16 Oct 2022 Small Wonder, Charleston, East Sussex Small Wonder is a festival of short-form writing, and one novel that has provoked much novel/novella debate is @wordsbynatasha’s exquisite Assembly. I was honoured to be asked to interview her for the Charleston audience about her writing process, her starting points, and how her maths background proved critical in her approach to interrogating language and developing the unnamed narrator’s voice. I’ve rarely spoken to someone more brilliant and assured; Natasha Brown is destined for a great career. Many thanks to @charlestontrust for bringing us together and for the delightful hospitality. 💖 I also got to highlight In the Life, a 1986 anthology of Black, queer writing from the US edited by Joseph Beam, that is full of still-relevant insight and is a dispatch from the centre of the Aids crisis. It costs a fortune to acquire these rare books and have them shipped over, so if any UK publishers are interested and the rights are available, this seminal (no pun intended) text is overdue a reprint. #charleston #natashabrown #aitkenalexander #inthelife #josephbeam