Brighton Festival Live: Masha Gessen

The Harriet Martineau Lecture
Introduced by Ali Smith
Presented with New Writing South

Celebrated Russian-American journalist, author and activist Masha Gessen is world-renowned for her outspoken opposition to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and as Russia’s leading LGBT rights activist. At one stage she was, in her own words, ‘probably the only publicly out gay person in the whole of Russia’. Her latest book, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, is an investigation into the origins and motivations of the dissident art-punk group that made headlines around the world.

An exploration of freedom of speech and investigative journalism.

Masha Gessen delivers the annual Harriet Martineau Lecture commissioned by Writers’ Centre Norwich and first performed in Norwich on Saturday 16 May as part of the City of Literature programme. Norwich is England’s only UNESCO City of Literature. www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk

Commissioned by Writers’ Centre Norwich to celebrate the life and legacy of Harriet Martineau, a 19th century radical thinker, writer and the world’s first female journalist.