Archive: Life Writing

Read Haniya Habib’s work, shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in the Life Writing category.

In this exclusive piece, Leila Aboulela, Fiction judge for the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, looks back to the beginning of her writing life – including her long relationship and publication history with Wasafiri – and considers the intrigue of the lingering image, offering writing advice to potential prize entrants.

Read Jailan Zayan’s work, shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in the Life Writing category.

Read Jessie Berry-Porter’s work, shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in the Life Writing category.

In this exclusive extract from ‘Season’ by Rebecca Tamás, a slow, moving meditation on ritual and the nonhuman life which opens our spring issue, Wasafiri 113, we see the seasons change – from spring to summer – during the early days of the pandemic.

‘Language is one of the lines along which my family falls into private subsets.’ Stephanie Sy-Quia reflects on the five languages in her family, learning and un-learning language, and the multilingual environment’s earliest lesson – all through anecdotes from childhood and her experiences growing up across countries and cultures.

Accompanied by exclusive photos, Olga U Herrera provides a retrospective on the work and life of Wendy Nanan, a seminal figure in contemporary Caribbean art.

Considering indentureship, family, and industry expectations, author Sophie Jai writes movingly on her experience of publishing her debut novel, Wild Fires.

Read Dur e Aziz Amna’s ‘Inheritance’, a moving and complex examination of literary belonging and unbelonging.