We’re delighted to welcome the winner and shortlistees of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2022, Maddie Mortimer, Luke Cassidy and Tice Cin, in conversation with 2022 judge Derek Owusu.
Maddie Mortimer’s Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies, is a deeply moving narrative about a woman dealing with terminal cancer and the polyphony that ensues within: her mind, past, present, and the invasive cancer and chemicals that now inhabit her body.
In Luke Cassidy’s Iron Annie, Aoife’s life in the underworld of Dundalk radically changes when she meets the magnetic Annie and they’re thrown together on a wild road trip through Britain to dispose of ten kilos of cocaine.
Tice Cin’s Keeping the House, is a fresh and funny story about Ayla, a gardener trying to keep her family afloat in the dangerous heroin trade machinery of North London.
The authors will discuss their books, experiences building their careers, developing their first manuscripts, and navigating the world of publishing as debut novelists.
In partnership with the Desmond Elliott Prize
Duration 1 hour
Maddie Mortimer is a writer and filmmaker from London. Her first novel, Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies (Picador, 2022) was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022 and the winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2022.
Luke Cassidy is a writer from Dundalk, Ireland. Iron Annie (Bloomsbury, 2022) is his first novel, which he has adapted for the stage as the Iron Annie Literary Cabaret, a spectacle of spoken word and music based on the book.
Tice Cin is a multidisciplinary artist from north London. She has released an EP, Keeping the House, to accompany her debut novel of the same name (And Other Stories, 2021), which was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2022.
Derek Owusu is an award-winning writer and poet from North London. In 2019, he collated, edited and contributed to SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space. His first novel, That Reminds Me (Stormzy’s Merky Books, 2020) won the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction; his second novel, Losing The Plot, was published in 2022 by Canongate Books.
