In memoir This Ragged Grace, celebrated writer and broadcaster Octavia Bright follows two events from her life that coincided in the same period: her recovery from addiction and her father’s descent into dementia. With vivid prose and a candid, open-hearted voice, Bright explores the complex interplays between family dynamics, mental health, loss, and resilience. Her work challenges conventional narratives around grief, putting forward a more nuanced understanding that embraces its messy, nonlinear process. In this program, Bright will reflect upon her approach to writing memoir, her multifaceted perspectives on grief and sobriety, and the roles that literature, philosophy, and art have played in her recovery.
About the speaker:
Octavia Bright is a writer and broadcaster. She co-hosts Literary Friction, the literary podcast and NTS Radio show, with Carrie Plitt. Recommended by The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC Culture, Electric Literature, The Sunday Times and others, it has had over 1.4 million downloads. Her writing has been published in a number of magazines including The White Review, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Wasafiri, Somesuch Stories, and the Sunday Times. This Ragged Grace, published by Canongate, is her first book.
