How do you respond to history's wide grave, and how do you live beyond the ruins of the past?
Join celebrated St Lucian poet Canisia Lubrin as she presents Code Noir, her stunning debut fiction and winner of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction—a startlingly original work of art that re-tunes the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and violence.
Canisia Lubrin's Code Noir brings together fifty-nine linked fictions that respond to its historical antecedent, an infamous set of fifty-nine decrees passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France that defined the conditions of enslavement in the French colonial empire for over a hundred years.
Canisia, alongside award-winning poet Jason Allen-Paisant, will explore black history, migration, colonialism, creolization, futurism, family, and culture, combining immense literary and political force in electric, life-affirming prose.
Join us for an evening exploring formal inventiveness and reparative reading, how to transform historical decree into contemporary fiction, and what it means to write characters determined to live—fully, defiantly—out of the shadow of history's violence.

"A revelation... This book sings in searing language, telling stories that bristle and challenge, comfort and question. Canisia Lubrin is one of the finest writers and thinkers of our time, and in Code Noir is a voice that once heard, can never be forgotten." Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of Code Noir (RRP £14.99) deliverable to any UK address.
The event will initially be broadcast on 05 February at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to two weeks after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for two weeks.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected].