The Coast is Queer heads to Brighton

Brighton & Hove’s festival of LGBTQ+ writing returns on Thu 9 – Sun 12 Oct for a weekend of lively and insightful conversations, panels, workshops, performances and films, celebrating some of our best and brightest LGBTQ+ writers at Brighton’s Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

Now in its seventh year, The Coast is Queer creates a space for queer readers, writers, and allies to come together in a grassroots celebration of the written word and its ability to illuminate and enrich the life of our community. This year will be bigger and better than ever, with new spaces opening and a vibrant Queer Heritage Hub at the University of Sussex Library.

The line-up for 2025 includes an unforgettable opening event on Thu 9 Oct with ruckus! Federation’s co-founder and Sussex alumni, Topher Campbell, in association with Black at Sussex.  

On Fri 10 Oct, It Ain’t Over Until the Bisexual Speaks with Vaneet Mehta, Lois Shearing and Sam Mills, chaired by Hafsa Qureshi will explore the intersectional complexities and common erasure of bisexuality; while From Page to Stage with Coral Wylie, Debbie Hannan and Tabby Lamb, chaired by Dorothy Max Prior brings queer stories to the stage. Students from Brighton and Sussex Universities have curated two panel events: Graphic Sexuality – The Novel Art of Being Queer, which will delve into the world of queer zines, comics and graphic novels, and Re:Search - Ways of Finding Queer History reflects on the novel ways modern researchers are bringing queer history out of the closet and into the light.

Friday also sees the launch of the Festival’s publishing and industry offering featuring panels with publishers, agents, authors and publicists covering topics such as Getting an Agent with some of the UK’s top queer agents, Building a Queer List in a Straight Industry with commissioning editors from independent presses to Big 5 publishers, and Getting Your Work Out There with publicists and writers who have taken traditionally and self-publishing routes. The day will be rounded off in style by An Evening with Joelle Taylor and Friends, where Joelle will be bringing two extraordinary poets to the stage as well as performing from her electrifying debut collection, The Night Alphabet.  

Workshops and alternative events on Friday cover: Life Writing and Memoir with Topher Campbell and a Queer Girls Book Club collaboration with debut novelist Christina Fonthes

Saturday is jam-packed with panels, and workshops, including This Queer Arab Family with Elias Jahshan, celebrating the launch of his landmark anthology of the same name. Do you Believe in Life After Loss with Andrew Flewitt, Luciana Cousins, and Juno Roche will explore queer perspectives and experiences of loss in all its forms, from identity to love to religion; What Can We Do About It? with Lucy Webster, Ian Henzel, Hafsa Qureshi and Sen Raj, chaired by Ellen Jones, will platform a grounded, energising conversation about how the world will get better – and how we can all help make it happen; Truth and Daring - an exploration of queer memoir and life writing with Roxy Bourdillon and Jeremy Atherton Lin, chaired by Sam Solomon will ask questions about the process and ethical implications of getting life writing ‘right’; our crime fiction panel Not That Innocent with DG Coutinho, Jack Jordan, Piotr Cieplak and Lesley Thomson, chaired by Ayse Huseyin will be a vibrant event bringing often suppressed queer voices into the commercial space; Horrifyingly Queer with Heather Parry, Natalia Theodoridou, Onjuli Datta and Mikaella Clements, chaired by Chloe Michelle Howarth will explore why queer folk are drawn to writing horror; and Black History: Reclaiming and Retelling with Paula Akpan, Jacob V Joyce and Coral Wylie, chaired by Sue Lemos will be a vital conversation about memory, resistance, and the power of telling our own stories.  

The festival will also see an exciting In Conversation with Women’s Prize for Fiction winner, Yael van der Wouden and Vedrana Velickovic, and the evening will be rounded off with Juno Dawson’s Lovely Trans Literary Salon with Munroe Bergdorf, as well as our annual Open Mic Night hosted by the wonderful Brighton-based AFLO. the poet.

Workshops and alternative events on Saturday cover: Developing Your Non-fiction Workshop with Paula Akpan and Abi Fellows, a Zine Making Session with Jacob V Joyce and Fun With Form with Travis Alabanza.

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Sunday of the Festival will open with a screening of 3000 Lesbians Go to York, a documentary following the thousands of women who attended the Libertas! and York Lesbian Art Festivals in the early 2000s, followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer and published author Jane Traies, as well as the film’s director and editor.  

The festival also hosts A Morning with Damian Barr and Curtis Garner to celebrate the release of Barr’s highly anticipated new book The Two Roberts; followed by a dynamic, intersectional panel asking Is a shared history possible? with Kit Heyam, Paula Akpan, and Jane Traies, chaired by Sussex academic Dr Nat Arias. Lois Weaver is back to host a free Care Cafe, and the publishers of Letters To My Little Trans Self will be hosting a panel with contributors Juno Roche, Ebony Rose Dark, Luc Grey, and Travis Alabanza which will include readings from the book as well as a lively conversation. The festival will finish with an In Conversation between two of our greatest living writers, Ali Smith and Jackie Kay.

Alternative events on Sunday cover: Serge Nicholson and Libro Levi Bridgeman hosting a Letters to My Younger Trans Self workshop and an intergenerational reading group sponsored by University of Brighton AHRC IGNITE programme.  

Throughout the festival, The Queer Heritage Hub, delivered in partnership with the Queer Heritage and Collections Network, will offer a rare chance to engage with the rich LGBTQIA+ heritage collections held at University of Sussex and across the region.  

An opportunity to hear from cutting-edge practitioners using our queer past as a jumping off point for writing and other creative projects, the Hub will host inspirational activities including Dr Phoebe Patey Ferguson leading queertext + liveart: Writing the Queer Body-ody-ody-ody (mwah) a panel with Nando Messias (The London Open Live at Whitechapel Gallery), Xavier De Sousa (Performing Borders) and kane stonestreet (Live Art Development Agency), Relatively Queer: Writing Toward Concealed Queerness in the Family Archive workshop with K.Angel and Dr Lloyd Meadhbh Houston, and an installation by Queer Heritage South. Acclaimed artist, designer, and Duckie favourite, Robin Whitmore will be constructing a new Queer Literary Family Tree installation through the Festival.

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Lesley Wood, CEO of New Writing South said: “The Coast is Queer returns to Brighton in 2025 – a defiant, joyful, energising antidote to the constant conflict and noise of our times. It is a transient moment of communitas, of shared humanity and solidarity, needed now as much as any time in our turbulent queer history. We warmly invite you to join us as we explore the infinite ways queer writers feed our imagination and open our minds.”

The Coast is Queer is a significant event for LGBTQ+ literature. Over 7,000 people have enjoyed and been inspired by moving and exhilarating events from over 250 writers since 2019. A collaboration between New Writing South and Marlborough Productions, and funded by Arts Council England and National Lottery Heritage Fund, the festival is supported by the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton.

The Coast is Queer comes to Brighton’s Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts on Thu 9 – Sun 12 Oct 2025.

www.coastisqueer.com

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