Headfirst Editor's Pick
"Sell out warning! Acclaimed ‘Transgender Issue’ author, intellectual heavyweight of the activism world, and now radical memoirist, Shon Faye joins Bristolian poet Vanessa Kisuule to discuss her new work: ‘Love In Exile’ is a manifesto for anyone who’s ever longed for a Carrie Bradshaw/Mark Fisher crossover, dissecting the politics of love with wisdom, wit and candour."
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A event held at St George's Bristol on Monday 28th April. The event starts at 18:30.
Shon Faye grew up quietly obsessed with the feeling that love was not for her. Not just romantic love: the secret fear of her own unworthiness penetrated every aspect and corner of her life. It was a fear that would erupt in destructive, counterfeit versions of the real love she craved: addictions and short-lived romances that were either euphoric and fantastical, or excruciatingly painful and unhinged, often both. Faye’s experience of the world as a trans woman, who grew up visibly queer, exacerbated her fears. But, as she confronted her damaging ideas about love and lovelessness, she came to realize that this sense of exclusion is symptomatic of a much larger problem in our culture.
Love, she argues, is as much a collective question as a personal one. Yet our collective ideals of love have developed in a society which is itself profoundly sick and loveless; in which consumer capitalism sells us ever new, engrossing fantasies of becoming more loved or lovable. In this highly politicized terrain, boundaries are purposefully drawn to keep some in and to keep others out. Those who exist outside them are ignored, denigrated, exiled.
In Love in Exile, Shon Faye shows love is much greater than the narrow ideals we have been taught to crave so desperately that we are willing to bend and break ourselves to fit them. Wise, funny, unsparing, and suffused with a radical clarity, this is a book of and for our times: for seeing and knowing love, in whatever form it takes, is the meaning of life itself.
Shon will be in conversation here in her home city of Bristol in conversation with Vanessa Kisuule. Presented by bookhaus.
Shon Faye is author of the acclaimed bestseller The Transgender Issue. Her work has been published in, among others, the Guardian, Independent, British Vogue and VICE. She writes an advice column, Dear Shon, for Vogue.com. Born in Bristol, she now lives in London.
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer and facilitator based in Bristol. She has won over ten poetry slam titles and performed nationally and internationally. She has worked with the BBC, the British Library, the Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Bristol Old Vic, CILIP and Glastonbury Festival. She was the Bristol City Poet for 2018 - 2020 and her poem on the toppling of Edward Colston's statue ‘Hollow' garnered over 700,000 views and is frequently used as a resource in schools and universities. She wrote and presented ‘The Poetry Detective’ for Radio 4 and has two collections with Burning Eye Books. Her poetry has been anthologised widely, including in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019. She is the co-tutor for the Southbank New Poets Collective alongside Will Harris and was a judge for the Forward Prizes and the Foyle Young Poets in 2024. Neverland is her debut non fiction book.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
Love, she argues, is as much a collective question as a personal one. Yet our collective ideals of love have developed in a society which is itself profoundly sick and loveless; in which consumer capitalism sells us ever new, engrossing fantasies of becoming more loved or lovable. In this highly politicized terrain, boundaries are purposefully drawn to keep some in and to keep others out. Those who exist outside them are ignored, denigrated, exiled.
In Love in Exile, Shon Faye shows love is much greater than the narrow ideals we have been taught to crave so desperately that we are willing to bend and break ourselves to fit them. Wise, funny, unsparing, and suffused with a radical clarity, this is a book of and for our times: for seeing and knowing love, in whatever form it takes, is the meaning of life itself.
Shon will be in conversation here in her home city of Bristol in conversation with Vanessa Kisuule. Presented by bookhaus.
Shon Faye is author of the acclaimed bestseller The Transgender Issue. Her work has been published in, among others, the Guardian, Independent, British Vogue and VICE. She writes an advice column, Dear Shon, for Vogue.com. Born in Bristol, she now lives in London.
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer and facilitator based in Bristol. She has won over ten poetry slam titles and performed nationally and internationally. She has worked with the BBC, the British Library, the Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Bristol Old Vic, CILIP and Glastonbury Festival. She was the Bristol City Poet for 2018 - 2020 and her poem on the toppling of Edward Colston's statue ‘Hollow' garnered over 700,000 views and is frequently used as a resource in schools and universities. She wrote and presented ‘The Poetry Detective’ for Radio 4 and has two collections with Burning Eye Books. Her poetry has been anthologised widely, including in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019. She is the co-tutor for the Southbank New Poets Collective alongside Will Harris and was a judge for the Forward Prizes and the Foyle Young Poets in 2024. Neverland is her debut non fiction book.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
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