Saba Sams and Eley Williams at Blackwells
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Blackwells Bookshop is partnering with the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing to welcome multi-award-winning authors Saba Sams and Eley Williams to the city.
London-based Saba Sams (originally from Brighton and alumna of the Centre for New Writing) was named as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2023. Her debut collection Send Nudes won the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2023; her story ‘Blue 4eva’ won the BBC National Short Story Award 2022. She was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize in 2019 and her work has been featured in publications including Granta, Stinging Fly and Five Dials. Her debut novel Gunk is a nuanced exploration of friendship, queerness and love.
In a nutshell: ‘Raw, exhilarating, tender and wise, Gunk is an electrifying debut novel exploring love and desire, safety and destruction, chaos and control – and family in all its forms.’
Eley Williams (keynote speaker at the National Creative Writing Graduate Fair in 2018, hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University and Comma Press) is the author of a collection of short stories, Attrib., which was awarded the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2018. Her second book, The Liar’s Dictionary, won the 2021 Betty Trask Award and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Her latest, Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good, is a poignant and playful collection of short stories exploring the nature of relationships both intimate and transient.
On a beermat: ‘Moderate to Poor, Occasionally Good hums with fossicking language and ingenious experiments in form and considers notions of playfulness, authenticity and care as it holds relationships to account: their sweet misunderstandings, soured reflections, queer wish fulfilments and shared, held breaths.’
Blackwells ‘in conversation’ events usually consist of a 45-minute discussion between the authors, including readings, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event.
