Join 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Leila Mottley in conversation with Laura Bates, Founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, as she explores the courageous and unsparing vision behind her debut novel, Nightcrawling.

When there is no choice, all you have left to do is walk.

Kiara Johnson does not know what it is to live as a normal seventeen-year-old. With her mother in a rehab facility and an older brother who devotes his time and money to a recording studio, she fends for herself – and for nine-year-old Trevor, whose own mother is prone to disappearing for days at a time. As the landlord of their apartment block threatens to raise their rent, Kiara finds herself walking the streets after dark, determined to survive in a world that refuses to protect her.

Then one night Kiara is picked up by Officers 601 and 190, and the gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm. If she agrees to testify in a grand jury trial, she could help expose the sickening corruption of a police department. But honesty comes at a price – one that could leave her family vulnerable to their retaliation, and endanger everyone she loves.

In conversation with Laura Bates for this virtual event, Leila will consider the inspiration behind her novel – a true story about a scandal underpinning the police department in Oakland, California – and consider the young people navigating the darkest corners of an adult world. This event promises to be courageous and enlightening; do not miss it.

‘Leila Mottley has a poet’s delicate touch when she tells us the most brutal, heart-crushing truths. This is an electrifying debut’ Dave Eggers