Join us in welcoming Authors LOLA AKINMADE ÅKERSTRöM and LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI to the LIFTed UNITED Book Panels.

Lọlá Ákínmádé was born in Nigeria. Educated in the United States and is now based in Sweden. When she is not writing books, she is an award-winning photographer.

Focusing on the lives of three Black women as they fight their own personal struggles in one of the most egalitarian societies, Sweden.

Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikström thinks she’s the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. 

Looking into divorce in Sweden isn’t what former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin anticipated. Only jointly owned assets are split evenly between couples. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny’s kingdom. H

After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz Çelik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she’s ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.

Lisa Allen-Agostini Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian from Trinidad and Tobago. Lisa writes in a variety of genres and voices but is probably best known in her homeland for her weekly column, written in Trinidad Creole, in the Guardian. In 2009 she founded The Allen Prize for Young Writers, an NGO registered in Trinidad & Tobago as a not-for-profit company and in 2019 she started the partnership FemComTT with Louris Lee-Sing.

Alethea Lopez is about to turn 40. Fashionable, feisty and fiercely independent, she manages a boutique in Port of Spain, but behind closed doors she’s covering up bruises from her abusive partner and seeking solace in an affair with her boss. When she witnesses a woman murdered by a jealous lover, the reality of her own future comes a little too close to home.

Bringing us her truth in an arresting, unsparing Trinidadian voice, Alethea unravels memories repressed since childhood and begins to understand the person she has become.

Her next step is to decide the woman she wants to be.

This is an engrossing and atmospheric novel with a strong feminist message at the heart of its page-turning plot. It explores an abusive love-affair with searing honesty, and skilfully tackles the issue of gender violence and racism against the lush and heady backdrop of the national festival, and the music that feeds it. It’s impossible not to root for Alethea – she is an unforgettable heroine, trapped in ways she is only just beginning to understand but shining with strength, resolve and, ultimately, self-determination.

LOLA AKINMADE ÅKERSTRöM and LISA ALLEN-AGOSTINI in conversation with Karis McPherson, BEYOND BOUNDARIES PANEL 12