livestream: Are We Home Yet? by Katy Massey
Thursday 26th November
livestream - 7pm - free entry
Register your interest by getting your free ticket, instructions to join will be emailed shortly afterwards. For your security and ours, you cannot attend this talk without registering in advance first.
Join Katy Massey via ZOOM as she explores shame, immigration and class in her memoir Are We Home Yet?
Spanning the years from 1935 to 2010, Are We Home Yet? is the moving and funny story of a girl and her mother. As a girl, Katy accidentally discovers her mother is earning money as a sex worker at the family home, rupturing their bond. As an adult, Katy contends with grief and mental health challenges before she and her mother attempt to heal their relationship.
From Canada, to Leeds and Jamaica, and exploring shame, immigration and class, the pair share their stories but struggle to understand each other’s choices in a fast-changing world. By revealing their truths, can these two strong women call a truce on their hostilities and overcome the oppressive ghosts of the past?
Katy Massey was a journalist for fifteen years before returning to university and beginning to write creatively. Her PhD findings formed the inspiration for Tangled Roots, a long-term project aiming to equip everyone with the skills to author their own lives. She is a skilled workshop leader, editor and writer.
Her life writing and fiction has been shortlisted for several prizes including Leeds Literature Prize 2013, Crocus Books/Commonword First Chapter competition 2010 as well as being long-listed for Route publications A Few Good Books submissions competition 2010. She has also edited two collections of memoirs. In 2017 she was a judge for the first-ever Spread the Word Life Writing Prize.
Are We Home Yet? is part of Jacaranda Books #Twentyin2020 It is the first time a UK publisher will publish 20 titles by 20 Black British writers in one year. The books include adult fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The aim of the initiative is to normalize the presence of diverse literature and to amplify the voice of Black Britons as valued members of British culture and society.
Register via Eventbrite for instructions to join ZOOM event. This is a free entry event, but if you'd like to sling October Books a donation, please do.
You can order ‘Are We Home Yet?’ (or any of the #TwentyIn2020 titles from Jacaranda Books) from us at October Books here!
