“Numbers tell stories, and Pulitzer-Prize winning data journalist Mona Chalabi’s skill lies in telling them in ways that get people talking. Through illustration, words, and sound, Chalabi makes the intangible tangible – like in March 2024’s Guardian piece, ‘The Story of Gaza’s Destruction in 100 Lives’. With Heather Parry, Chalabi talks about how, lately, she’s turned her grief for Palestine into work that aims to spread awareness, and the tensions that comes with responsibility.

Supported by the Centre for Data, Culture & Society”

Tickets here from June 20th.

“Why’s everyone so obsessed with sex robots? And what will happen if they ever make it out of the lab? Join these two authors as they tackle these questions. Sarah Crossan’s Hey Zoey imagines one woman’s dilemma on discovering her husband’s animatronic sex doll in their garage. Meanwhile in Electric Dreams: On Sex Robots and the Failed Promises of Capitalism, Heather Parry asks what our obsession with sextech says about us.”

Tickets here from June 20th.

“The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes centres around the relationships between sisters meeting after their parents’ death. But more than that, it is a novel of ideas: about climate change, about the choices we make, and how to go on when everything seems blatantly futile. Talking to Heather Parry, the author asks why we bother with faith when reason tells us otherwise.”

Tickets here from June 20th

“‘A Russian doll of a book’ is how the Financial Times described Catherine Lacey’s Biography of X, a novel disguised in biographical form, riven with complexity and intrigue. When ‘X’, an iconoclastic artist dies suddenly, her grief-stricken widow begins to realise how little she knew about the woman she loved. Lacey joins us to discuss this thrilling, counterfactual, and dystopian adventure with Heather Parry.”

Tickets here from June 20th.

“In a vital conversation two authors examine threats to human rights in the 21st century from different angles. Baroness Shami Chakrabarti’s Human Rights reasserts the case for dignity and universal freedoms in the face of increasing authoritarianism, inequality, and conflict. While Susie Alegre’s Human Rights, Robot Wrongs explores the impact of AI on our right to life, liberty, privacy, and free expression.”

Tickets here from June 20th.

“Jane Flett’s Freakslaw, ‘a queer punk masterpiece’, sees a dazzling funfair pull up in a rundown Scottish town, leaving mayhem and desire in its wake. Luda, the long-awaited first novel from comics legend Grant Morrison, imagines an alternate, hallucinatory Glasgow of drag queens, murder, and the occult. Here, we explore two new and truly surreal visions of Scotland from extraordinary storytellers. Chaired by Heather Parry.”

Tickets here from June 20th.

“Writers vs AI? Heather Parry, Sam Riviere, and Pip Thornton discuss the findings from Writing the Wrongs of AI: a pioneering series of workshops led by Thornton (University of Edinburgh Chancellor’s Fellow in GeoSciences), in partnership with the Book Festival. Bringing authors, publishers, and legal and technical experts together to playfully confront the challenges and possibilities of AI, and restore agency to writers as we grapple with this rapidly evolving arena.

In partnership with BRAID/School of GeoSciences.”

Tickets here from Jun 20th.

“Are we really free to choose what we buy and how we live? Not according to Grace Blakeley, acclaimed journalist and regular commentator on the Today programme and Question Time. In her new book, Vulture Capitalism, Blakeley challenges the notion that capitalism and freedom go hand in hand. She joins us today to discuss how we can change the system we’ve inherited with Heather Parry.”

Tickets here from Jun 20th.

With Samia Rahman, Heather Parry, Zahra Barri,

”Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion delving into the complex historical, contemporary and prospective landscapes of misogyny and its impact on women worldwide. 

In this pressing event, we will shed light on the current state of affairs, exploring the various forms of misogyny prevalent in today’s world, including systemic discrimination, gender-based violence and cultural biases. Looking towards the future, our panelists will engage in forward-thinking dialogue, envisioning strategies and initiatives to challenge and dismantle misogyny in all its forms. 

Join us as we embark on a journey through time, examining the past, confronting the present and envisioning a future free from the shackles of misogyny. 

Tickets here.

