An Irish documentary, a South African literary festival, and the final stages of the Not The Booker Prize!

Posted on October 11, 2017 by admin

Hello – I’m writing this on a train up to Yorkshire, after a few weeks in South Africa. Lots to update you on, but in brief, I have a busy week of events coming up, starting with tonight’s launch of the 2018 SI Leeds Literary Prize at the Ilkley Literature Festival. It will be great to return to Ilkley — last time I was here, as one of the 2016 prize winners, I was deep in the edit of Dark Chapter and one year on, it’s amazing to present it as a tangible book!

Tomorrow, I’m back in London for a panel with the other short-listed writers in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, chaired by Sam Jordison, the prize founder and a Guardian book critic. The panel takes place 7-9pm at the Big Green Bookshop. Looking forward to meeting the other shortlisted writers, as well as Sam, who called Dark Chapter ‘an impressive debut… defiant and urgent… conveyed with skill and emotional force’ in this great review. In fact, we’re in the final stage of the Not The Booker Prize — so if you liked the book, please consider voting for it before midnight, GMT, Sunday, Oct 15th. All you have to do is vote in the comments section of this article, providing a brief review of the book. Many thanks to all who have supported the book thus far in getting to the shortlist!

You’ll see my October events list above, which also includes speaking on panels about feminism, change, and online spaces at WoW Exeter; about recovery after rape at FiLiA (formerly the Feminism in London conference); and about sexual harassment in institutions at the London School of Economics. On Monday, Oct 16 from 5-6pm, I’ll also be part of a BBC World Service radio programme for BBC 100 Women, broadcast live from the London Transport Museum about sexual harassment on public transport.

I’m one of the four women in this TV3 Ireland documentary…

I’m also headed to Dublin in late October, where I’ll be at the awards ceremony for Irish Tatler’s Women of the Year Awards. I’m nominated in the Special Recognition category, and it has been an honour to be part of a larger, much-needed conversation in Ireland about sexual assault. In September, TV3 Ireland aired ‘Unbreakable: True Lives,’ a two-part television documentary featuring four Irish stories of sexual assault and rape. I was one of those four survivors, and the documentary follows my return to Belfast to revisit the park where I was violently raped by a stranger in 2008. When we filmed last autumn, the thought of returning to that park (which features heavily in my novel) filled me with great deal of trepidation and anxiety. But the actual return was not as awful as I expected — and the huge public reception generated by the documentary this autumn has made everything worth it. The social media reaction has been incredible, connecting a great number of survivors, and we even elicited a statement from George Hook, the Irish journalist who recently came under fire for his questionable comments about rape victims. For those in Ireland, you can still watch the show on TV3 player until Oct 26. My story is in Part 2, which aired on Sep 28th.

While the documentary was airing in Ireland, I was actually in South Africa, where I’d been invited to speak at the Articulate Africa Book Fair, part of the Essence Festival Durban. It was my first time in Durban, and I’ve always been keen to connect with readers in South Africa, which the media rather salaciously calls ‘the rape capital of the world.’ Needless to say, a great number of survivors and activists are eager to change the situation around sexual violence in South Africa —I hope my talk resonated with many. It was also great to meet with eminent writers like Chris Abani and Christopher Merrill from the US, and South African authors like bestselling crime writer Deon Meyer, debut phenomenon Mohale Mashigo, literary critic Karina Szczurek, and the renowned Etienne van Heerden (whose novel Ancestral Voices, I’d first heard about as a 14-year-old in New Jersey).

After the book fair, I took the opportunity to travel around South Africa for a week. I got to traverse the Sani Pass and stay at the highest pub in Africa (in Lesotho), explore the Drakensberg Mountains, hike in the Golden Gate Highlands, sample the art and dining scene in Clarens, and meet three of the Big 5 game animals on safari in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park. Nothing quite like turning a corner and finding an elephant right there next to the road! I hope to return to South Africa soon (especially if my book finds a distributor there), and it’s great to see readers of Dark Chapter already enjoying it down there.

Finally, my novel came out in the US and Holland in September, with Polis Books and Harper Collins respectively. I wrote this piece for LitHub, on how my background in film influences me as a writer (with a special nod to the car chase scene from The Bourne Supremacy). Already, Dark Chapter has been included among the top 2017 debut novels by Library Journal and top autumn thrillers by Book Riot. In the UK, Dark Chapter continues to generate buzz, both in the media, with those working on the issue of sexual violence, with book bloggers, such as Books Beyond Borders, Book Muse, and From First Page to Last.

