Sheffield’s queer bookshop Juno is preparing for a sold out books tour visit from award winning author and literary translator Jennifer Calleja.
Miss Calleja will be appearing at the Chapel Walk bookshop next month to promote her new novel ‘Vehicle’.
The 36-year-old who lives in Hastings, said: “The novel’s about how the writing of histories, biographies and translations is highly subjective and political.
“It’s also about a punk band on tour, a group of academics on the run and the inhabitants of an archipelago trying to escape due to a crisis.”
Independent and intersectional feminist bookshop Juno is co-founded by life-long friends Rosie May and Sarah Scales and was created in efforts to support a greater representation of women and marginalised voices in the world of books.
The co-founders of Juno said: “We want to challenge and break down stereotypes surrounding these groups in the literary space by stocking a carefully curated selection of literature.”
When it came to writing her newest book, Miss Calleja: “I wrote it partly as a response to how women in punk have been depicted in literature and to show how misogyny permeates all culture and institutions – from politics, to academia, to punk.”
Both Miss Calleja and Juno are joining forces to provide an opportunity for women to discuss prevalent and important topics in literature.
Miss Calleja’s six stop tour around the UK has sold out at many of the venues including Juno which the author will visit on April 15.
She said: “My previous book, a collection of short stories called I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For, came out right at the beginning of the first COVID lockdown and all my events were cancelled.”
The book tour is Juno’s first ever event that they have held.
With ‘Vehicle’ being Miss Calleja’s first tour since the pandemic, she said: “ It’s really exciting to be able to do events for this new book, and that most of the events have sold out is a bonus.”
Her last book ‘I’m Afraid That’s All We’ve Got Time For’ received various reviews including one from The Irish Times who said: “Calleja’s snaking and startling stories contain artful sentences, in which the comic and the unsettling sit side-by-side”.
