Dialogue Books to take authors on UK tour

Dialogue Books is taking eight of its authors on a tour of the UK in May and November, kicking off with dates in Bristol, Leeds and Glasgow.

The Little, Brown imprint, spearheaded by publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove, will run the first leg of its Discover Dialogue tour from 20th to 24th May.

This Brutal House author Niven Govinden, Season Butler, writer of Cygnet, Saskia Vogel, author of Permission, and Women’s Prize longlisted author of Remembered, Yvonne Battle-Felton, will join Lovegrove, publicist Millie Seaward, and tour coordinator Siofra Dromgoole.

The team will visit libraries, universities and schools with the aim of bringing writers and their themes to a wider audience. The tour is run in partership with Waterstones, Speakers4Schools, Black Girls Book Club and a range of community organisers from women’s centres to prisons.

Sharmaine Lovegrove says “My goal with Dialogue is to bring together the author and the reader by going on the road to meet lots of different readers of all ages, class, ethnicities, genders, sexualities and experiences seems a natural and super fun way to achieve this.

“In all my roles in publishing before joining Hachette I was deeply connected to the readers experience and I can’t wait to get to the essence of what Dialogue has always been about – sparking the conversation in different cosmopolitan cities as well as reaching rural communities across the UK.”

The second part of the tour will take place in early November and feature award-winning author of Nudibranch and Curandera, Irenosen Okojie and debut authors Okechukwu Nzelu (The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney), Alex Allison (The Art of the Body) and Theresia Enzensberger (Blueprint). The team will visit Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield with an array of events and activities.

Lovegrove said: “I am looking forward to hearing what people think of our books and what they would like us to publish more of. Dialogue exists to inspire a new generation of readers and writers and there’s nothing like that face to face contact with writers and readers to better inform the direction of the future of Dialogue Books and for our authors to get fully immersed into the dialogue.”

For more details of the tour visit its website.