Upcoming events
A Jingle Jangle Song, Bookbag Launch, Exeter
D-M Withers in conversation with Karishma Koshal
A Jingle Jangle Song at Chapter Arts, Cardiff
D-M Withers in conversation with Rachel Dawson
Bristol Central Library - Lunchtime Lecture
To celebrate the LGBTQIA+ history month, this lunchtime lecture will introduce you to an important, and until now largely unknown queer novelist, Mariana Villa-Gilbert (1937-2023), and her finest novel, A Jingle Jangle Song.
Villa-Gilbert was a prolific young author in the 1960s, but has since slipped from the history books. She published six novels with Chatto & Windus in the 1960s and 70s, including A Jingle Jangle Song (first published in 1968), an atmospheric and cosy sapphic work set in London’s swinging folk scene.
A Jingle Jangle Song is the lost lesbian novel of the late 1960s, and one of only thirty published between 1946-67 that openly depicted a queer relationship. To read it, writes literary critic Leigh Wilson, “is to discover a missing link in the tradition of the 20th century lesbian novel.”
Bristol based indie publisher Lurid Editions are excited to re-introduce readers today to this important and intoxicating love story. This lecture will discuss Villa-Gilbert’s life and work, queer book and publishing history, and the wider work of Lurid Editions.
D-M Withers is Director of Lurid Editions and Lecturer in Publishing at the University of Exeter.
A Jingle Jangle Song, The Bookish Type Launch, Leeds
D-M Withers in conversation with Kit Heyam
The Bath Indie Book Fair
Book lovers of the South West, roll up!!
Come join us in Bath on 8th November to celebrate indie publishing and pick up some killer Christmas presents 📚🎁
Free and everyone welcome 🌱
Milkman’s on His Way - Free Lunchtime lecture - Bristol
In this free lunchtime lecture, D-M Withers, Lecturer in Publishing at the University of Exeter and Director of Lurid Editions, will draw on the David Rees archives held in Special Collections at the University of Exeter, to present The Milkman’s on His Way as an important chapter in gay cultural history.
D-M will also offer insights about republishing queer books that have fallen out of print.
14+
Milkman's on His Way @ SHARP 2024, Reading
In conversation: The Milkman's on His Way - Republishing Queer Young Adult Fiction
D-M Withers in conversation with Chris Adams
The Milkman's on His Way @ the Book Market, Exeter City of Literature
Lurid will be presenting our new edition of The Milkman’s on His Way by Exeter-based author David Rees as part of Exeter City of Literature’s annual book market.
Further details coming soon!
The Awakening of Indian Women Book Launch
Online Book launch, The Awakening of Indian Women by Kamaladevi Chattophadyay & Others.
In partnership with the Women’s Library @LSE.
Join an esteemed panel of historians and writers to celebrate the republication of an early anti-imperial feminist classic.
First published on the eve of the Second World War and, until now, buried in the archives, this unique document from the first global feminist movement is testimony to the deep historical roots of revolutionary feminist thought and action.
For Amia Srinivasan, Kamaladevi’s The Awakening of Indian Women is “radical and visionary” and “deserves a place on feminist reading lists and in the wider transnationalist feminist imagination. Among other things, it is a potent reminder that feminism is not an invention or prerogative of the West.”
Pre-order your copy of Awakening now.
Panel members:
Sumita Mukherjee, Associate Professor in Modern History, University of Bristol and author of Indian Suffragettes: Female Identities and Transnational Networks (2018).
Kama Maclean, Professor of History in the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and author of A Revolutionary History of Interwar India (OUP 2015).
Uditi Sen, Director of Liberal Arts and Associate Professor specialising in the History of South Asia at University of Nottingham.
Rosalind Parr, Lecturer in Modern History, Glasgow Caledonian University and author of Citizens of Everywhere: Indian Women, Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism, 1920-1952 (2022).
Chaired by Amina Yaqin, Associate Professor in World Literatures and Publishing, University of Exeter, and author of Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in Pakistani Urdu Writing (2022).
LGBTQ+ Literature Panel
Listen to a panel and chat with the publisher, D-M Withers, Kirsti Bohata, Swansea University, Elizabeth English, and Edith England from Cardiff Met University about the importance of republishing this landmark in lesbian and queer literature.
Participants of the Amgueddfa Cymru Proud Writing workshops read from their queer writings.
Watch the short film, “Sally Leapt Out of A Window Last Night” and chat with director Tracy Spottiswoode.
Booking information here.
Rediscovering the Ladies of Llangollen
Mary Gordon’s historical fiction about the Ladies of Llangollen, first published by the Hogarth Press in 1936, is the forgotten queer novel of the interwar era – an amiable companion to Woolf’s time-traveling Orlando and joyful antidote to the misery of The Well of Loneliness.
Out of print since the 1940s, Chase of the Wild Goose has been republished by Lurid Editions, making the book available to contemporary readers for the first time.
Join publisher D-M Withers, historian Alison Oram and writer Frances Bingham to discuss a book described by Sarah Waters as a ‘fascinating piece of queer literary history.’
Chaired by Norena Shopland.
Please note: this is a ticketed, online event.
Book your ticket here. Book your ticket here.
Chase of the Wild Goose - Bookhaus Panel
Publisher D-M Withers is joined by literary scholars Elizabeth English and Tara K Puri, alongside art historian Freya Gowrley, to discuss Lurid’s republication of Chase of the Wild Goose.
£5 entry, tickets include a free glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off a copy of the book. Get your ticket here!
Chase of the Wild Goose Valentine's Day Special
Artist Sarah-Joy Ford in conversation with Daniel Fountain and Jana Funke celebrate Mary Gordon’s Chase of the Wild Goose.
Chase of the Wild Goose Launch at Gay’s the Word
Publisher of Lurid Editions D-M Withers presents the republication of Chase of the Wild Goose.
A special launch event at Gay’s the Word bookshop, taking place as part of the Queer Bibliography: Tools, Methods, Practices, Approaches conference.
Free entry, drinks and nibbles provided.