Faber announces the launch of a flagship annual lecture
By Faber Editor, 26 February
Launched to mark the tenth anniversary of the Faber Members programme this year, the Faber Lecture will provide an invited author with a platform to explore essential ideas that are at the intersection of creativity and culture.
The inaugural Faber Lecture, ‘Pigeonholed: Creative Freedom as an Act of Resistance’, will be delivered by Orwell Prize-winning journalist Gary Younge at Conway Hall on 8 May.
The lecture will also be delivered in Manchester in the autumn. For those unable to attend in person, a recording of the Faber Lecture will be available to view later in the year.
In this incisive and moving personal lecture, one of the nation’s leading political voices explores what has been termed as the ‘burden of representation’. Younge analyses the pressures exerted upon the relatively small group of people from underrepresented communities who break through into elite spaces and the expectations that may come from above, below, within and outwith, from those with power and those without. These are issues that have framed, frustrated, inspired and inflected his entire working life as a writer. Sharing his experiences, Younge offers reflections on how to navigate representation, power and responsibility while keeping your job, your sanity and your freedom, both as a human being and as a writer.
The lecture will be published in paperback to coincide with the event and will be available at the venue and through UK retailers. Laura Hassan acquired World All English rights from Ciara Finan at Curtis Brown.
Gary Younge said:
I am honoured to have been invited to deliver Faber’s inaugural annual lecture and have the opportunity to explore the range of challenges that writers from underrepresented groups have to face. It is a subject that is both deeply personal, having framed my entire career as a writer, and urgently political, given the efforts now underway to silence diverse voices, suppress efforts to address the various imbalances in our society.
Faber Members is Faber’s free-to-join community for readers. The Members programme offers readers a range of benefits including author events, exclusive editions of beloved books and regular literary news. Sign-up is free at faber.co.uk.
Gary Younge is an award-winning author and broadcaster, and is professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. Formerly a columnist and an editor-at-large at the Guardian, he is an editorial board member of The Nation magazine. He is the author of five books, including Another Day in the Death of America (shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and the Jhalak Prize), and his writing has appeared in Granta, the New York Times, the Financial Times, GQ, the New Statesman, and beyond. He has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit. Younge received the 2024 Orwell Prize for Journalism. In 2025, he received the prestigious Robert B. Silvers Award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the field of journalism. He lives in London.
The Faber Lecture is taking place at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Street, London WC1R 4RL. Doors will open at 18.30 and the lecture will begin at 19.00. https://www.conwayhall.
Tickets are now on sale via Faber Members.
Hayley Sothinathan, Head of Faber Members said:
Faber Members has brought readers together for ten years, united by a shared love of great literature, present and past. To mark its tenth anniversary we are holding the inaugural Faber Lecture. We are so honoured that Gary Younge, one of our most important voices, will deliver the first lecture, which explores such an urgent subject. We look forward to growing Faber Members further over the next decade as a cultural home for readers, bringing them closer to the books and authors they love.