Joseph Cassara, whose debut novel The House of Impossible Beauties is released February 1 with Oneworld Publications, is set to make a big splash in the publishing world.

Inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza in New York, it follows a group of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ballroom scene of the 1980s and 90s against the backdrop of the impending AIDS crisis. Cassara is an alumnus of the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop and Columbia University, and the novel was described by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Paul Harding as a 'marvellously serious, deep, artful, humane read'.