“We're delighted to give Julia Armfield a big Independent Bookshop Week welcome to the bookshop when she returns to discuss her new novel, Private Rites. We were lucky enough to celebrate the publication of Armfield's debut novel Our Wives Under the Sea with an event in March 2022 and we've all been eagerly anticipating what she'd write next!

This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.

In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of Private Rites – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on the website against a single copy of Private Rites.”

Tickets here.

Writer Heather Parry will lead the Young Writers’ Café for young people in Inverness and surrounding areas in June.

Writing the Gothic: Join Heather Parry for an exploration of writing into the gothic genre, and how we can draw upon its long history in new, fresh and exciting ways.

No need for experience, just bring along a playful mind and pen and paper! Drinks and snacks provided.

Please note, this workshop is free but but you do need to secure your place by booking below. By booking, you confirm that you are a young writer aged 14-24, and based in Scotland. For enquiries, contact youngwriters@moniackmhor.org.uk.”

Book here.

“Them! by Harry Josephine Giles is a challenging and subversive collection of poems about trans life as it is lived today, through the lenses of work, technology and ecology. Witty, candid, furious, and always compelling, Them! negotiates the fraught and fruitful space between the worlds of ‘online’ and the ‘outside’, and how they fuse and diverge in the imagination.

Giles’ visual poetics create an unusually dynamic reading experience as she finds new ways ‘to sing, shout and strike in the cracks of what’s possible’. At a time when trans rights are to the fore in public discourse, Them! is a zestful poetic intervention from one of this generation’s most necessary poets.”

Chaired by Heather Parry

Tickets here.

From their website:

Kirsty Logan and Heather Parry are both award-winning, Glasgow-based writers.

Kirsty’s work has been described by Ursula Le Guin as ‘highly original....haunting and mysterious’. Her debut short story collection won the Polari First Book Prize, and her recent works include the novel Now She is Witch and her motherhood memoir The Unfamiliar. She is currently working on film and TV projects.

Heather is the author of the shortlisted Scottish Book of the Year 2023 novel Orpheus Builds a Girl, the short story collection This is My Body, Given For You, and the forthcoming non-fiction Electric Dreams: Sex Robots and Failed Promises of Capitalism. She also won Cove Park's 2017 Emerging Writer residency.

Heather and Kirsty co-hosted the Teenage Scream podcast, revisiting the best (and worst) of 90s teen horror, so we’re getting them together again in the Hub for some great book chat about horror, bodies, and all things weird fiction.

Get your free tickets here.

From the Toppings website:

”We're thrilled to be welcoming back to the bookshop a bookseller favourite and beloved local writer, Heather Parry. From the mind that brought the enthrallingly horrifying reads, Orpheus Builds a Girl and This Is My Body, Given For You, comes a pocket-friendly and thought provoking work of non-fiction with local publisher 404 Ink.

Join us for an evening in the bookshop for a wee glass of wine and what promises to be a riveting discussion!

Electric Dreams

Fans of 404 Ink's Inkling series will know that the short volumes pack a disproportionately sizeable intellectual punch.

Previously contained to the realms of science fiction, sex robots are increasingly looking like a potential scientific possibility... or are they?

Roboticists say they’re a distracting science fiction, yet endless books, films and articles are written on the subject. Campaigns are even mounted against them. So why are sex robots such a hot topic? Electric Dreams picks apart the forces that posit sex robots as either the solution to our problems or a real threat to human safety, and looks at what’s being pushed aside for us to obsess about something that will never happen.”

Get tickets here.

Alan Moore in conversation with Heather Parry – 3pm, Sunday 19 November, Youtube Live Eventbrite page link coming soon.

Join Alan Moore, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of comics, as he discusses his new short story collection Illuminations with Heather Parry. Alan, creator of Lost Girls, From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, and Heather, author of Orpheus Builds a Girl and This is my Body, Given to You, will discuss his illustrious career to date and points of connection across their works.

Please note this is a digital event. Registering via Eventbrite ensures you will receive email notifications and the watch link for the event.

