Join us for a landmark event bringing together two generation-defining authors to discuss the evolution, lineage, and future of queer literature.
Over the last three decades, Sarah Waters has fundamentally reshaped the literary landscape. From her groundbreaking debut Tipping the Velvet to works like Fingersmith and The Paying Guests, Sarah’s work carved out a vital space for queer narratives in mainstream fiction. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an OBE recipient, her multi-award-winning novels proved that explicitly queer stories could be historical, commercial, and critically formidable.
By pushing open those doors, Sarah paved the way for a new generation of writers to subvert genre boundaries — including one of contemporary fiction’s brightest stars, Julia Armfield. Julia’s Polari Prize-winning debut novel Our Wives Under The Sea and her acclaimed follow-up Private Rites (shortlisted for the 2025 Arthur C. Clarke Award) seamlessly blend queer romance with elements of body horror, the uncanny, and speculative fiction.
Sarah and Julia will trace the lineage between their works. They will explore how the foundation built by foundational queer texts has allowed a new generation of writers to lean into genre-bending, eco-horror, and the surreal, discussing what it means to write queer literature today and where the stories are headed next.