Too Little, Too Hard. Peninsula Press. Edited by Lucy Mercer and Livia Franchini.
Book tickets
Join us for the launch of Too Little, Too Hard, a new collection of essays published by Peninsula Press exploring the realities of writing today. Featuring readings and discussion on literary work, the book reflects on value, resistance and the future of writing.
Too Little, Too Hard adds nuance to debates about the value of literature by asking professional writers what they think about literary value and the often overlooked realities of their working lives.
What does it mean to write within a neoliberal economy? What can writers afford to work on, and what subjects are they discouraged from approaching? What does the publishing industry encourage, and what does it quietly reject?
Both critical and hopeful, Too Little, Too Hard confronts the material crises shaping contemporary literature while proposing collective action as a means of securing a future in which writing remains a viable way of life.
The evening will feature readings from contributors:
Claudia Durastanti
Livia Franchini
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Lucy Mercer
Dizz Tate
Lara Williams
Too Little, Too Hard adds nuance to debates about the value of literature by asking professional writers what they think about literary value and the often overlooked realities of their working lives.
What does it mean to write within a neoliberal economy? What can writers afford to work on, and what subjects are they discouraged from approaching? What does the publishing industry encourage, and what does it quietly reject?
Both critical and hopeful, Too Little, Too Hard confronts the material crises shaping contemporary literature while proposing collective action as a means of securing a future in which writing remains a viable way of life.
The evening will feature readings from contributors:
Claudia Durastanti
Livia Franchini
Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Lucy Mercer
Dizz Tate
Lara Williams
Bios
Claudia Durastanti is an Italian writer, translator, and cultural critic. Her latest novel Missitalia will be published by Fitzcarraldo in 2027. Her work has appeared in Granta, Apartamento, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She curates the feminist imprint La tartaruga.
Dizz Tate is a writer currently living in London. Her first novel Brutes was published in 2023.
Lara Williams is a writer based in Manchester. She has written a short story collection, Treats (Freight Books, 2016), and two novels, Supper Club (Hamish Hamilton, 2019), and The Odyssey (Hamish Hamilton, 2022), and has been translated into eight languages. She is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy. She is the author of two novels, Shelf Life and High Tide. Her most recent English-language translation is Lorenza Mazzetti’s The Sky Is Falling. Livia is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, where she also coordinates the Goldsmiths Prize. She lives in South East London with her family.
Lucy Mercer is the author of Emblem (Prototype, 2022). Her nonfiction essay on wax and mortality, Afterlife, is forthcoming with Fitzcarraldo Editions. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Yara Rodrigues Fowler is the author of two novels, Stubborn Archivist (2019) and there are more things (2022). Her work has been nominated for the Goldsmiths, Orwell, and Dylan Thomas prizes among others, and in 2023 Yara was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in their once-a-decade list.
Book tickets
Tue, 07 Jul 2026
Upper Bar
06:00 pm
Soft arrival from 6pm
Talk and readings at 6:30pm
Ticket information
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