Dean Atta – Only on the Weekends

We couldn't be happier to be welcoming Dean Atta to the bookshop for an in-person event to celebrate his newest young adult novel, Only on the Weekends. This is the highly anticipated follow-up to his breakout YA debut The Black Flamingo which is a firm favourite amongst our booksellers. The event will be chaired by award winning poet, playwright, performer and director Hannah Lavery.

About Only on the Weekends:

Mack never thought he'd find love, but now two boys want to be with him.

Will he choose Karim or Finlay? And can true love last for ever? Fifteen-year-old Mack is a hopeless romantic - he blames the films he's grown up watching. He has liked Karim for as long as he can remember, and is ecstatic when Karim becomes his boyfriend - it feels like love. But when Mack's dad gets a job on a film in Scotland, Mack has to move, and soon he discovers how painful love can be. It's horrible being so far away from Karim, but the worst part is that Karim doesn't make the effort to visit. Love shouldn't be only on the weekends. Then, when Mack meets actor Finlay on a film set, he experiences something powerful, a feeling like love at first sight. How long until he tells Karim - and when will his old life and new life collide?

Only on the Weekends is the highly anticipated follow-up to Dean Atta’s breakout YA debut The Black Flamingo, which won the prestigious Stonewall Book Award and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the YA Book Prize.

Dean Atta's debut poetry collection was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. He was named as one of the most influential LGBT people in the UK by the Independent on Sunday. Dean's work often deals with themes of gender, identity, race and growing up - and has appeared on BBC One, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, and Channel 4. Dean regularly performs across the UK, and internationally. He is a tutor for Arvon and Poetry School, and a Keats 2020 Poet in Residence at Keats House. Dean is based in Glasgow, and is Co-director of Scottish BAME Writers Network.

Hannah Lavery is an award winning poet, playwright, director and performer. Her poetry and prose has been published by Gutter Magazine, The Scotsman newspaper, 404 Ink, and others. In September 2021 she took on the role of Edinburgh Makar. Lavery's poetry pamphlet, Finding Seaglass: Poems from The Drift was published by Stewed Rhubarb Press in May 2019. Her debut poetry collection, Blood Salt Spring was published in March 2022 by Polygon.

This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience. On the night of the event, our team will be wearing masks and we encourage you to do the same.

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