Glyph: Ali Smith in Conversation with Holly Pester

The acclaimed novelist returns to Foyles to discuss Glyph, the second novel of the interconnected pair that began with Gliff, in a conversation with poet and novelist Holly Pester.

Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Then it all starts again thirty years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. In a chiaroscuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, Glyph masterfully asks if we’re attending to the history that’s made us and to the history we’re making.

Ali Smith was born in Inverness in 1962. She is the author of several novels and short story collections including, The Accidental, Hotel World, How to Be Both and the Seasonal Quartet. She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize. Ali Smith lives in Cambridge.

Holly Pester is a poet and writer. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Review, The White Review, Poetry London. Her fiction has been published in Granta and anthologised in Protest (Comma Press, 2018). Comic Timing, her Forward Prize-nominated first full collection of poetry, was published by Granta, 2021. Her first novel, The Lodgers, was published with Granta in February 2024.

The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Your ticket includes a complimentary glass of wine.