Queer Histories: Retold and Reclaimed

There are hidden histories for many queer lives lost to time, to stealth, or simply not written or recorded the same way heteronormative histories and lives have been. How do we confront those silences, and how can writers creatively reclaim time, history and stories that otherwise seem lost?

Chaired by Palestinian poet Saif Sidari, this panel will combine voices to discuss the ways in which they confront these legacies and retell our own stories. With archivist, and poet Remi Graves (coal), author Elle Machray (Havisham) and author and memoirist Alice Hattrick (Fancy Work), we will be exploring the ethical and creative struggles approaching and storying queer histories. 

This panel was curated by students from Sussex University and the University of Brighton

Remi Graves is a poet and drummer. A former Barbican Young Poet, their work has been commissioned by St Paul’s Cathedral, Arthouse Jersey and BBC Radio 4. They have performed at Tate, Cheltenham Literature festival and more. Remi has led courses at The Poetry School and facilitates in schools and community spaces across London and the South East. As a Visiting Researcher at Brighton Uni, Remi has led workshops and delivered lectures around archival poetry and ekphrasis. Remi’s debut pamphlet with your chest was published by fourteen poems in 2022. They were a 2025 La Maison Baldwin Fellow and a writer in residence at Jan Michalski Foundation. Remi is the winner of 2024 Prototype Prize (short form category), coal was published by Monitor Books in 2025.

Elle Machray grew up in Birmingham to Welsh–Caribbean and Scottish parents. After graduating from the HarperCollins Author Academy in spring 2021, their debut novel Remember, Remember was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Prize, judged by Hilary Mantel.

Alice Hattrick is a writer and lecturer based in London. Ill Feelings, their non-fiction book on chronic illness, intimacy and mother-daughter relationships, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2021. Alice’s criticism has been published in Art Review, frieze, The White Review and TANK, among other publications. They are the co-producer of Access Docs for Artists, made in collaboration with Leah Clements and the late Lizzy Rose, and teach at University of the Arts, London.

Saif Sidari (chair) (he/him) is a transnational Palestinian poet and doctoral researcher at the University of Brighton’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, where he also teaches part-time. He holds an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Sussex. His work explores grief theory, queerness, and Gothic storying practice — counter to homogenising modern(ist) definitions of the so-called ‘optimal human’. His debut pamphlet, Visiting Hours, was published by Broken Sleep Books in 2025.