We are excited to welcome Brooklyn-based writer and artist Shelley Marlow to The Bower for the London launch of an illustrated special edition of ‘Two Augusts In A Row In A Row’, the seventh book in Publication Studio’s Fellow Travelers Series. 

‘Two Augusts In A Row In A Row’ is a love letter between generations of queer people. Set in New York City in 2001, we follow Phillip—a gender subversive drag king in search of grace and magic—through rich, sad, humorous language that is singularly Shelley Marlow’s. 

Marlow will read from ‘Two Augusts In A Row In A Row’ and an excerpt from a new work in progress. 

“Marlow’s style is appealing and beautiful, propelling the reader forward with its mix of sophistication and Zen-like neologism. Syntax lifts off the rails in exhilarating ways, prepositions stand in for one another, and rich, leisurely descriptions succeed in creating a fully realized world saturated with…far-out colors, sounds, and textures…Witchcraft, visionary experience, dream intervention, and the need for spells of self-protection appear regularly throughout this book, as if one could not possibly navigate such an unpredictable world without heeding them.”  – Jenny Montgomery, CutBank

This artist’s edition of the novel, first issued by Publication Studio Hudson with letterpress printed covers in 2018, is handmade here by Publication Studio London in collaboration with London Centre for Book Arts. It features 24 colour and black-and-white reproductions of pen and ink drawings, watercolours and paintings by the author, bound in purple covers with a holographic foil.