QCL Book Club is BACK for 2026 and we’re oh so excited to welcome author Curtis Garner to our January meeting to discuss his 2024 novel, Isaac and his highly anticipated second novel Orange, coming out in February.
Verve Books are kindly offering QCL Book Club attendees 50% off Isaac in paperback or eBook AND 30% off Curtis' new novel Orange in paperback (+ postage and packaging for print editions). Paperback copies of Orange are due in at the start of January, so you will receive your copy in advance of official publication on 19th February. How exclusive! Discount codes will be sent directly to attendees after you have signed up for a ticket.
In the meeting, we’ll be primarily discussing Isaac and will have the chance to chat with Curtis about both of his books.
📖 About Isaac
Set in London across a single, life-altering summer, Isaac explores masculinity and queerness in the digital age and offers a fresh take on desire and intimacy, adolescent obsession and dangerous first love.
After inexperienced seventeen-year-old Isaac loses his virginity through a dating app - a disappointing yet addictive experience - he spends his final months before university escaping into a dizzying new world of casual sex with forgettable men. This all changes when he meets twenty-eight-year-old Harrison at a party.
Isaac is immediately infatuated by the handsome, charismatic artist, but while they grow closer, his sense of self becomes increasingly hazy. Harrison's demands shift constantly, and after Isaac tries everything to prove his worthiness, he must take a hard look at his ideas about love, sex and men, and his relationship with himself.
✍🏼 About Curtis Garner
Curtis Garner is the author of the ‘instant queer classic’ Isaac, which was published in 2024 to critical acclaim. He was born in Cornwall in 1996 and moved to London when he was eighteen to study Creative Writing and English Literature. He graduated in 2017 and has been working in publishing since. In 2020, he also received an MA with Distinction from Manchester Writing School, where much of Isaac was written. In his spare time he reviews novels on Instagram (@queer_novels). Orange is his second novel.
🌈 About QCL Book Club
Join a friendly and like-minded group of book-loving LGBTQ+ creatives, to discuss a classic and diverse range of queer texts.
We read one book per month and meet once a month at Thingy Cafe in Hackney, on the last Tuesday of every month from 7pm - 9pm.
Thingy Cafe is a wonderful and spacious community cafe in Hackney Wick, with a lush garden space, selling a range of drinks and bites. It is fully wheelchair accessible and has an accessible toilet.
QCL Book Club is a FREE event, and is open to a maximum of 30 people per meeting. Tickets are first come first serve.
🫂 Accessibility
We are a neurodivergent and disability friendly book club and aim to make our meetings as accessible as possible! There is no pressure to speak during meetings if you don’t wish to, or to finish text before meetings if this isn’t possible.
We also have first aiders and mental health first aiders present at each event.
If you have any access needs you’d like to discuss before attending, or if you have any other questions, please get in touch! You can contact us on our Instagram @queercreativeslondon or via email at events@queercreativeslondon.co.uk
If you have a ticket but are unable to attend, please return your ticket ASAP, so that someone else can come in your place.