Have you chosen wrong at every turn?
Join award-winning debut novelist Jackie Thomas-Kennedy as she presents her gripping exploration of love, regret, and the weight of life's small decisions in The Other Wife, a bold and bracing novel about race, class, and the discontents of modern intimacy.
Susan 'Zuzu' Braeburn is almost forty. She has the life she's always dreamed of—a beautiful house, a child, a successful partner. But something between her and her wife has been off for a long time, and she can't help but wonder if she's chosen wrong at every turn.
Choosing to live with her white mother over her Black father in the divorce, choosing to become a lawyer rather than an artist, and most importantly, choosing to marry Agnes despite her unrequited feelings for her male best friend Cash. When an unexpected loss takes her back to her hometown, the 'what-ifs' in her mind become too loud to ignore.
Jackie brings exceptional literary credentials to this debut, having been awarded the highly prestigious Stegner Fellowship and two MacDowell fellowships, along with recognition from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and Yaddo. Winner of the 2019 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize, her work has been recorded for NPR's Selected Shorts and appeared in American Short Fiction, One Story, and Electric Literature.
In conversation with award-winning cultural historian Sofia Akel, join us for an intimate conversation about navigating identity, desire, and the accumulated weight of choices that can leave a life nearly unrecognisable over time.
Jackie will discuss her approach to writing, the complexities of queer relationships, and how nostalgia shapes our understanding of ourselves. We don’t have infinite time to make changes in our lives, and sometimes it’s too late to go back.
"Extraordinary. A story about belonging in liminal spaces, and longing for things seemingly just out of reach. A searing, beautiful book." Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age

The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of The Other Wife (RRP £14.99) deliverable to any UK or international address.
The event will initially be broadcast on 12 August 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].