Harper's Bazaar Literary Salon

Join Harper’s Bazaar on Thursday 26 September for an evening of drinks, canapés, talks and inspiring literature at The Cadogan, a Belmond hotel, in Chelsea.

In the opening conversation, ‘Crossing cultures’, the Booker-shortlisted author Elif Shafak will sit down with Bazaar’s literary editor Erica Wagner to explore fiction’s ability to traverse countries and centuries. They will talk about the poetry and politics of storytelling within Shafak’s work, and especially in her sweeping new, bestselling novel, There are Rivers in the Sky.

There will also be a reading from The Ministry of Time, the debut novel from Kaliane Bradley that was recently chosen by Barack Obama for his summer reading list. Bradley, a former winner of Bazaar’s short-story competition, will be discussing her book and its innovative themes and structure, with Helena Lee, acting deputy editor of the magazine.

This will be followed by the chance to meet both authors, have your books signed, and perhaps exchange a few tales of your own…

Tickets are £50 and include a signed copy of There are Rivers in the Sky, the latest edition of Harper's Bazaar and an Acqa Di Parma Eau de Parfum.

Erica Wagner was the literary editor of the London Times for seventeen years and is a contributing writer for the New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar. Her latest book is Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort of Love Story; she is also the author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award. Wagner’s other books are Ariel’s Gift, Seizure, and Gravity and she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and storyteller. She has published 20 books, 13 of which are novels and her books have been translated into 57 languages. The Island of Missing Trees was a finalist for the Costa Award, British Book Awards, RSL Ondaatje Prize and Women’s Prize for Fiction and was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange Worldwas shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was Blackwell’s Book of the Year.

Shafak holds a PhD in political science and she has taught at various universities in Turkey, the US and the UK, including St Anne's College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow. Shafak is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature and has been chosen among BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women. An advocate for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression, Shafak has twice been a TED Global speaker.

Kaliane Bradley is a British-Cambodian writer and editor based in London. Her short stories have appeared in Electric Literature, Catapult, Somesuch Stories and The Willowherb Review, among others. She was the winner of the 2022 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Prize and the 2022 V. S. Pritchett Short Story Prize. The Ministry of Time is her first novel.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Cadogan, A Belmond Hotel, London, United Kingdom