The paperback will be out on November 1st, and already I have an exciting line-up of events in London and elsewhere around the UK. Looking forward to meeting more readers and seeing how far the book can go in reaching both individuals and organisations on the issue of sexual violence. If you read the book and think it’s a worthy read, spread the word! And don’t forget to vote for Not The Booker!

One month until DARK CHAPTER is out…

Posted on May 7, 2017 by admin

Yes I can’t *quite* believe it, but there’s less than 4 weeks to go until my debut novel Dark Chapter is available in the UK and Ireland. The hardcover arrived last week….

In the meantime, 1000 Londoners launched their short film of me as part of their ‘Century: 10 Decades x 10 Women’ series. 1000 Londoners are an award-winning project, showcasing short web films about, well, 1000 Londoners. It’s an honour to have been profiled by them, and especially to be their featured Londoner for the week of May 4-10.

On May 16th, I’ll be speaking at a pre-launch event for Dark Chapter, as part of UK Says No More Week, organised by Hestia to raise awareness about sexual and domestic violence. There will be 30 advance copies of my novel available to buy, so book your free spot here — space is very limited!

This follows a successful pre-launch event at Waterstones Piccadilly on April 30, where I’d been invited to read in the New Crime Writing slot as part of the Writers of the World Unite Festival. Many thanks to those who came and bought advance copies of Dark Chapter! There wasn’t a spare seat in the house, and the reaction was fantastic… and very encouraging for this somewhat nervous first-time author. You can watch a clip of me reading the prologue to Dark Chapter here:

Earlier in April, I was on a much-needed holiday in Spain where I got to wander around fantastic places like the Pyrenees and Cuenca on my own. But I’d also been invited to Barcelona to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of my literary agents, The Pontas Agency. It was truly magical to meet other Pontas authors who had all been flown in from around the world and were being represented by such a uniquely passionate group of agents. We got a fair amount of press coverage within the publishing industry, and I’m quoted in this article from Publishers Weekly.

Anyway, things just kicked into a higher gear in advance of Dark Chapter’s UK publication date, so watch this space for more news on events and media coverage….

Cover reveal for DARK CHAPTER!

Posted on November 12, 2016 by admin

At long last, here is the cover reveal for the UK/Irish edition of my novel, DARK CHAPTER!

In earlier versions of the design, the woman’s hair was blonde, so there was a bit of a tussle to ensure she was depicted as a woman of color, but we got there in the end! I’m quite pleased with it: ominous, yet also somewhat redemptive in feel. Hopefully, it says intelligent literary suspense to you.

Legend Press will be publishing the novel in hardcover 1st June 2017 in the UK/Ireland, and I look forward to seeing what over cover designs will be like for the other countries. We’re just about to sign off on the final edit, so I’ll finally be putting to bed a novel I started writing three years ago. (In fact, during NaNoWriMo 2013.)

In October, I also won 2nd place in the SI Leeds Literary Prize for the unpublished manuscript of DARK CHAPTER, which was a great honour. Here’s myself and Jamilah Ahmed, the 3rd prize and Reader’s Choice winner, at the awards ceremony at the Ilkley Literature Festival. Amita Murray won 1st place, and I can’t wait to see the writing from all the shortlisted authors being read out there.

Off the back of the SI Leeds Literary Prize, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet US author Paul Beatty when he was in London for the Man Booker Prize Ceremony. He eventually WON the Booker Prize for his hilarious novel THE SELLOUT, four days after this photo was taken! Here he is at the Waterstones Piccadilly with me, SI Leeds shortlisted writer Stella Ahmadou, and the legendary Margaret Busby, who was the UK’s first black publisher back in the 1960s. So inspiring for an encouraging, down-to-earth, bold and incisive writer like him to have won the UK’s top literary prize.

With Man Booker Prize winner Paul Beatty!

