With TJ Klune, Tamsyn Muir, Samantha Shannon and Tasha Suri, in conversation with Mendez. 

This event takes place in the British Library and will be simultaneously live streamed on the British Library platform. Tickets may be booked either to attend in person, or to watch on our platform (online) either live or within 48 hours on catch up. Viewing links will be sent out shortly before the event.

Some of the most intriguing fantasy fiction of recent years has featured queer and gender fluid themes and characters, bringing new levels of both realism and possibility.

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir began with Gideon the Ninth, described as ‘Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!’ .  New York Times best selling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea TJ Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive queer representation in stories. Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree is a feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon and Tasha Suri mixes powerful magic and sapphic fantasy in The Burning Kingdoms trilogy. 

At this event our writers discuss the rich and compelling worlds they have created, and how their own identity plays into their work. This vibrant and revealing conversation is hosted by Mendez. 

Please note that TJ Klune appears live on screen from the US.  

Doors and Bar open at 18:00.

Half price in person tickets available for Members, students, under 26s and other concession groups.

TJ Klune is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, Under the Whispering Door, In the Lives of Puppets, and the Green Creek Series for adults, which began with Wolfsong, the Extraordinaries Series for teens, and more.  

Tamsyn Muir is the author of the Locked Tomb series, which begins with Gideon the Ninth, continues with Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth and concludes with Alecto the Ninth. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World Fantasy Award and the Eugie Foster Memorial Award. A Kiwi, she has spent most of her life in Howick, New Zealand, with time living in Waiuku and central Wellington. She currently lives and works in Oxford, in the United Kingdom.

Samantha Shannon is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of the mercurial and multi-stranded dystopian fantasy series The Bone Season. Her 2019 novel The Priory of the Orange Tree was her first outside of The Bone Season series and was a New York Times bestseller, and was recently followed by the prequel A Day of Fallen Night.

Tasha Suri is the award-winning author of The Books of Ambha duology, The Burning Kingdoms trilogy (The Jasmine Throne, The Oleander Sword and the forthcoming The Lotus Kingdom) and What Souls Are Made Of. She has won the Best Newcomer (Sydney J. Bounds) from the British Fantasy Society and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Her debut novel Empire of Sand was named one of the 100 best fantasy books of all time by TIME magazine.  

Mendez is a London-based Jamaican-British author, screenwriter and critic. Their first novel, Rainbow Milk was named one of the Observer's Top Ten Best Debuts for 2020. It was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Polari Prize, in the Fiction Debut category of the British Book Awards, and for the LAMBDA Literary Award in Gay Fiction. Mendez is currently adapting the novel for a TV series. Mendez is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and has also written for British Vogue, The Face, Attitude, Esquire, Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Foundation, the Guardian and the Brixton Review of Books. They are working on their second novel.

This event accompanies the British Library exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination 27 October – 25 February supported by Wayland Games and Unwin Charitable Trust:




If you’re attending in person, please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event.

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