About Alan Moore

Alan Moore, born in Northampton in 1953, is a writer, performer, recording artist, activist and magician. His comic-book work includes Lost Girls (2009) with Melinda Gebbie, From Hell (1991) with Eddie Campbell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (for which he won a Bram Stoker Award in 2000) with Kevin O’Neill. He has worked with director Mitch Jenkins on the Show Pieces cycle of short films and on the feature film The Show, while his novels include Voice of the Fire (1996) and his epic Jerusalem (2016). A short story collection Illuminations (2022) and his forthcoming Long London series of novels are from Bloomsbury. He lives in Northampton with his wife and collaborator Melinda Gebbie.

About Heather Parry

Heather Parry is a fiction writer and editor originally from Rotherham, South Yorkshire. She is the co-founder and Editorial Director of Extra Teeth magazine, co-host of the Teenage Scream podcast and the Scottish Senior Policy & Liaison Manager for the Society of Authors, a trade union for writers. In 2021 she created the free-access Illustrated Freelancer’s Guide with artist Maria Stoian. She won the 2016 Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer, Cove Park's 2017 Emerging Writer residency, the Laxfield Literary Launch Prize in 2021 and was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2021. Her short stories and nonfiction have been published internationally and her debut novel, Orpheus Builds a Girl, was released in October 2022 by Gallic Books, and her short story collection - This Is My Body, Given For You was published by Haunt Publishing in 2023.

Youtube Live Eventbrite page link coming soon.

Martin and Heather will be joining us at Haddington Library on Tuesday 14 November at 7:00pm as part of our Book Week Scotland programme.

They will talking about how the places they’ve travelled to or lived have influenced their work as well as speaking to us about their most recent novels.

Night Owl Books will also be there if you would like to purchase a copy of their books to be signed.

Tickets are FREE but booking is required. Please contact Haddington Library to book your spot:

Email haddington.library@eastlothian.gov.uk for tickets

“First published in Argentina in 2015 and now finally available in English, Fernanda Trías’s Pink Slime traces the complications of re-imagining family in the wake of ecological disaster while Samanta Schweblin’s short stories, Seven Empty Houses, sets the comforts of home off-kilter. Trías and Schweblin join us to discuss the complexity of finding where home lies in a turbulent world and the islands of respite that make life worth living. Chaired by Heather Parry.”

Tickets and info here.

“In Heather Parry’s chilling debut Orpheus Builds a Girl, a woman presents her side of the story against the scientist who – with nobody’s permission – has brought her sister back from the dead. In renowned poet Em Strang’s Quinn, a mother opens her home to her daughter’s killer, recently released from prison. Join them for a conversation about autonomy and ownership with Harry Josephine Giles.”

Tickets and more info here.

“For many budding writers the idea of simply being published is enough but what happens next? How do you establish and develop a writing career that makes you a living? In this panel chaired by Heather Parry, four authors share the highs and lows of their careers and explore how they developed the resilience and skills needed to sustain them financially and creatively. Featuring Helen Sedgwick, Jenny Colgan, Nadine Aisha Jassat, and Nikesh Shukla.

In partnership with The Society of Authors”

Tickets and more info here.

“Join three striking debut novelists in conversation about identity, sexuality, and the terrain of the body. Heather Parry’s Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of gruesome obsession which interrogates ownership of women’s bodies; K Patrick’s Mrs S deftly describes the experience of life that does not conform, and Camila Sosa Villada’s The Queens Of Sarmiento Park follows a group of sex workers in Argentina. Chaired by Harry Josephine Giles.”

Get tickets and more info here.

“Creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, Alan Moore is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the history of graphic novels. He joins us in this exclusive digital event to discuss his first short story collection, Illuminations. Spanning 40 years of short form work, the collection includes the novella ‘What We Can Know About Thunderman’, a brilliant and brutal account of the 20th century comics industry that is as hilarious and fascinating as the man himself. Please note, Alan Moore appears remotely in conversation with Heather Parry.”

Get tickets and info here.

“Join us to welcome Heather Parry to Battersea Bookshop talking about her deliciously macabre and gripping tale Orpheus Builds A Girl. Based on a chilling true story, this dark and strangely beautiful novel is one of anguish and obsessive love.

Wilhelm von Tore is dying. As he looks back on his life he reflects on his upbringing in Dresden, his beloved grandmother and his medical career during the Second World War. But mostly he remembers his darling Luci, the great love of his life, his dark-haired beauty promised to him in a dream years before they met.

