This September I had the pleasure of being invited to Brick Lane Bookshop by Two Lines Press to celebrate the launch of their new title 'Splendor: Trans Poets', a collection of writing gathering together the work of five trans poets from Denmark, Argentina, Korea, Norway and Quebec in English translation for the first time. The collection traverses transformation and change, the bodily and everything that comes with that. At the launch I was one of 5 UK-based writers who each read excerpts...

Across the weekend I am there I visit Hay, the world’s first book town, traipse around exhibitions and second hand shops and markets, soaking in the buzz. At the festival, I buy too many books at the festival’s sprawling Oxfam stall and read them in the sun, Hay’s signature colourful festival flags shifting in the breeze around me. As always the slice of Hay that I sample is rich on the tongue, the flavours layered and complex, lingering.

Every year white tents and hordes of readers descend on Wales for the Hay Festival. They hear their favourite authors discuss their books, discover new writers and buy too many books in Hay-on-Wye, the World’s First Book Town. And I will be one of them, notebook and tote bag ready to be filled. It’s a packed programme, inviting authors, artists, performers and thinkers from across the world. So I’ve highlighted some of the talks I’m most looking forward to this year for you, whether you want...