Brighton Welcomes Harriet Clark

At Resident Music in Brighton, people will hear Harriet Clark talk about her debut novel, The Hill, which tells the story of Suzanna, a child who spends every Saturday visiting her mother in prison. The novel is a study of internalised confinement and the quiet, fierce love that can persist within it, with Suzanna's visits to the women's prison at its centre. Clark's own experiences of visiting her mother in prison for most of her childhood have clearly influenced the book.

Harriet Clark is an American writer with a impressive background, having received her B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She has held several MacDowell residencies and has won the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for her short story 'Descent'. Clark's novel has been praised for its clear, restrained prose and its portrait of a child raised among former Communists.

The event will take place on Thursday, 5 November 2026, at Resident Music in Brighton. Tickets are with the button beside the article. This is a chance to hear from Harriet Clark about her breathtaking debut novel and the personal experiences that shaped it. The Hill is a novel that draws on Clark's own story, but is a work of fiction that incorporates elements paralleling the lives of mother and daughter, making it a unique and compelling read.