Join us at The Muse, Brecon as we welcome author Gloria Blizzard for evening of readings and discussion of her book Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas, as she yours her book in the UK, as part of Black History Month celebrations. This event is supported by Griot Arts.
Gloria is a Black Canadian woman of multiple heritages whose work intersects music, dance, science, spirit, and culture. Her essays, reviews, and poems have been featured in CBC, The Globe and Mail, Wasafiri International Contemporary Writing, and World Literature Today. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from the University of King’s College, Canada, and her work has won the Malahat Review Nonfiction Prize and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

About the Book
Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas is a diasporic collection of personal essays that delve into the intersections of music, dance, spirit, race, and culture. In her work, Gloria uses traditional narrative essays, hybrid structures, and the tools of poetry to explore themes of belonging—to a family, a community, and a broader global context. Her writing has been described as “mesmerizing, lyrical and cadenced” by Ayelet Tsabari and “a literary delight” by Toronto Poet Laureate Lillian Allen.

Highlights of Recent Reviews

“Gloria Blizzard’s essays move like music, like dance. This is an astonishingly assured debut from a vital new voice in Canadian literature—smart, insightful and necessary.” —Ayelet Tsabari

“Gloria’s consummate craft elevates her essays about surviving in the liminal spaces of geography and culture to literary art.” —Lorri Neilsen Glenn

“Beautiful and tragic in turn, Black Cake is an essential ingredient to understanding our plural world today.” —Edson Burton

• Date: Friday 24th October 2025

• Tickets: £5/£7

• Doors open: 7.30pm