Kevin Chen joins Queer East in London for a conversation with Adam Zmith, on his award-winning novel Ghost Town, bringing his distinctive voice as one of the most celebrated writers in contemporary Taiwanese queer literature.
About the book
The novel follows Keith Chen, who returns to his rural hometown after years in Berlin and a prison sentence, drawn back by forces of family, memory, and place that refuse release. Set during Ghost Festival, his homecoming unfolds through a narrative repeatedly handed over to the living and the dead, as watchful ghost voices reveal family secrets, superstition, and the unresolved tensions of migration, sexuality, and belonging. Ghost Town traces how displacement leaves enduring fractures in family and selfhood.
About the Author:
Kevin Chen
Now based in Germany, Chen’s writing draws on questions of migration, memory, family, and queer identity that resonate closely with his own transnational trajectory.
About the Host
photo by Jade Smith
Adam Zmith
Adam Zmith is a writer and podcast producer whose work explores the beats of our bodies, in the past, present and future. He is the author of Solemates: A History of Our Fetish for Feet (404 Inklings, 2024) and Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures (Repeater Books, 2021), which won the Polari First Book Prize, 2022. His latest book is The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline that Listened, with Tash Walker, (Faber, January 2026). He writes theatre shows, talks and podcasts, including Press Play Turn On which won Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards 2024.