Vanessa Kisuule - Neverland: The Pleasures & Perils of Fandom

We can't wait for this event with Vanessa Kisuule about her fascinating book "Neverland: The Pleasures & Perils of Fandom"

Vanessa will in conversation with Catherine O'Flynn.

Vanessa Kisuule is a writer, performer and facilitator based in Bristol. She has won over ten poetry slam titles and performed nationally and internationally. She has worked with the BBC, British Library, Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Bristol Old Vic and Glastonbury Festival. She was the Bristol City Poet for 2018–2020, wrote and presented The Poetry Detective for Radio 4 and has two poetry collections with Burning Eye Books. She is the co-tutor for the Southbank New Poets Collective alongside Will Harris. Neverland is her debut non-fiction book.

vanessakisuule.com  @Vanessa_Kisuule
 
Neverland
Vanessa Kisuule is a big Michael Jackson fan. This fixation once gave her great joy, but now it keeps her up at night. In her bracingly honest, energetic and lively book she explores the fall-out from that fandom and how, or if, we can hold people to account whilst loving them at the same time.  

Why do famous musicians mean so much to us? How does the pop culture machine both mirror and magnify the worst aspects of human nature? Why is it so hard to accept that the people we love, famous or not, are capable of doing terrible things?  

As debates rage on about abusive public figures, Kisuule asks not just if we should separate the art from the artist, but how this moral conundrum informs the way we shape our relationships, families and notions of social justice. Witty, poetic and with references to R. Kelly, Britney Spears and a host of other famous faces, Neverland is both an ardent love letter to the music we love and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship.
 
Praise for Neverland

‘The most human untangling of a complex and intricate love that I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Incisive, and as funny as it is sharp’
CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
 
‘One of the most interesting writers at work in this country today. An exhilarating stylist and a beautiful thinker’
MAX PORTER
 
‘Neverland is a brutal, brave and beautifully written book’
YOMI ADEGOKE
 
‘An exquisitely written, breathtakingly honest, deeply intelligent book that the world needs, that will ignite your humanity in unexpected ways. Vanessa Kisuule is a rare and brave talent’ DEBORAH FRANCES-WHITE

Catherine O'Flynn
Catherine O’Flynn’s writing has received various awards including a British Book Award & the Costa First Novel Award. Catherine has written three novels for adults, and two for children as well as various articles and short stories. Fay Weldon described O’Flynn as: ‘the JG Ballard of Birmingham...finding poetry and meaning where others see merely boredom and dereliction.’