Obsess, Obsesses, Obsessed, Obsessing

Desire, fixation, dependency – where do they blur, and what do they reveal? Join Sophie Robinson (Prairie Oyster), Lauren J. Joseph (Lean Cat, Savage Cat) and Kirsty Logan (No & Other Love Stories), for a conversation on obsession and addiction in contemporary queer writing, chaired by founder of the Queer Girls Book Club, Ayse Huseyin.

Drawing on their latest books, this panel explores the pull of the compulsive and the intoxicating — love, substances, identity, ambition — and how these forces shape narrative, character and voice. Expect bold, unflinching insights into the edges of control and the stories we tell to make sense of them.

Provocative, intimate and deeply human, this session invites you to consider what it means to want too much — and what it might cost.

Sophie Robinson is a writer living in Norwich & London. Her debut novel Prairie Oyster was published by Fleet in February 2026. Her poetry collection Rabbit (Boiler House Press, 2018) was the Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. She runs Devotion, a radical and inclusive online creative writing workshop series, and publishes regular essays on feeling at her Substack Feelings Almanac.

Lauren J. Joseph is the author of the novel At Certain Points We Touch which was an Observer debut of the year. Her latest book Lean Cat, Savage Cat was published in February by Bloomsbury and may well be the only new release of 2026 to feature in both Playboy and Town & Country. 

Kirsty Logan is an author of novels, short stories, chapbooks and collaborative projects with musicians and illustrators. Her books have won the Lambda, Polari, Saboteur, Scott and Gavin Wallace awards. She lives in Glasgow with her family, where she is working on film and TV projects.

Ayse Huseyin (chair) is the founder of the Queer Girls Book Club: a London based group that was born out of a passion to spotlight and celebrate queer literature. When she isn’t doing book club admin or her day job, Ayse can be found dragging a bag of books around and insisting she doesn’t need an E-reader, in her local indie bookshop, or passionately supporting other queer community events around London.