Literature

Alter Ego

Six months ago, something happened that changed everything for Hattie. The next morning, she came up with The Plan. It was time for a whole new life. That's how Hattie ends up in a little cabin in the middle of nowhere, where the woodland stretches for miles and stars light up the night sky. Here, Hattie can be whoever she wants to be.

At two years old, Hattie was diagnosed with a condition that would alter the course of her life. Ever since then she's had to constantly explain herself and pretend that the pitying looks don't bother her.

If she wants The Plan to work, nobody back home can know why she really left, and nobody in her new life can know the truth about her.

But it's not long before she's caught in her lies - trapped between who she really is, and who she so desperately wants to be. When everything falls apart, can she piece herself back together?


Beloved

Sethe is now miles away from Sweet Home - the farm where she was kept as a slave for many years. Unable to forget the unspeakable horrors that took place there, Sethe is haunted by the violent spectre of her dead child, the daughter who died nameless and whose tombstone is etched with a single word, 'Beloved'. A tale of brutality, horror and, above all, love at any cost, Beloved is Toni Morrison's enduring masterpiece and best-known work.


Bitter

After a childhood in foster care, Bitter is thrilled to have been chosen to attend Eucalyptus, a special school where she can focus on her painting surrounded by other creative teens. But outside this haven, the streets are filled with protests against the deep injustices that grip the town of Lucille. Bitter’s instinct is to stay safe within the walls of Eucalyptus – but her friends aren’t willing to settle for a world that the adults say is ‘just the way things are’. Pulled between old friendships, her creative passion, and a new a romance, Bitter isn’t sure where she belongs – in the art studio or in the streets. And if she does find a way to help the revolution while being true to who she is, she must also ask: at what cost?


Conserve and Control

Conserve and Control is written from the margins. Characters who are non-binary, working class, disabled and trans take central place as we are transported to a queer and green paradise that, like all utopias, is not to be trusted.
As a working-class activist and (former) s3x worker, Otter Lieffe brings nuance to the ethics of work, kink, sex and activism. In this, her second novel, she explores what it might mean to really create political change and asks who gets left behind in the process. She invites us to step up and take our place in the struggle and bring our fabulous complexity with us to the front-lines.


Crossing The River

Crossing the River is a story about three black people during different time periods and in different continents as they struggle with the separation from their native Africa. The novel follows Nash, who travels from America to Africa to educate natives about Christ; Martha, an old woman who attempts to travel from Virginia to California to escape the injustices of being a slave; and Travis, a member of the U.S. military who goes to England during World War II.


Daughters of the Twilight

A non-white family in a small town in South Africa in the 1950s is affected by that country's segregation laws when the area in which they have their home and their small business is declared `white.' The two daughters of the household, Meena and Yasmin, are at the same time treading hackneyed paths through the tangles of pubescence and adolescence respectively, while their parents--their father classified `Indian' and their mother `Coloured' under the complexities of Pretoria's system of racial classifications--attempt to cope with this disruption to their otherwise comfortable lives.


Desire caught by the tail

Desire Caught by the Tail is a farcical play written by the painter Pablo Picasso.


Dignity
Survival is an act of resistance

Isolation and community. Restrictions and freedom.

The near future is a militarised state, a fractured continent, and a world in which fascism is resurging following pandemics and climate devastation.

Against this grim backdrop, the characters of Dignity form a deeply diverse resistance movement that brings connection, strength and hope to those who need it most.

This novel can be read on its own or as part of a trilogy, in any order:

Margins and Murmurations

Conserve and Control

Dignity


Fight Back

An empowering story about finding your identity and the courage to fight for it. Aaliyah is an ordinary thirteen-year-old living in the Midlands - she's into her books, shoes, K-pop and she is a Muslim. She has always felt at home where she lives ... until a terrorist attack in her area changes everything. As racial tensions increase and she starts getting bullied, Aaliyah decides to begin wearing a hijab - to challenge how people in her community see her. But when her school bans the hijab and she is intimidated and attacked for her choices, she feels isolated. Soon Aaliyah realises that other young people from different backgrounds also struggle with their identity and feel alone, scared and judged. Should she try to blend in - or can she find allies to help her fight back? Channelling all of her bravery, Aaliyah decides to speak out. Together, can Aaliyah and her friends halt the tide of hatred rippling through their community?


Fovea / Ages Ago

The fovea centralis is a small depression in the retina that produces our sharpest vision. In this keenly perceptive chapbook, Sarah Lasoye ruminates on moments from the playground to the present day. Sitting across from her early memories, she begins to discern the watery contours of a primary self. Through abstract and narrative poems, Lasoye’s temporal experiments open up a tender interior life and a need to anchor oneself in others. With no clean boundary between past and present, emergent preoccupations—with selfhood, goodness and want—persist and reappear. This compact collection keeps to itself—an inquisitive, personal contemplation on childhood and growth.