Waiting for Godden: Sweet Septemberry: dates and book news for early autumn 2021

Hello there,

How are you all?

I am definitely starting to feel autumnal now, are you?

It is September and we are gearing up for conker fights, kicking yellow leaves, sweet Septemberry pie and pumpkin orange faces, but before I race ahead I just want to say thank you Edinburgh Book Festival - it was so much fun to be up and out in Edinburgh again. And it was a dream come true to read my debut novel actually in person on stage at EIBF 2021. Thank you to Paula Akpan for a beautiful interview and warm conversation about the work. I had such a wonderful week and want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone I met and talked to at the festival and everyone in the audience there in the theatre and all that tuned in online too. I had such a blast that week: I did three events and when on radio to chat about my book with Sally Magnusson on BBC Radio Scotland. Thank you to Sally Magnusson, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Angela Robertson, Iona Lee, Isy Suttie and Jenni Fagan too.

Big thank you to my amazing book shop tour guide Dan Richards, together we visited seven beautiful indie bookshops, we met brilliant book shop keepers, and signed piles of books. I also went to lots of jolly pubs and cocktail bars. We even fitted in a pilgrimage to Greyfriars, the cemetery where some of my family ancestors are buried, and there lies the bones of the inspiration for the Lord Willeford character in Mrs Death Misses Death, a blur of fact and fiction, the past, my history, and the here and now.

Above all when I was up in Edinburgh I realised how much I have missed people, giggling and gigging, exploring and touring, it was exciting to be out and about again, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

I have some incredible events coming up in the autumn:

To kick off this new season, I'm live and lively on stage contributing to the filming of Series 2 of Life & Rhymes hosted by the legendary Professor Benjamin Zephania for Sky Arts - Tuesday 7th September - Come along! It's being filmed in Battersea Park, it is a FREE gig, you can book now for a seat in the audience and cheer with us on the telly. I think this one will be a lot of fun and big energy.

I'm also doing a FREE gig for my friends down at Rough Trade East with excellent author and poet Nikita Gill on Saturday September 11th. This will be a great Saturday night out, book and chat and beers. We are going to interview each other and read from our debut novels together. I love Nikita's work and I am very excited to see her face again. Also so much of Mrs Death Misses Death is set in and around Brick Lane, East London, so it is going to be a good and eerie feeling to be reading the book there where the action happens and so much inspiration was born.

I'm also thrilled to have some new poetry published in a new anthology edited by beautiful poet Cecelia Knapp: Everything Is Going To Be All Right - Poems for when you need them. I have been dipping into this book all week, this is a glorious collection, so many excellent poets are contained in these pages, it is out NOW, published by Trapeze Books, so, buy it, read it, gift it, share the hope!

You can book now to catch 'Mrs Death Misses Death' on tour, on stage and online. I'm looking forward to contributing to some brilliant book festivals, lively poetry gigs and hybrid events you can watch anytime or watch live in real life and in person. Please scroll down now for all tickets and catch up links.

You can also find all my links on: https://linktr.ee/salenagodden

See you here and there and everywhere...

Keep it burning!

Thank you! sgxx 💫