This live event will be held at the Grand Parade Building City Campus University of Brighton,  58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 0JY

Room 202

This event is free but registration via is required  via this link

Difference is Born on the Lips: Reflections on sexuality, stigma and society

Part-memoir, part-exposé, Michael Handrick’s debut book looks at the societal reasons behind the mental health crisis in the gay community. He examines different facets of our society from media representation, gender paradigms, education through to domestic abuse to understand how they impact our well-being. The book unpicks the toxic narratives and myths built up by society of what it means to be a man, gay and working class; and confronts the systemic inequalities that we should no longer have to live with.

Bio

Michael Handrick’s work has been shortlisted for Penguin Random House’s WriteNow 2020 and Kit de Waal’s anthology, Common People, and longlisted for the London Writers Awards (2019). In 2013, aged 23, he was invited to present his academic thesis on gender and sexuality at an international literary conference at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has had features and articles on culture, mental health, gender and sexuality published by magazines such as Attitude and PYLOT. His fiction pieces have been published in anthologies such as Litro, and shortlisted and longlisted for various competitions including the Creative Future Literary Awards (2018, 2020). This is his debut book.