Join novelist and lecturer Alicia J Rouverol for a reading of her new story collection Granite Rock, and artist Andy Broadey for an exhibition of artwork featured in the book.

In this stunning collection, women and girls grapple with socio-economic injustices: a ten-year-old American child witnesses coercion by the Corsican gendarme; deck hands spar in the West Indies; a woman finds community through climbing a granite rockface; and an émigré mother worries and awaits settlement under tightening immigration laws in contemporary Britain.

‘At the heart of these beautiful stories is a deep search and struggle for belonging in a world full of systems that persist in separating, denigrating, and harming those who do not’ (Sommer Schafer, Hope and The Women).

‘Ordinary people’s lives show us again and again that the line between safety and danger is very thin. These are short stories that have a long finish!’ (Jackie Kay, poet and novelist and the former Makar (National Poet) of Scotland)

Presented in partnership with School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at the University of Salford and Bridge House Publishing. Hosted by publisher Gill James. Discussion by Scott Thurston.

This is a free event but please register your attendance via this Eventbrite listing.

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Alicia J Rouverol is Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Salford. She is co-author of I Was Content and Not Content’: The Story of Linda Lord and the Closing of Penobscot Poultry. Her debut novel Dry River was published to acclaim in 2023.

Andy Broadey is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art, History and Theory at University of Lancashire and has recently exhibited at Open Eye Gallery and The Portico Library.

Gill James is a partner at Bridge House Publishing, which has sister imprints, CafeLit, Chapeltown and The Red Telephone.

Scott Thurston is Professor of Poetry and Innovative Creative Practice at the University of Salford.

Author photo: Paul Cliff. Cover design © Andy Broadey