Daisy Lafarge & Evie Wyld: Strong Female Lead

Evie Wyld won the Stella Prize – Australia’s version of the Women’s Prize – in 2021 for her modern gothic novel The Bass Rock, a tale of how violence and power has been wielded against women across centuries and in different guises to isolate or harm them. In her acceptance speech, Wyld said she saw that what binds women together is common experience. ‘The problem is it’s not a monster,’ she said, ‘it’s part of the fabric of everything.’ Women contort themselves in many ways in order to survive: changing the way they look, how they act, or use public and domestic spaces. This is as true now as ever. It is a theme that is also explored in Daisy Lafarge’s compelling debut novel, Paul, an exploration of the messy and devastating power imbalances in relationships. In this event, filmed live at the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Lafarge and Wyld speak to freelance producer and director of Push the Boat Out poetry festival Jenny Niven, about their two exquisite catalogues of isolation, distance and power.