Nataliya Deleva & Jessica Au
At: Online-only
On:8th March 2022, 8:00pm - 9:00pm
We're really looking forward to hosting an online event with Nataliya Deleva and Jessica Au. They'll be discussing their new novels, Arrival (The Indigo Press) and Cold Enough for Snow (Fitzcarraldo Editions), in conversation with writer and zinemaker, Nina Mingya Powles. All participants will be joining the event live from their respective homes.
About Arrival:
Arrival is an exploration of the ripple effects of domestic abuse. The story follows a young woman fleeing her home country and trying to rebuild her life, after she has suffered violence at the hands of an alcoholic father.
Prompted by her therapist, the unnamed protagonist starts processing the abuse experienced in her childhood while also pondering what it means to be a mother when consumed by trauma. The novel bends form to accommodate the narrator’s scattered mind and her attempt to assemble a version of herself through fragments and stitches of memories, borrowed conversations and minutiae that linger and haunt.
Infused with love and determination and interwoven with folk tales and rituals, Arrival depicts the ways in which we are resilient, capable of carving our own paths and reimagining our lives.
About Cold Enough for Snow:
A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city's most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here - is it only the daughter? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?
At once a careful reckoning and an elegy, Cold Enough for Snow questions whether any of us speak a common language, which dimensions can contain love, and what claim we have to truly know another's inner world.
Selected from more than 1500 entries, Cold Enough for Snow won the Novel Prize, a new, biennial award offered by Fitzcarraldo Editions, New Directions (US) and Giramondo (Australia), for any novel written in English that explores and expands the possibilities of the form.
Nataliya Deleva was born in Bulgaria and now lives in London. Her debut novel, Four Minutes, was originally published in Bulgaria (Janet 45, 2017), where the book was awarded Best Debut Novel and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year (2018). It has since been translated into German (eta Verlag, 2018), English (Open Letter Books, 2021) and Polish (Wydawnictwo EZOP, 2021). Nataliya’s short fiction, reviews and essays have appeared in Words Without Borders, Fence, Asymptote, Empty Mirror, Granta Bulgaria, and the anthology Stories from the 90s (ICU Publishing, 2019) among others.
Jessica Au is a writer based in Melbourne. She has worked as deputy editor at the quarterly journal Meanjin and as a factchecker for Aeon magazine. Her novel, Cold Enough for Snow won the inaugural Novel Prize and was published by Giramondo, New Directions and Fitzcarraldo Editions in February 2022, and translated into fifteen languages.
Nina Mingya Powles is a writer, editor and publisher from Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the author of three poetry collections, including Magnolia, which was shortlisted for both the Ondaatje Prize and the Forward Prize; and Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai. In 2019 she won the Nan Shepherd Prize for Small Bodies of Water, and in 2018 she won the Women Poets’ Prize. She is the founding editor of Bitter Melon. Nina was born in Aotearoa, partly grew up in China, and now lives in London.
When you purchase a copy of Arrival and/or Cold Enough for Snow via the options below, you receive access to watch the event from home via Crowdcast. Especially for this event, there is a ‘Two Books & Event Bundle’ available, which includes both books with a discount. There is also an option to purchase a £3 voucher, which also provides access to the livestream. The voucher can be used on any item in the bookshop and on our website – including books by featured authors. Please consider supporting the bookshop by purchasing a book or voucher, however we are also offering a Free Ticket option for this event.
Please note: Tickets for our events are non-refundable. Professional photography and videography may take place during this event. Thank you for your understanding.