August 5, 2021 7:00 PM
7 - 8.30PM
There’s a wealth of trans and nonbinary writing talent in Scotland just now, and we’re so excited to celebrate it at this year's Free Pride. Join us for a panel discussion with writers Harry Josephine Giles, Esraa Husain, River E MacAskill, Etzali Hernández, Ely Percy and our brilliant chair, Michael Richardson.
Harry Josephine Giles is from Orkney and lives in Leith. Their verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia is coming out with Picador in October 2021. They have a PhD in Creative Writing from Stirling. Their show Drone debuted in the Made in Scotland Showcase at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe and toured internationally. www.harryjosephine.com
Esraa Husain is a multi-ethnic non-binary creative writer, immigrant and academic based in Scotland. Esraa is currently working on a PhD research in Black Scottish writing, migrancy, political agency and postcolonial theory at the University of Glasgow. They are the founder of UBelongGlasgow: a multilingual community platform that features BPOC, LGBT+ and disabled creatives.
Their fiction and nonfiction writings and photography have been featured in Gutter, The Bottle Imp, Somewhere for Us, Scottish BAME Writers Network, Sapphic Writers, See Me Proud, Kohl Journal/ مجلة كحل, Unootha Mag, Sekka Mag and more. You can reach Esraa on Facebook: Esraa Husain / UBelongGlasgow
River Ellen MacAskill is a writer from the north of Scotland based in Glasgow. They co-founded the Writers 4 Utopia queer sci-fi collective; wrote ‘A9’, a coming-of-age novella included in Hometown Tales: Highlands & Hebrides (W&N, 2018); and have self-published work including the ongoing Slow Down per-zine series and the lesbian road trip novel Coasting (2021). Their poetry pamphlet Virility at Home was recently published by Death of Workers While Building Skyscrapers. Follow their work on Instagram @__leomoon.
Etzali Hernández is a Glasgow-based nonbinary queer latinx poet, coder & dj. Poetry is their way to document their experiences and the politics entangled in it. Their work has been published in Ascend Magazine, We Were Always Here: A Queer Words Anthology and in the Scottish BAME Writers Network's pamphlet, Ceremony.
Ely Percy’s first publication was a letter-cum-poem in Big! magazine in 1994. Since then, they’ve released a memoir Cracked (JKP, 2002), contributed over fifty short stories to literary journals, and published two novels, Vicky Romeo Plus Joolz (Knight Errant Press, 2019) and Duck Feet (Monstrous Regiment, 2021).
Michael Lee Richardson is a writer and youth worker based in Glasgow. Michael’s short film, My Loneliness is Killing Me – directed by Tim Courtney – won a BAFTA Scotland Award in 2018. Michael currently has television and feature projects in development with Kindle Entertainment, Projector Pictures, Balloon, Tigerlily and Bombito.
Michael’s work appears in Proud and Queering the Map of Glasgow. Michael’s first poetry pamphlet, You Can’t Love Yourself - poems about RuPaul Andre Charles - was published in 2020. With Ryan Vance, Michael edited We Were Always Here, an anthology of queer Scottish writing, published by 404 Ink.
Book your free ticket on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-pride-trans-and-nonbinary-writers-panel-tickets-164094674589
When you join one of our events, there will be information visible on screen to let you know you’re in the right place. Our event hosts will introduce the event verbally, and this will also appear written in the chat box. We also hope to have BSL interpreting and/or live transcription available.
This event will be run as a webinar on Zoom, where only the invited speakers will be visible on screen. You won’t be able to turn your camera or microphone on. You will be able to ask questions of the panel members by using the Q&A function. Please note this event will also be recorded, to allow us to share with people who can’t attend at the time.
Zoom can be accessed using the app or on your internet browser, and can be used on computers, tablets and smartphones that are connected to the internet. Zoom uses around 1GB data per hour, so will use around 1-2GB data for this event.
If you have any questions about using Zoom, we will be happy to help you. If you have limited or no internet access, we have a fund available to help you with these costs. We won’t ask you to show any evidence of your income or circumstances. If you need any support, please contact us by emailing hello@freepride.gay