Sapphic Spaces

From bars to bookstores, forums to film festivals, pop-ups to political action groups, lesbians and bisexual women have always found powerful ways to gather.

This panel explores the role of sapphic spaces and communities past, present and future, as vital sites of activism and essential centres of hope. Bringing together Sharan Dhaliwal (Burning My Roti), Elizabeth Lovatt (Thank You For Calling the Lesbian Line), Sarvat Hasin (The Giant Dark, Strange Girls), and Grace Flahive (Palm Meridian), and chaired by Queer Girls Book Club founder Ayse Huseyin, this panel will ask: What role do spaces play in the broader queer community? How do intersectional identities inform who feels welcome there? What can we learn from communities of the past, and what must be done to ensure thriving spaces in the future?

3-Day Festival and Sunday Pass holders: This event is free to attend with your pass, but advance registration is required as places are limited. Please book a Pass Holder Free Registration ticket to reserve your place. Without a reservation, we cannot guarantee entry.

Sharan Dhaliwal is the founder of Burnt Roti, Middlesex Pride, and is a freelance journalist and editor. She is a queer historian and has started the South Asian Queer Archives with Bishopsgate Institute. Her book Burning My Roti, about how her Asian identity and queerness came up against capitalism and white supremacy, came out in March 2022 by Hardie Grant.

Elizabeth Lovatt is a writer of fiction and creative non-fiction, originally from Leicester and now living in London. Her first book Thank You For Calling the Lesbian Line was published by Dialogue Books in 2025 and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2026 and the 2026 Lambda Literary Awards. 

Sarvat Hasin is a novelist and dramaturg from Pakistan. Her first novel, This Wide Night, was published by Penguin India and longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her second book You Can’t Go Home Again was published in 2018. Her novel The Giant Dark (Dialogue Books, Hachette UK) won the Mo Siewcharran Prize, and was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award. She lives in London.

Grace Flahive was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She studied English literature at McGill University in Montreal before moving to London in 2014, where she’s lived ever since. Palm Meridian is her debut novel.

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.