Beyond happily ever after, with Andrés N. Ordorica, Emma Steele and Breea Keenan

£4 early-bird tickets until 5th May! £6 voucher ticket from 6th May.

As readers of romance books, we often expect them to have a happy ending. But what happens when that’s not quite the case - or when we shed some tears along the way? What is a happy ending, anyway? We’re looking forward to talking to three debut novelists about their take! This event also includes the exclusive opportunity to buy an early copy of How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica , which isn’t officially published until July!

About our speakers:

Andrés N. Ordorica is a queer Latinx writer based in Edinburgh. Drawing on his family’s immigrant history and third culture upbringing, his writing maps the journey of diaspora and unpacks what it means to be from ni de aquí, ni de allá (neither here, nor there). He is the author of the poetry collection At Least This I Know and novel How We Named the Stars. He has been shortlisted for the Morley Lit Prize, the Mo Siewcharran Prize and the Saltire Society’s Poetry Book of The Year. In 2024, he was selected as one of The Observer’s 10 Best Debut Novelists.

Emma Steele is an Edinburgh-based solicitor and writer, who has always enjoyed big love stories and exciting thrillers. When Emma's not reading or writing, she's spending time with her husband, two children and excitable pup, Sunshine. The Echoes of Us in her debut novel.

Breea Keenan has been writing professionally for 18 years. She has a first-class honours degree in English Literature, Journalism and Creative Writing from Strathclyde University, and worked as a journalist for various media titles before moving into communications and marketing. Her poetry was selected for inclusion in Blether (Scottish Book Trust) and Living During the Coronavirus Pandemic (Legend Times). Breea lives near Glasgow with her husband and three children. Plot Twist is her debut novel.

Our host: Jenny Colgan

Jenny Colgan is one of the most successful and prolific authors of feel- good fiction in the UK. Her numerous internationally bestselling books include almost fifty novels, novellas, short stories and children’s books. She has sold more than four million copies in the UK alone, and ten million copies worldwide, Summer Skies is now out and her next, Close Knit, is coming in August!

She has won various awards for her writing including the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award and the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Award. Jenny is a long-time champion of romantic fiction, proudly speaking up in the media against the sidelining of genre fiction and she headlined our very first First Date festival in 2023!