A portrait of Joelle Taylor in greyscale. She looks directly at the camera with one of her hands in a fist resting on her mouth
Image credit: Roman Manfredi
Past Event
Books & Debates

The Night Alphabet

Joelle Taylor
2 performances between Fri 24 & Sat 25 May 2024
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Award-winning poet Joelle Taylor performs a staged reading from her mesmerising debut novel The Night Alphabet, directed by acclaimed theatre maker Neil Bartlett.

Hackney, 2233: a woman walks into a tattoo parlour. Her body is covered all over with tattoos, but she wants to add one final inking to her gallery – a thin line connecting the haunting images of her body art together. But if you followed this strand, what narrative do these images tell you?

Set across geographies and timespans, replete with literary fireworks, The Night Alphabet is a furious, gripping, dazzlingly original novel and a deep and bold investigation into violence, resilience and women’s stories.

 

After the live reading, Joelle will be in conversation about the process of writing and performing her debut novel:

  • On Fri 24 May, with Paul Burston, author of six novels and five non-fiction books including his new memoir We Can Be Heroes, and host of the award-winning LGBTQ+ literary salon Polari.
  • On Sat 25 May, with acclaimed theatre maker Neil Bartlett. His most recent work with performers includes stagings of Derek Jarman’s BLUE and Virginia Woolf’s ORLANDO, starring Emma Corrin as well as THE NIGHT ALPHABET with Joelle Taylor

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