Historically branded as an older person’s issue, loneliness is a very real problem among Gen Z and millennials. Lucy Pearson set up The Bondi Literary Salon when she moved three years ago to Sydney, Australia, and says it’s been a “huge source of wonderful friendships,” and next month will be reading Good Material by Dolly Alderton. Jessica Bethel, 29, started Literature Noir — focusing on BIPOC literature, with the group’s next book being Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei–Brenyah — after moving to Los Angeles, US, while in search of new friendships. Three years on, she says: “It’s what I needed to feel less lonely out here and find a sense of local community.” Alexandra Holker, 27, from London, founded Spare Ribs Club, a feminist literature group for women in their 20s with over 300 members. Their last book was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It’s been so successful in creating friendships that Holker says “the community has multiple Spare Ribs ‘houses’, so flatmates who have found each other via the group.” Tanya*, 29, from Lincoln in the UK, created a book club two years ago to build her social life after relocating to a village. “Unless you had a child, went to church, or had a dog, it was very hard to meet people,” she says. Meck, 32, relocated to Dallas, US, and also found new friendships via a book club, in which hanging out after the book discussion is part of the dynamic. Olivia, 28, joined one in New York last year with former colleagues and says it’s become “a real light in [her] life,” thanks to the monthly meets that have maintained friendships that otherwise might have been lost.
