Join us as we welcome Dr Ashley Hickson-Lovence to Brentwood Library.

Ashley is the award-winning author of The 392, Your Show and Wild East, winner of the East Anglian Book Awards 2024 and the YA Diverse Book Awards 2025. His poetry collection Why I Am Not a Bus Driver was shortlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize, while his latest novel, About To Fall Apart, was published by Faber in 2026. His forthcoming YA verse novel, Dead Ends, will be published in February 2027.

Drawing on his personal experience coming from a single-parent working-class background, Ashley’s journey to becoming an author and performance poet is hugely inspiring. He will also be giving out 2 copies of his first YA novel, Wild East, as prizes during the session, and will be performing an exclusive extract from his soon to be published YA novel, Dead Ends, publishing in February 2027!

There will be copies of Wild East available to purchase at the event and Ashley will be delighted to do signed dedications inside. 

Check out Ashley's website: https://ashleyhicksonlovence.com/ and socials: @ahicksonlovence