3. DOROTHY KOOMSON

Aptly crowned ‘Queen of the Big Reveal’, local author Dorothy Koomson is the crime-thriller writer. She’s been a published author for over 20 years, and many of her recent works are set in Brighton, including thrilling mystery The Brighton Mermaid, and All My Lies are True. Aside from being a bestselling and multi-award winning author, Dorothy is consistently vocal about the hostility of the UK publishing industry towards Black, particularly women, authors, and calling for change in the way the industry currently operates. In 2020 she started a podcast, The Happy Author, to help aspiring, particularly marginalized, writers to get their works published and navigate the oftentimes unwelcoming industry. In 2022, Dorothy was the Author-InResidence of the first ever Brighton Book Festival, a festival celebrating diverse voices in literature, run by Afrori Books and ourselves at The Feminist Bookshop, hosting writing workshops, and in-conversation events, and being an all around incredible advocate for promoting marginalized voices in literature. We can’t get enough of everything Dorothy does and writes!