Join us for an inspiring evening with award-winning writer, editor, and painter, Leanne Shapton, on her renowned memoir, Swimming Studies.

Intimate with chlorinated space; weightless yet limited; closed off to taste, sound, and most sight: this is a swimmer’s state. When ten-year-old Leanne Shapton joins a swim team, she finds an affinity for its rhythms—and spends years training, making it to the Olympic trials twice.

Swimming Studies reflects on her time immersed in a world of rigour and determination, routine and competition. Vivid details of a life spent largely underwater emerge: adolescence in suburban Canada, dawn risings for morning practice, bus rides with teammates, a growing collection of swimsuits, dips in lakes and oceans. When she trades athletic pursuits for artistic ones, the metrics of moving through water endure.

To celebrate Daunt Books’ UK publication of Swimming Studies, Leanne will be in conversation with writer Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou to discuss the art of sports writing, the influence of painting and drawing on her life as a writer and editor, and the unique but dazzling fusion of diverse disciplines on the page. In elegant, spare prose, she will render swimming as a mode of experiencing time, movement, and perspective—revealing how athletic discipline can shape every aspect of our lives.

“My very favourite book . . . When somebody says, I want a book that’s going to teach me how to write, or how to be an artist—it’s this.” Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House and Tom Lake

The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of Swimming Studies (RRP £13.99) deliverable to any UK address.

The event will initially be broadcast on 10 November 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].