But through the cracks in Wilhem’s story there is another voice, that of Gabriela, and she will not let this version of events go unchallenged. She tells the story of her sister Luciana, fearless and full of life, and the madman who robbed her from her grave.

‘Heather Parry is terrifyingly brilliant, one of the most interesting and talented British writers to emerge in recent memory. Orpheus Builds a Girl is a sinister dark flower of a book, both intoxicating and beautiful’ Camilla Grudova, author of Children of Paradise

‘Superbly creepy from the start… It’s a modern take on classic Gothic fiction, and while it certainly owes a debt to the likes of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it breaks new ground of its own and will chill readers to the bone. Disturbing and compelling in equal measure’ The Big Issue

‘Heather Parry is a literary star of the future. I’ve been a fan of her writing for years, and this novel is all I hoped for and more. Bold, sinister and debate-provoking’ Kirsty Logan”

Doors will open at 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start.

Tickets £7

Include a complimentary glass of wine/ soft drink and 15% discount on any book in the shop when purchased on the evening.

Get tickets and info here!

Email the shop at hello@thewestkirbybookshop.com for tickets and details!

“This Is My Body, Given For You is the debut short story collection from Heather Parry.

We invite you to join for a book launch to celebrate the publication!”

Tickets and details here.

“Creating fiction that pushes the boundaries and taking weird to a whole new level, authorrs Gemma Amor, John McGlade and Heather Parry question the everyday, the meaning of reality and bring a strange new meaning to familiar spaces.”

Tickets and details here.

“Dealing with loss and desiring revenge, two women join forces in Kirsty Logan’s mesmeric dark tale. Now She is Witch is set in a richly drawn world where women grasp at power through witchcraft, poisons and sexuality. 

Some of what they say about witches is true.

She dug her mother's grave in the poison garden so it would stay hidden...

Lux has lost everything when Else finds her, alone in the woods. Her family, her lover, her home - all burned. The world is suspicious of women like her, neither maiden nor mother. But Lux is cunning; she knows how to exploit people's expectations, how to blend into the background. And she knows a lot about poisons.

From the snowy winter woods to the bright midnight sun; from the horrors of plague to the relief of healing; from lost and powerless to finding your path, Now She is Witch questions the oppositions that shadow our lives. In rich and immersive prose Kirsty Logan conjures a world of violence and beauty in which women grasp at power through witchcraft and poisons, through sexuality and childbearing, through performance and pretence, and most of all through throwing other women to the wolves. This is a witch story unlike any other

Based on a chilling true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is Heather’s debut novel

Wilhelm von Tore is dying. As he looks back on his life he reflects on his upbringing in Dresden, his beloved Grandmother and his medical career during the second world war. But mostly he remembers his darling Luci, the great love of his life, his dark-haired beauty promised to him in a dream years before they met.

Though only together for a few months in her first life, their love is written in the stars. Using scientific research compiled over decades, Wilhelm ensures that, for him and his beloved, death is only the beginning. But through the cracks in Wilhem’s story there is another voice, that of Gabriela, and she will not let this version of events go unchallenged. She tells the story of her sister Luciana, fearless and full of life, and the madman who robbed her from her grave.’

Kirsty Logan is a professional daydreamer. Winner of the Scott Prize, the Polari First Book Prize and the Saboteur Award. Her first novel, The Gracekeepers, won a Lambda Literary Award and was selected for the Radio 2 Book Club and the Waterstones Book Club. A Portable Shelter won the Gavin Wallace Fellowship and Things We Say in the Dark, a collection of feminist horror stories, was optioned for TV. Her short fiction and poetry have been translated into Japanese, Spanish, Italian and Chinese, adapted for stage, recorded for radio and exhibited in galleries. 

Heather Parry won the 2016 Bridge Award for an Emerging Writer, Cove Park's 2017 Emerging Writer residency, the Laxfield Literary Launch Prize in 2021 and was a Hawthornden Fellow in 2021.”

Tickets and details here.

I’ll be chairing this launch for an excellent Charco Press title, speaking to both writer and translator!