An article gone viral, academic presentations & upcoming theatre

Posted on June 16, 2016 by admin

If you haven’t read it, my latest article on the Stanford sexual assault has gone somewhat viral, with over 90,000 people (at last count) reading it around the world! After The Conversation published it, other media outlets like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Independent, TIME, Scroll, and Raw Story ran it, making it available to readers as far flung as Oz and India. Case in point: social media amplifies (as I argue in my article), and with millions of people worldwide reading the full impact statement of the Stanford survivor, this case has become a game-changer in influencing the way we think and talk about sexual assault.

This is all very on topic for my PhD research on social media and narratives by rape survivors, and I’m thrilled to announce I recently passed my PhD upgrade at the London School of Economics! Which means it’ll now just be, oh, three years before you can call me ‘doctor’? (Yep, a long game we’re talking here.) This week I’ve just presented a paper on my work with child sexual abuse survivors at the CMCI PhD Conference ‘(In)Visible Cultures’ at Kings’ College London, and I’ll be presenting it again at the Media and Communications PhD Symposium at the LSE on June 30th.

On June 23 and 27, I’ll chair the Q&A following performances of Foreign Body, a work-in-progress piece of physical theatre, which explores a woman’s memory of sexual assault and her interview with her perpetrator. The Q&A will be with Imogen Butler-Cole of The What Works (the theatre-maker who created and performs Foreign Body) and Marina Cantacuzino and Anne-Marie Cockburn of The Forgiveness Project. Marina founded the well-known project, and Anne-Marie’s own restorative process with the young man who supplied a fatal overdose of MDMA to her 15-year-old daughter is a remarkable journey, You can watch her story here. We’ll be discussing trauma, recovery, and restorative justice among other things — and do join us at either of the performances: at the Off Beat Festival in Oxford at 7:45pm on Thursday, June 23 (tickets £8/6) and at the RADA Festival in London at 4pm on Monday, June 27 (tickets £10/5). Hope to see you there!

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the 2016 Asian Women of Achievement Awards Dinner, where I was shortlisted in the Social and Humanitarian category. Although I didn’t win, it was truly inspiring to be among so many fantastic women, who have made such a difference in their work across a range of industries. Here’s me and the delightful Harleen Kaur, winner in the Sports category, who at 17-years-old is an international World Martial Kombat champion. It’ll be an honour to be part of a growing network of accomplished Asian women recognised by the Women of the Future Foundation — and I look forward to seeing our collective positive impact on society continue!

Upcoming festival talks in Feb and March

Posted on February 5, 2016 by admin

This week is the inaugural Sexual Abuse & Sexual Violence Awareness Week in the UK, and I’ve been part of an active social media conversation at #ItsNotOk. I’ll also be chairing the opening panel at the One Billion Rising Festival on Sunday, Feb 7th. We’ll discuss the importance of the One Billion Rising campaign and other activism movements against gender-based violence. The talk is free (taking place right after The Vagina Monologues) and you can book tickets in advance here. There’s also loads of other performances and workshops during the 7-day festival — be sure to check it out!

And in March, I’ll be speaking at the excellent Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre on Saturday the 12th. The full programme isn’t up yet, but you can book a Saturday day pass — their lineup is never short of inspiring!

Other than that, I’m plugging along on my PhD work at the LSE and continuing to collaborate with other artists, thinkers, and activists on the issue. Here’s a video of me speaking at last year’s Clear Lines Festival on media representations of sexual assault and what it’s like to have your own attack reported in the press:

Clear Lines was a success!

Posted on August 13, 2015 by admin

So the festival I decided to launch in April ended up happening July 30 – Aug 2 — and I’d say it was a success! The Clear Lines Festival had an estimated 500 people involved over the four days, including 60+ speakers and artists who wanted to help us start a new conversation about sexual assault and consent. People cried at our Theatre Night and laughed at our comedians, including the brilliant Tiff Stevenson, Josie Long and Bridget Christie — and there were heated discussions at many of our panels. A number of events were filled to capacity, and Channel 4 News even aired this nifty segment on us:

Overall, there was a lot of press generated about the festival. We were covered by The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, Time Out London, The Huffington Post, among others. And I had a live television interview on London Live and some live radio interviews on various local BBC stations. Check out our press here and you can read our wrap-up blog post on Clear Lines here.

A special shout-out to my festival Co-Founder Dr. Nina Burrowes, to our sponsors On Road Media and McAllister Olivarius, a dedicated Planning Committee, a great team of volunteers, and our 138 Crowdfunders… without whom the festival could not have happened!

