Grace Murray & Anna Goldreich: Blank Canvas & The Leveret
Praise for The Leveret: “Hugely intense and beautifully unsettling — a searing, intimate novel about grief’s wildness — I couldn’t look away.” Orla Mackey
Praise for Blank Canvas: “Brilliantly and satisfyingly off-key and absurd, with a vein of tragedy running through it, it’s the art college campus novel I’ve always wanted.” Claire Kohda
Join us on Thursday the 25th June for a double debut author evening, welcoming Anna Goldreich – author of The Leveret — and Grace Murray — author of Blank Canvas.
Both novels explore themes of grief and re-starting one’s life but do so in distinctly different ways.
The Leveret is a bruisingly tender and lyrically haunting hymn to queer love and the power to rebuild from the wreckage of a relationship. Phoebe moves back to the rural community she ran away from at seventeen with her partner Claire to heal from the miscarriage of their baby girl. Whilst Phoebe throws herself into work on the farm, Clare finds a leveret while wandering through the forest — her own little Isla. A surrogate to lick and love. A way to feel whole again. As Claire’s grasp on reality grows tenuous, Phoebe begins to question whether Isla is the cure for grief Clare is searching for.
Blank Canvas follows Charlotte, a final year liberal arts student in upstate New York. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden. Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so, she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive.
Anna and Grace will be in conversation with Ruth Fisher, bookseller at The Book Hive. The conversation will feature readings and will be followed by an audience Q&A as well as a chance to get your book signed afterwards.
Anna Goldreich is a writer based in Norwich. She holds a Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA from the University of East Anglia and her writing has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize 2022 and was awarded the Mslexia Short Story Runner-up Prize 2025. She is the co-founder of Queer Birders Norfolk.
Grace Murray was born in 2003 and grew up in Norfolk. She read English Literature at Edinburgh University, where she found time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs. She features in the Sunday Times Young Power List 2026, and her short fiction has been published in The London Magazine. Blank Canvas was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent.
Anna Goldreich – The Leveret & Grace Murray – Blank Canvas
Thursday 25th of June
The Book Hive, Norwich
Doors 6:30 for a 7pm start
FREE (suggested donation £2 to cover wine)
Grace Murray & Anna Goldreich: Blank Canvas & The Leveret
Praise for The Leveret: “Hugely intense and beautifully unsettling — a searing, intimate novel about grief’s wildness — I couldn’t look away.” Orla Mackey
Praise for Blank Canvas: “Brilliantly and satisfyingly off-key and absurd, with a vein of tragedy running through it, it’s the art college campus novel I’ve always wanted.” Claire Kohda
Join us on Thursday the 25th June for a double debut author evening, welcoming Anna Goldreich – author of The Leveret — and Grace Murray — author of Blank Canvas.
Both novels explore themes of grief and re-starting one’s life but do so in distinctly different ways.
The Leveret is a bruisingly tender and lyrically haunting hymn to queer love and the power to rebuild from the wreckage of a relationship. Phoebe moves back to the rural community she ran away from at seventeen with her partner Claire to heal from the miscarriage of their baby girl. Whilst Phoebe throws herself into work on the farm, Clare finds a leveret while wandering through the forest — her own little Isla. A surrogate to lick and love. A way to feel whole again. As Claire’s grasp on reality grows tenuous, Phoebe begins to question whether Isla is the cure for grief Clare is searching for.
Blank Canvas follows Charlotte, a final year liberal arts student in upstate New York. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden. Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so, she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive.
Anna and Grace will be in conversation with Ruth Fisher, bookseller at The Book Hive. The conversation will feature readings and will be followed by an audience Q&A as well as a chance to get your book signed afterwards.
Anna Goldreich is a writer based in Norwich. She holds a Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA from the University of East Anglia and her writing has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize 2022 and was awarded the Mslexia Short Story Runner-up Prize 2025. She is the co-founder of Queer Birders Norfolk.
Grace Murray was born in 2003 and grew up in Norfolk. She read English Literature at Edinburgh University, where she found time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs. She features in the Sunday Times Young Power List 2026, and her short fiction has been published in The London Magazine. Blank Canvas was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent.
Anna Goldreich – The Leveret & Grace Murray – Blank Canvas
Thursday 25th of June
The Book Hive, Norwich
Doors 6:30 for a 7pm start
FREE (suggested donation £2 to cover wine)
Grace Murray & Anna Goldreich: Blank Canvas & The Leveret
Praise for The Leveret: “Hugely intense and beautifully unsettling — a searing, intimate novel about grief’s wildness — I couldn’t look away.” Orla Mackey
Praise for Blank Canvas: “Brilliantly and satisfyingly off-key and absurd, with a vein of tragedy running through it, it’s the art college campus novel I’ve always wanted.” Claire Kohda
Join us on Thursday the 25th June for a double debut author evening, welcoming Anna Goldreich – author of The Leveret — and Grace Murray — author of Blank Canvas.
Both novels explore themes of grief and re-starting one’s life but do so in distinctly different ways.
The Leveret is a bruisingly tender and lyrically haunting hymn to queer love and the power to rebuild from the wreckage of a relationship. Phoebe moves back to the rural community she ran away from at seventeen with her partner Claire to heal from the miscarriage of their baby girl. Whilst Phoebe throws herself into work on the farm, Clare finds a leveret while wandering through the forest — her own little Isla. A surrogate to lick and love. A way to feel whole again. As Claire’s grasp on reality grows tenuous, Phoebe begins to question whether Isla is the cure for grief Clare is searching for.
Blank Canvas follows Charlotte, a final year liberal arts student in upstate New York. Her father died over the summer, she says. Heart attack. Very sudden. Charlotte had never been close with her classmates but as she repeats her tale, their expressions soften into kindness. And so, she learns there are things worth lying for: attention, affection, and, as she embarks on a relationship with fellow student Katarina, even love. But six thousand miles away, alone in the grey two-up-two-down Staffordshire terrace she grew up in, her father is very much alive.
Anna and Grace will be in conversation with Ruth Fisher, bookseller at The Book Hive. The conversation will feature readings and will be followed by an audience Q&A as well as a chance to get your book signed afterwards.
Anna Goldreich is a writer based in Norwich. She holds a Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA from the University of East Anglia and her writing has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize 2022 and was awarded the Mslexia Short Story Runner-up Prize 2025. She is the co-founder of Queer Birders Norfolk.
Grace Murray was born in 2003 and grew up in Norfolk. She read English Literature at Edinburgh University, where she found time to write between her studies and two part-time jobs. She features in the Sunday Times Young Power List 2026, and her short fiction has been published in The London Magazine. Blank Canvas was written over the course of a year as part of WriteNow, Penguin Random House’s flagship mentorship scheme for emerging talent.
Anna Goldreich – The Leveret & Grace Murray – Blank Canvas
Thursday 25th of June
The Book Hive, Norwich
Doors 6:30 for a 7pm start
FREE (suggested donation £2 to cover wine)