From the website:
”We are truly honoured to be welcoming Bolivian author Giovanna Rivero, as well as her translator Isabel Adey, in the Bookshop for a brilliant night celebrating the English publication of Fresh Dirt from the Grave. With shipwrecks, dive bars, and exploring themes of possession, and science, Giovanna's collection of short stories plants itself at the muddy intersection of gothic horror and science fiction. Suffice to say that Giovanna's world is one where contemporary horrors and ancient terrors meet.

In Fresh Dirt from the Grave, a collision of harshness and tenderness animates Giovanna Rivero's stories, where no degree of darkness (buried bodies, lost children, wild paroxysms of violence) can take away from the gentleness she shows all violated creatures. A mad aunt haunts her family, two Bolivian children are left on the outskirts of a Metis reservation outside Winnipeg, a widow teaches origami in a women's prison. Murders, housefires, and poisonings abound, but so does the persistent bravery of people trying to forge ahead in the face of the world. They are offered cruelty, often, indifference at best, and yet they keep going.

Rivero has reworked the boundaries of the gothic to engage with pre-Columbian ritual, folk tales, sci-fi and eroticism, and found in the wound their humanity and the possibility of hope. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a truly fantastic event with Giovanna, Isabel, and Charco Press, one of our booksellers' favourite local and independent publisher.”

Tickets and details here

“Join us for the launch of Heather Parry's debut short story collection, This Is My Body, Given For You. We have loved teaming up with Haunt Publishing in the past to launch their previous publications and this time is no different! Join us to celebrate this consuming collection of stories by the brilliant Heather Parry, exploring the ways the body can be changed, altered and escaped from.

This will be an informal launch. Heather will give a short reading and there will be refreshments on offer on the night.

In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of This Is My Body, Given For You – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book.

Please note that there will not be a livestream of this event.

About This Is My Body, Given For You:

A girl suffering a bizarre menstrual aberration is exploited by those around her, including her father. A boy expresses his love for a nonhuman man by making himself animalistic. A girl abandoned by her community discovers the possibility of transmutation through cannibalism. A man struggles with his wife’s choices around her existence, and considers whether he should leave her alone in her semi- oblivion, or join her.

In This Is My Body, Given For You, Heather Parry places in our hands fifteen stories in which the body is something that can be changed, altered, and escaped from. With dripping blood, bruised tentacles, and seamed skin, Heather Parry’s debut short story collection will consume you.”

Tickets and details here.

National Centre for Writing is delivering a day of inspirational talks and networking for novelists at the beginning of their career. Join us for a series of informative and empowering sessions designed to help you build resilience, balance the practical and emotional aspects of publishing, and plot the next steps in your writing journey.

Speakers include Heather Parry, debut novelist of Orpheus Builds a Girl and Scottish Senior Policy & Liaison Manager for the Society of Authors; Sam Ruddock, founder and director of independent publisher Story Machines; Hannah Chukwu, editor at Dialogue Books; and Ellah P. Wakatama, Editor At Large at Canongate and Publishing Director at The Indigo Press.

A day ticket includes:

• Welcome delegate pack

• Tea and coffee on arrival

• Talks and activities across the day

• A catered lunch with soft drink

• Drinks reception following the event

The programme for the day, includes:

• A keynote address from Jill Dawson on finding joy from endurance

• Your public self: pitching, performing, and engaging with readers

• Making and managing money as a writer

• Publishing routes, from self to traditional publishing

Scroll down to read the full outline.

Tickets are available for purchase at a subsidised day rate of £30. A low-income concession ticket is £15. Some childcare and travel bursaries are available, please see below.

Delegates will be offered a 20% discount on Society of Authors membership.

This industry day is part of Season of Debuts, a programme which champions the work of early career writers through a combination of physical and online events, partnerships, commissions, podcasts, media features, residencies and exchanges. It is a legacy of the Desmond Elliott Prize.

Buy tickets here.

Please join the Edinburgh Writers' Forum March meeting for what promises to be a fascinating and enlightening evening for writers. Our guest speakers are writer Heather Parry, who also works with the Society of Authors, and James Appleby, a translator, editor and poet.

Get tickets and more info here.