Zadie Smith brings Dead and Alive to the stage in Bristol

Zadie Smith meets readers at St George’s Bristol in the United Kingdom at 7 p.m. on 2 November to present Dead and Alive. Her new essay collection moves across cinema, music, politics and shared life, taking in the film Tár, Stormzy’s rise and a walk along Kilburn High Road. Smith also considers Joan Didion, Martin Amis, Hilary Mantel, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison, asking what remains in readers’ memories when a literary voice disappears. Organised by Intelligence Squared and also available online, the event includes a conversation with novelist Nikesh Shukla and audience questions. Smith thus uses the essay as a flexible form capable of connecting personal experience with wider cultural and political change.