Book Launch: Twist by Adele Bertei

At this special event in Studio 6, Adele Bertei, Vivienne Dick and Peter Murphy will explore the cultural context of Bertei’s memoir and music career. The evening promises to be a fascinating exploration of how art and music can disrupt and transform systems of trauma.

“One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read...” (Mary Gaitskill)

Waging war on the cliché of the “misery memoir”, Twist is set in a 1960s and ’70s America. Bertei's avatar Maddie Twist reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery can prove fatal. Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way, we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, poet killers, an American Magdalene laundry, the abyss of rape, girl-hoodlums and faux-pimps, racial tensions and healings, a drag queen family, and the liberation that is rock and roll. In an age of lies and obfuscation, Twist is a sharp yet tender arrow straight to the heart of naked truth.

Adele Bertei was lead singer of the first out, queer, all-women rock band, the Bloods, and was the voice on hit songs like “Hyperactive!" by Thomas Dolby. Bertei played a lead role in Lizzie Borden’s seminal feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames. She is the author of two previous books: Peter and the Wolves, and Why Labelle Matters, a finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards. Twist is her origin story.