The New Statesman is excited to offer the opportunity to its readers to pre-register for our upcoming event with author Neil Gaiman and singer Amanda Palmer on the evening of the 28 May in London.
This event has now SOLD OUT.
For information about other upcoming events, please register your interest below;
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Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is the bestselling author of books for adults and children. He is the recipient of numerous awards, and his works have been adapted for film, television, stage and radio.
Some of Gaiman’s most notable books include The Graveyard Book (the first book to ever win both the Newbery and Carnegie medals), American Gods and the winner of the UK’s National Book Award 2013 Book of the Year, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. His latest collection of short stories, Trigger Warning, was published earlier this year.
Amanda Palmer
Provocative, irreverent, controversial and wildly creative, Amanda Palmer is a fearless singer, songwriter, best-selling author, playwright, blogger and an audaciously expressive pianist. She simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre and art.
Palmer first came to prominence as one half of the internationally-acclaimed punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. In 2008, she released her debut solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer, produced by Ben Folds and accompanied by a fine art photography book featuring text by Gaiman (who Palmer has since married). After parting ways with her record label in 2010, she self-released two EPs: Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukelele and Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, along with the musical theatre-esque Evelyn Evelyn concept album and tour with Jason Webley.
Amanda is widely known as “The Social Media Queen of Rock-N-Roll” for her constant and disarmingly intimate engagement with her fans via her blog, Tumblr, and Twitter (1,000,000+ followers), and has been at the vanguard of using both “direct to fan” and “pay what you want” business models to build and run her business. In May 2012, she made international news when she raised nearly $1.2m pre-selling her new album, Theatre is Evil, along with related merchandise and “experiences” via Kickstarter.
Theatre is Evil went on to debut in the Billboard Top 10 when it was released on 11 September 2012, and has been released in over 20 countries on her own label, 8ft Records. She recently launched a page on patreon.com, a new subscription-style crowdfunding platform, and is currently being paid over $22,000 directly by her fans every time she releases a piece of content.
Amanda was invited to present a TED Talk at TED’s 2013 conference. To date, her Talk, “The Art of Asking”, has been viewed more than 10m times worldwide. That year also saw the release of “An Evening with Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer” – a three CD collection of tracks culled from a live tour with her husband.
2014 found Amanda expanding her philosophy into a book after the success of her TED Talk. The Art of Asking was released worldwide on 11 November and made the New York Times’ bestseller list.