About this Event
Join us with Ana Paula Maia in conversation with Lucy Popescu, to discuss her latest book, On Earth As It Is Beneath, a fierce and powerful novel - shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 - imbued with suspense and allegory that asks timely questions about violence, indignation and the brutality of unchecked power.
Ana Paula Maia was born in Nova Iguaçu, Brazil, in 1977. She is the author of On Earth As It Is Beneath, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. Her novel Of Cattle and Men won the UK Republic of Consciousness Prize, the inaugural Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation in the United States, and an English PEN Translates Award. An award-winning writer and scriptwriter, she is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Brazilian fiction, winning the São Paulo Literature Prize for Best Novel two years in a row, for On Earth As It Is Beneath and Bury Your Dead, the latter forthcoming with Charco Press in the summer of 2026.
Lucy Popescu is a writer, editor and arts critic with a background in human rights. She worked with the English Centre of PEN, the international association of writers, for over 20 years and was Director of its Writers in Pr*son Committee from 1991 to 2006. She is currently chair of the Authors' Club. Lucy reviews books, theatre and formerly film. She is theatre editor for Camden New Journal and contributes to various publications including The Observer, Financial Times, TLS, Guardian, Independent, Literary Review, New Humanistand Huffington Post. She has a particular interest in debut novels, literary fiction in translation and free expression.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Waterstones, 11 Islington Green, London, United Kingdom
GBP 5.00 to GBP 14.00
