Paper Chains: The 40-Year Wasafiri Archive
Wasafiri magazine, in collaboration with Angelique Golding – a PhD student on the magazine's archives, based at Queen Mary University of London – has curated an exhibition chronicling its forty-year publishing history. The exhibition crafts paper chains from Wasafiri’s archives, showcasing the magazine’s evolution over four decades, and its deep connections with Queen Mary University of London, academia, and libraries.
Wasafiri first arrived at Queen Mary – then known as Queen Mary and Westfield College – in 1992. After seven years at Queen Mary, the magazine moved with its Founding Editor, Dr. Susheila Nasta, to the Open University. In 2017, it returned to Queen Mary, solidifying the close relationship that had begun previously. This collaboration culminated with the establishment of the prestigious Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in 2009, which marks its 15th anniversary this year.
The exhibition underscores the importance of materiality and storytelling drawn from the archives, offering a historical backdrop to the magazine’s connection with Queen Mary. It delves into the magazine’s unwavering mission and commitment to publish not just creative, but also critical and academic writing, from around the globe, and traces its history, trajectory, editorial strategy, and vision over forty years — detailing its visionary approach to commissioning, editing, and publishing critical work despite potential backlash, or funding challenges.
How did the magazine respond to significant world events and political changes? How did it nurture early-career writers, showcasing and championing voices from diverse regions of the world throughout its 40-year history? Furthermore, the magazine’s founding ethos of broadening education has naturally and undoubtedly fostered strong ties with academia and libraries. The exhibition sheds light on precarious and pivotal moments in the magazine's life and times — offering also a specially curated reading lists from its archives.
When: 26 September – 3 January, 2025
Where: Queen Mary Mile End Library, 328 Mile End Road London E1 4NS
Introducing our 40th Anniversary Issue — Wasafiri 119: Futurisms
This issue brings to the fore writers whose perspectives – on the present and on the future – have historically been sidelined. From alternative histories to critiques of the late-capitalist present; high fantasy, sci-fi and the posthuman; theories of landscape, the city, and the body; this milestone issue will showcase a branching network of writing on and around the power of persistence as resistance, as we continue to imagine into being futures that defy an increasingly oppressive present.
