Motherhood and Pure Colour novelist Sheila Heti joins literary critic Mia Levitin online from Toronto with one of 2024’s most-anticipated books, the passionate, reflective, joyful and despairing Alphabetical Diaries.

A thrilling non-fiction confessional from the multi-award winning, Motherhood and Pure Colour novelist, playwright, short story writer and children’s author Sheila Heti.

She kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period, then arranged the sentences from A to Z. Passionate and reflective, joyful and despairing, her Alphabetical Diaries is one of 2024’s most-anticipated books. She joins us online from Toronto, in conversation with literacy critic and The Future of Seduction author Mia Levitin.

Buy a copy of Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti from Blackwells.

This event will last approximately 1 hour, without an interval. 

Digital events will take place over Zoom, with an event link sent to bookers 24 hours in advance of the event and a reminder email 30 minutes before the event starts. Ticket holders for digital events will also be sent a link to a recording of the event, available to watch until the end of March.

Book Week 24 Digi-Pass gives access to all 16 online streaming events for £39.50.

About the speakers:

Sheila Heti is the author of ten books, including the novels Motherhood, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and How Should a Person Be?, which New York magazine deemed one of the ‘New Classics’ of the twenty-first century. She was named one of the ‘New Vanguard’ by the New York Times book critics, who, along with a dozen other magazines and newspapers, chose Motherhood as a top book of 2018. Her books have been translated into twenty-four languages. She lives in Toronto and Kawartha Lakes, Ontario.

Mia Levitin is a cultural and literary critic, whose work appears regularly in publications including the Financial Times, The Spectator and the Irish Times. She is the author of The Future of Seduction.