About this Event
We are incredibly lucky to have the legendary Dean Atta, poet and novelist, at Juno Books talking to the fantastic Akeem Balogun about his new book: Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body.
“Years ago, within living memory, this book would have been illegal and Dean
could have been imprisoned for writing it. All memoir is a witness statement.
Dean Atta, speak your truth and say it loud!” LEMN SISSAY
From choirboy to drag act, grandson to mentor, poet to lover, Dean Atta has
played many roles in his life. In this formally inventive, candid and courageous
book, he explores what he has carried in his body: wins and losses, shame and
pride, pain and joy. Dean also investigates how radical self-acceptance and a
willingness to abide with discomfort open up the possibility of a life lived beyond
definition: a person unlimited.
- A bold and vulnerable account of Dean’s relationship with his race, his
sexuality and himself, Person Unlimited asks us to confront how willing we are
to see – and accept – ourselves in full: the good, the bad and the ugly; our
past and our present.
Dean Atta is an award-winning author and performance poet. He won the 2012 London Poetry Award and was named as one of the most influential LGBT people by the Independent on Sunday Pink List. He has written two YA novel-in-verses which includes The Black Flamingo which was a top-selling debut of 2020, and was awarded the prestigious Stonewall Book Award and the Carnegie Shadowers Choice Award 2020. Person Unlimited is his non-fiction debut.
Akeem Balogun's writing has appeared in multiple publications, and he has created project-themed stories for artists, projects and literature festivals. His debut collection of stories, The Storm, won the Society of Authors' Somerset Maugham Award. He was also one of the winners of Daniel Goldsmith Associates’ First Novel Prize in 2021.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Juno Books, 24 Chapel Walk, Sheffield, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 15.00
