo), Patrick Gale (A Place Called Winter), Kate Davies (In at the Deep End), and many other great literary figures.
The Coast is Queer Literature Festival will be held in Brighton from 12th – 15th September and tickets are available now for the events listed on their website, plus if you want to attend six or more ticketed events, you can get 10% off.
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