Join us for an evening of powerful storytelling, queer joy, and intimate conversation as debut authors Chloe Michelle Howarth (Sunburn) and Dylin Hardcastle (A Language of Limbs) come together for a special event hosted by acclaimed writer and performer Travis Alabanza.
In A Language of Limbs, Hardcastle explores love and how it’s policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak — a vibrant celebration of queer life that demands we claim our futures for ourselves.
Howarth’s Sunburn is a richly evocative debut set in early 1990s small-town Ireland, centring on the forbidden relationship between Lucy and Susannah. As the prejudices of the time threaten to close in, the novel tenderly captures the pain and beauty of a double life lived in secret.
Expect readings, reflections, and a moving conversation on writing queer identity, defiance, and desire.

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Dylin Hardcastle (they/them) is an award-winning author, artist, screenwriter and former Provost’s Scholar at the University of Oxford. They are the author of four critically acclaimed books. Their work has been translated into eight languages. Dylin is the co-writer and co-director of Cloudy River. Their most recent novel, A Language of Limbs, has been optioned by Sony Pictures and is in development.

Chloe Michelle Howarth was born in July 1996. She grew up in the West Cork countryside, which has served as an inspiration for her writing. She attended university at IADT in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, where she studied English, Media and Cultural Studies. Chloe currently lives in Brighton. Her debut novel, Sunburn, was shortlisted for the 2024 Polari First Book Prize, the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award at the British Book Awards and the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction and longlisted for the 2024 Diverse Book Awards.