Join award-winning author, poet and filmmaker Dean Atta for a special event celebrating the publication of his adult literary debut, Big Man.
Tender, funny and deeply moving, Big Man is a novel about love, identity, ageing, family and the lasting effects of trauma.
The novel follows Big, a middle-aged Black British gay man living a gentle life in East London with his boyfriend, Little. Their world is filled with friendships, holidays, yoga at home and runs beside the Hackney canals.
When Big reconnects with Mother, an African American trans woman who provided a refuge for queer young people during his youth, he is forced to confront a long-repressed experience from his past.
Filled with warmth and gentle humour, Big Man explores what it means to grow older as a queer person and how friendship, love and community can sustain us. It is also a complicated and joyful love letter to the people and places that shape who we become.
During this special Black History Month event, Dean will discuss the inspiration behind the novel, his experience of writing across poetry, memoir and fiction, and the importance of portraying queer lives in all their complexity, tenderness and joy.
About Dean Atta
Dean Atta is a multi-award-winning author and poet, as well as a BAFTA-winning and BIFA-nominated filmmaker.
His books include the Stonewall Book Award-winning young adult novel The Black Flamingo, the memoir Person Unlimited: An Ode to My Black Queer Body, and the poetry collections I Am Nobody’s Nigger and There is (still) love here.
His poetry has appeared on the BBC, BET, Channel 4 and MTV.
Event enquiries:
info@writingonthewall.org.uk
More Liverpool Listings MORE
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is reimagined for Liverpool by acclaimed British-Ghanaian theatre-maker Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu in a…
BHM26: Professor Stephen Small – Black Liverpool
Professor Stephen Small returns to his home city to launch Liverpool’s Black History Month programme with a special…
Manchester Collective X Sidiki Dembélé: Constellations
Manchester Collective joins forces with Ivorian percussionist Sidiki Dembélé for Constellations, a vivid musical journey bringing West African…
BHM26: Dean Atta – Big Man
Join award-winning author, poet and filmmaker Dean Atta for a special event celebrating the publication of his adult…
Blackfest 2026 Presents: Visual Arts Workshop With Ayobami
Liverpool’s BlackFest 2026 invites audiences to explore colour, abstraction and expressive mark-making in a hands-on visual arts workshop…
Black History Month Lecture with Lemn Sissay
Black History Month Lecture with Lemn Sissay brings one of Britain’s most distinctive poets, authors and broadcasters to…
African Soul Rebels: Les Amazones D’Afrique, Gasper Nali and N’Famady Kouyaté
African Soul Rebels brings three distinctive African musical voices to Liverpool Philharmonic Hall for an evening of rhythm,…
Ibibio Sound Machine + Ziyad Al-samman
British-Nigerian frontwoman Eno Williams brings the electrifying Ibibio Sound Machine to Birkenhead for an October performance at Future…