Gower St Indie Spotlight: Laura Vogt in Conversation with Francesca Segal

Join us for an evening with Heloise Press author Laura Vogt who will be discussing her newest novel What Concerns Us with Francesca Segal.

A book without filters What Concerns Us is a blunt depiction of pregnancy, sex, maternity and relationships through the lives of three women.

Rahel and Fenna grew up in an all-female household with their mother and her female partner. Now Rahel strives to reproduce the traditional family unit but she is haunted by an unsettling pregnancy, postnatal depression and compulsive breastfeeding, while having mixed feelings about her singing career. Meanwhile, Fenna wonders whether she consented to the intercourse with Luc which left her pregnant. We follow the sisters' contradictory feelings about who they think they are and who they really are.

Past-faced and with a touch of dark humour, Laura Vogt's neorealist style gives us a first-hand experience of what it is to be female in different situations and stages in life. What Concerns Usis full of physical sensations, uncomfortable thoughts and rough truths about the choices we make.

Don't forget to include a copy of What Concerns Us with your ticket. Books by both Laura and Francesca will be available to purchase on the night.

Laura Vogt (Teufen, 1989) studied Creative Writing at the Swiss Literature Institute in Biel and Cultural Studies at the University of Lucerne. Her first novel, So einfach war es also zu gehen, came out in 2016. She has also written numerous short stories and articles as well as lyrical and dramatic texts. Laura started writing What Concerns Us two months after having her first child. This is her second novel, and the first one to be available to English readers.

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and journalist. Her first novel, The Innocents, won the Costa First Novel Award, amongst others, and was followed by The Awkward Age (‘smart, soulful and compelling’, Nick Hornby). Mother Ship came out in 2019, a critically acclaimed and intimate memoir of the 56 days Francesca's premature twins spent in hospital. Mother Ship is hymn to the sustaining power of women's friendship, a celebration of two small girls, and the fight to be their mother.