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Joelle Taylor In Conversation: The Night Alphabet

Embark on a mesmerising journey through time and space with the electrifying debut novel from award-winning poet Joelle Taylor, The Night Alphabet. A dazzlingly bold and original work, The Night Alphabet is a deep investigation into human nature and violence against women and is a conversation not to be missed. A fierce, tender and highly uncomfortable study of power, agency and resilience, this novel pulls no punches.

Join Taylor as she delves into the dystopian cityscape of futuristic Hackney in 2233, where Jones, adorned with copious tattoos, seeks to complete her extraordinary gallery with a final, blood-inked line that connects her stories.

About the Poet

Joelle Taylor

Joelle Taylor

Joelle Taylor is the author of 4 collections of poetry and one novel. Her most recent collection C+NTO & Othered Poems won the 2021 T.S Eliot Prize, and the 2022 Polari Book Prize for LGBT authors. C+NTO is currently being adapted both for theatre, and into a television screenplay, and was featured on Radio Three documentary Butch. She is a co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live at the Southbank Centre and tours her work nationally and internationally in a diverse range of venues, from Australia to Brazil. She is a Poetry Fellow of the University of East Anglia, and the curator of the Koestler Awards 2023 and has judged several poetry and literary prizes including Fellowship, the Forward Prize, and the Ondaatje Prize. Her novel The Night Alphabet was published in Spring of 2024 and was named both a Spectator and Guardian Book of the Year. Her most recent radio programme A Young Girl’s Guide to Horror was broadcasted end of last year on BBC Radio Four. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the 2022 Saboteur Spoken Word Artist of the Year. She was recently honoured with a DIVA Award for Excellence and named as number 15in the Independent’s2024 Pride Power list. Her next collection Maryville will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025

About the Chair

Jo Bell

Jo Bell

Jo Bell is a poet and writer based in Macclesfield. Formerly a professional archaeologist, she is the author of two poetry collections and co-author of How To Be A Poet, has been frequently featured on BBC radio, and was director of National Poetry Day in the UK.