Booking for this event has now closed for RSL Members. If you would still like to register for a free place please register via the LSE: Click here to book. Tickets are free and open to all.

In the run up to the LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0, rethinking the welfare state for the 21st Century, we bring together a panel to discuss the relationship between literature and poverty. They reflect on questions such as: do you need money to access literature? If not, why are there comparatively few working-class writers? And can literature actively play a part in reducing financial hardship? Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon and editor of the forthcoming Common People: An Anthology of Working Class Writers will be joined by playwright, novelist and short story writer Paul McVeigh and Aaron Reeves, Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the LSE, whose work looks at the causes and consequences of social, economic and cultural inequality. The conversation will be chaired by journalist Sarah Shaffi.

Unfortunately Kerry Hudson is no longer able to take part in this event.

This event will be British Sign Language interpreted.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this event.