Just launched the Clear Lines Festival

Posted on June 9, 2015 by admin

After two months of hard work and a lot of enthusiasm, I’m very pleased to announce the launch of the Clear Lines Festival, the UK’s first-ever festival dedicated to talking about sexual assault through the arts and discussion. It’s something I co-founded in April (coincidentally, on the anniversary of my own rape) — over coffee with Dr. Nina Burrowes and a group of other amazing women, all of whom are passionate about wanting to change the public conversation about sexual abuse and assault. I personally believe the arts are one of the best ways to approach the issue, by bringing to light the human stories that underpin these experiences. So we’re putting together an exciting programme of artists, writers, comedians, performers, and filmmakers, who will be exploring the topic through their art — along with panel discussions and workshops featuring psychologists, experts, social workers, journalists, and survivors, among others. Nearly all events will be free to the public. The festival will run July 30 – Aug 2 in Central London.

At the moment, we’re busy crowd-funding so we can have enough funds to make the festival possible. We’ll need £3,500 for that — and if we reach our stretch target of £9,000, we’ll be able to film the events and post them online so others around the world can access them. So please do consider pledging if you can! You can watch a video of me talking about the festival here. Join us and together, let’s see if we can replace the silence and stigma that cloud this issue with insight, understanding, and community.

Shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger

Posted on June 4, 2015 by admin

A quick update, which is that I’ve now made the shortlist for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger 2015, for my upcoming novel Dark Chapter. Which means I can now officially use that nifty logo you see right here. Other authors shortlisted for the Daggers this year (albeit, not the Debut Dagger) include Dennis Lehane, Kate Mosse, and Dashiell Hammett… so overall, not bad company to be in! (Yes, Dashiell Hammett’s been dead for a while, but some short stories of his were recently discovered and published for the first time.)

You can read the full shortlist here. The winners will be announced at the CWA Dagger Awards on June 30th in London, to mark the the end of National Crime Reading Month. Which reminds me, I should probably read a crime novel this month… Does Crime and Punishment count? I THINK SO.

Two new collaborations: a play + an urban design project

Posted on December 25, 2014 by admin

Happy Holidays, everyone! Hope you’re all enjoying the festive season, wherever in the world you are. Just wanted update you on two artistic collaborations which I’ve been involved in as a writer. Exciting stuff.

In February, a short play of mine “Everything is Normal” will be performed on a scratch night in London, as part of Unheard 2015, a new writing festival exploring themes around sexual abuse and violence. The Festival runs February 19-22 and will also feature three V-Day benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues. My play will be at 7:30pm on Saturday, Feb 21 at The Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham, and you can buy tickets for a mere £7 online here. A portion of proceeds will also go to a relevant charity (TBD). Hats off to the curiously-named, activist theatre company Goblin Baby for promoting writing about this important topic!

In November, I contributed a short story to Sense of the City: London, an intriguing urban design project that encourages a multi-sensory exploration of the Clerkenwell/Smithfield area of London. What? Basically, members of the public were invited to wander around that neighborhood, capturing their experience of the sights, smells, sounds they encountered. As writers, we then had to take those reactions and create an artistic response in the form of a short story. Then, actors recorded our writing, and the audio files of those performances can be heard online here. Or you can download the PDF of a newsletter which featured our stories and was distributed throughout the neighborhood. My short story is called “West Smithfield.” If you’re familiar with the area, Smithfield Market, St. Bart’s hospital, Fabric nightclub, and the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great all feature in the story. Hope you enjoy it!

Details for My Spoken Word Performance at L A Noble Gallery

Posted on July 1, 2014 by admin

On Wed, July 2, I’ll be doing a spoken word performance of my new short story “Felsenbaum” at L A Noble Gallery in Dalston. The work was inspired by Johanna Ward’s photography in the gallery’s current exhibition, Capturing the Narrative: A Visual Exploration of Fact & Fiction. Starts 6:30pm, and to book a place, please email hello@lauraannnoble.com – More details are below:

At the start of the evening, there’ll be an Artist Talk from Johanna Ward herself, and you’ll also get to hear from my fellow Goldsmiths writers, Charlotte Barrow and Nick Burbidge. 5 pound entry and I believe there will be wine…. Hope to see you there!

Winnie M Li

author & activist

Tag Archives: London