Exclusive Extract: Un-imagining the University by Madhu Krishnan
In this exclusive excerpt from Wasafiri 119: Futurisms, Professor Madhu Krishnan details the current problems and precarities within our education systems, and how we might begin to de- and re-construct the idea of the University.
You can read and download the full piece online for free during the month of October, or read it in the print issue of Wasafiri 119: Futurisms, which is available to purchase via our website.
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Exclusive Extract: The Prison As a Text by Layan Kayed, translated by Roba AlSalibi
Originally published in Wasafiri 118: Abolitions — Writing Against Abandonment, this piece of life writing, translated by Roba AlSalibi, powerfully deconstructs the themes of humanisation, freedom of Palestinian prisoners and people, and the abolition of prisons altogether.
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Autofiction and Emotional Truth by Durre Shahwar
In this reflective essay, Durre Shahwar, Wasafiri's Writer-in-Residence, reflects on her journey to autofiction, the genre's 'slippery and elusive' capacity for deeper, emotional truths, and the writerly work of reaching beyond the self into community and into new ways of seeing.
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Making News: Notes on a Scandal by Gary Younge
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 114: Windrush:
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They Wanted To Write So I Told Them To Dance by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
In this passionate and joyful article – accompanied by an exclusive poem from her debut collection Cane, Corn & Gully – poet, dancer, and choreographer Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa explores her experience teaching writing through movement…
ArticlesPoetry
'Rediscovering Self, Race, and Class Through Cultural Translation': An Interview with Will Harris by Jennifer Wong
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 111: Translating Lives, Jennifer Wong interviews fellow poet Will Harris on his debut collection RENDANG, and the craft, experiences, and ideas that went into writing it.
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A Place Called Home by Swati Arora
In the latest of Wasafiri's Global Dispatches series, Dr Swati Arora reflects on CA Davids' essay, answering with a piece that examines India's growing Hindu supremacy, the communal language of protest, and how the state's rhetoric around the Covid-19 pandemic can shore up systems of oppression.
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‘Decolonisation is a constant struggle’: An Interview with Gloria Wekker
Gloria Wekker is a Dutch-Surinamese Professor E merit a of Gender and Ethnicity at Utrecht University, and author of the book White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race (Duke University Press) .
ArticlesInterviews
Thoughts on a Pandemic Book Club: An Illustrated Essay
In this warm and engaging personal essay, writer Divya Ghelani reflects on the strength and confidence she found by starting a reading group for contemporary novels by BIPOC authors.
ArticlesLife Writing
Winners Announced for the 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
We are excited to announce and warmly congratulate the winners of our 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Fiction, Life Writing, and Poetry. ‘I was very mindful of doing this work for Wasafiri,' said novelist and judge Hirsh Sawhney, of judging the prize.
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Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature
We are so proud to join in the congratulations for Abdulrazak Gurnah, Wasafiri Advisory Board member, longstanding contributor, editor and friend, who has won the 2021 Nobel Prize for literature.
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2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Shortlist Announced
Fifteen writers across three genres have been shortlisted for the prestigious and uniquely international Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, this year judged by Hirsh Sawhney (Fiction), Christie Watson (Life Writing), and Tishani Doshi (Poetry), and chaired by Andrew Cowan .
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Wasafiri at Large: Reinventing the Book in Malaysia
Earlier this year, Wasafiri was joined by five new Editors at Large based in Southeast Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand. In the coming months, as part of our new Wasafiri at Large series, each Editor at Large will shed light on their local literary scene. William Tham Wai Liang, based in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, was formerly Senior Editor at Vancouver’s Ricepaper magazine.
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To be Birthed in Water by Hana Pera Aoake
Hana Pera Aoake (Ngaati Hinerangi me Ngaati Raukawa, Ngaati Mahuta, Tainui/Waikato, Ngaati Waewae, Kaati Mamoe, Waitaha) is a writer and artist from Aotearoa New Zealand. Their work is concerned with realising Indigenous sovereignty through the body, and through the whenua – the land.
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The Good Brown Girl by Shivanee Ramlochan
Do you want to submit to the 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Fiction, Life Writing, and Poetry, but you're not sure what 'life writing' looks like? Let Shivanee Ramlochan show you. I began writing poems not because I was inspired, but because I was compelled.
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‘Creating – or awakening to – Octavia’: Rachel Long
I set up Octavia in 2015. But I did not do it alone.
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Call of Duty by James Bradley
Dr. James Bradley – an Environmental Scientist at Queen Mary, University of London – reflects on the climate crisis and responds to Robbie Arnott's 'Warmer Waters'—published as part of the Queen Mary Wasafiri Global Dispatche s initiative…
ArticlesGlobal Dispatches
'We need to normalise rage': In Conversation with Asim Abbasi
Armed with a BSc (Hons) in Economics from the London School of Economics, and a MA in Global Cinemas from the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), Asim Abbasi is a British-Pakistani film director, screenwriter, and producer.
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Warmer Waters by Robbie Arnott
At least it’s good for the planet, we say to each other. At least there’s a silver lining. With fewer planes in the air, fewer cars on the roads, fewer cruise ships smouldering over the ocean, there has to be a positive effect on the environment. It makes so much intuitive sense:
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The Fight in Us by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
Our winter 2020 issue – Wasafiri 104: Human Rights Cultures – makes space for South-South connections and conversations, focusing on four post-conflict countries – Kenya, Rwanda, Colombia, Argentina – bringing together the literatures that follow in the wake of war.
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Choreographing Covid-19 Stories by Thomas Glave
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an effect on us all, and we all have stories to share of our experiences within it. These are stories that only we can tell, in our own words.
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The 2021 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize: Open for Submissions
Representing more of the globe than any other prize of its kind, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is opening its doors for 2021 and welcoming work in fiction, poetry, and life writing from unpublished writers around the world. The prize will remain open from 1 February to 31 May 2021 .
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Egress by Nauman Khalid
Urfi , I never came to stay. It’s just that it’s no longer as simple as it was . Then , the plan was straightforward: I was a visitor, just pass ing through , embracing this land of dreams for a year.
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'Poetry as a tool of their own choosing': In Conversation with the Young People’s Laureates
L-R: Theresa Lola, Momtaza Mehri, Cecilia Knapp, Caleb Femi … Now in its fifth year, the Young People’s Laureate (YPL) for London is UK poetry’s third most prominent ‘office’, after the Poet Laureate and the Oxford Professor of Poetry.
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