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Wasafiri at Ilkley Literature Festival 2018

Find out which events Wasafiri will be present at during the Ilkley Literature Festival 2018

Wasafiri appoints inaugural Writer in Residence Bidisha

The inaugural salon promises to be a space for cultural exchange, critical responses to literature and an open, shared place, either online or live, for debate and lively discussion.

Part-time editorial and administrative placement opportunity for CHASE student

Wasafiri is currently offering a part-time editorial and administrative placement opportunity to a CHASE student

Wasafiri launches its special issue ‘Refuge’ at Tate Exchange

To celebrate the launch of our special issue ‘Refuge’, Wasafiri will be hosting an evening long event at the Tate Modern. In a time of inflammatory headlines and damaging political rhetoric, this issue, guest edited by Bidisha, brings together a powerful roster of writers and artists to counter the populist narrative.

Open Call for New Trustees

To deliver our key objectives we are now looking for dynamic, visionary and energetic leaders to steer Wasafiri through this strategic period.

Winners of the Writeabridge poetry competition 2017 published on Wasafiri

The competition is an international poetry competition, judged in 2017 by poet Joseph Horgan and writer Bidisha. The winning poems are available to read on Wasafiri.

Wasafiri Editor-In-Chief Susheila Nasta to judge SI Leeds Literary Prize

Other judges of the prize this year include Sharmaine Lovegrove, the publisher of Dialogue Books, Kadija George, literary activist and founder of SABLE LitMag, and Winnie M Li, author and co-founder of Clear Lines Festival.

Wasafiri Magazine is open for submissions

Wasafiri is now open for submissions of articles, essays and interviews. Please read the full details before submitting.

Part-time editorial and administrative placement opportunities for CHASE students

Wasafiri, The Magazine of International Contemporary Writing is currently offering two part-time editorial and administrative placement opportunities to CHASE students.

Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2018 is open for submissions

The prize was launched to support new writers, with no limits on age, gender, nationality or background. A winner will be chosen by our stellar line up of judges for each category: Fiction; Poetry; Life Writing. The three winners will be published by Wasafiri and receive a cash prize. They will also be offered the Chapter and Verse or Free Reads mentoring scheme in partnership with The Literary Consultancy (dependent on eligibility).

Alfred Fagon Award Winners Announced

The annual Awards took place at The Dorfman, National Theatre on Friday 8 December. BAFTA award winning writer and director Amma Assante, presented the award and cheque for £6,000 to Mufaro Makubika, winner of this year’s Best New Play of the Year at this year’s Alfred Fagon Award supported by The Peggy Ramsay Foundation.

Competition: Suggest a Book to add to the English Literature Curriculum

Win 4 Issues of Wasafiri Magazine – You may have seen the recent debates about diversifying the English Literature Curriculum at both G.C.S.E. and A-Level. What one book would you add to the curriculum?

Tessa McWatt Joint Winner of 2018 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award

The winners of the 2018 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award are the novelist and short story writer Stuart Evers, and the author, librettist and screenwriter Tessa McWatt, who is also a Trustee at Wasafiri.

Anuk Arudpragasam wins The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017

18th November 2017; Dhaka, Bangladesh : Anuk Arudpragasam has been announced as the winner of the prestigious DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017 for his novel, The Story of a Brief Marriage at the Dhaka Lit Fest in Bangladesh.

November Events and Opportunities

Events and opportunities for writers from the wider Wasafiri community.

TalentLab 2017 – Call for Applications

B3 Media, a leading media arts network, is launching another year of TalentLab – an innovative creative development programme aimed at Black, Asian and minority ethnic artists, writers, creative producers and filmmakers who are ready to take their careers to the next level.

The Highlands Book Prize Launches

A new book prize, established this year, will celebrate the finest work that recognises the rich culture, heritage and landscape of the Highlands. The Highland Book Prize aims to showcase the literary talent of the region and to raise the profile of work created in or about the Highlands.

Trinidad and Tobago Author Ingrid Persaud Wins the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Ingrid Persaud from Trinidad and Tobago has won this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize for her story ‘The Sweet Sop’. The story was chosen from the five regional winning stories in this year’s Prize which received a record 6,000 entries.

Rukhsana Yasmin joins Wasafiri

Susheila Nasta and the Wasafiri team are delighted to welcome Rukhsana Yasmin, an outstanding publishing professional who has recently joined us as Deputy Editor.

Wasafiri National Portfolio Status renewed by Arts Council England

Wasafiri has been successful in renewing its National Portfolio Status with Arts Council England, with funding confirmed for 2018-22.

Highlights from Muslim Writers Event

On Thursday 13 April 2017 we held readings and a panel discussion with Amaal Said, Ayisha Malik and Sabrina Mahfouz, which was chaired by Wasafiri Deputy Editor Arifa Akbar.

Susheila Nasta interviews David Dabydeen at Bocas Lit Fest

David Dabydeen, the celebrated Guyanese poet, novelist, and scholar talks to Susheila Nasta about his career spanning genres and continents, and how contemporary Guyanese writing tackles the intricacies of the country’s troubled past.

‘Battleface’ by Sabrina Mahfouz

To celebrate the launch of The Things I Would Tell You (Saqi Books) we have an exclusive extract from the short play ‘Battleface’ by Sabrina Mahfouz.

Indian silent movie featuring a ‘passionate kiss’ to be restored

Shiraz, a silent-era Indian film which features an early on-screen kiss, is set to be restored by the British Film Institute with a score composed and performed live by Anoushka Shankar. The film, which will be screened in London and Agra, India, later this year, is among the highlights of the UK/India 2017 Year of Culture programme, announced by the British Council, the Indian High Commission and the BFI.

Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2016 Winners

Our congratulations go to the three winners of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2016!

The story of our lives as told by Winners of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize

The most compelling literatures are tragic – a life at its end, an opportunity taken away, a precious thing stolen. And it is this that links the winning entries, over the last four years, in the Life Writing category of Wasafiri’s New Writing Prize.

Hospital Notes by Alice Curham

Alice Curham lives by the sea in Kent with her partner and son and three goldfish. She has had poetry published in Dream Catcher and Red Pepper magazines and been shortlisted in the Gladstone’s Library Short Story competition and longlisted for the Plough Prize. — The fair-haired girl took her for…

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin Wins 14th Caine Prize

Nigeria’s Tope Folarin Wins 2013 Caine Prize By Sola Njoku Nigeria’s Tope Folarin has been awarded the 14th Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story, ‘Miracle’. The announcement was made yesterday, July 8, at a ceremony held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, UK. Announcing the recipient of…

Saturdays by Sarala Estruch

Sarala Estruch was born in London in 1983 to a French mother and Indian father. Her work frequently explores questions of identity, and the interplay of different cultures. She was commended for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2015, and was a prizewinner in the PBS National Student Poetry Competition…

Bush Tea by Richard Georges

Richard Georges is a writer, editor and lecturer in the British Virgin Islands. His poetry has appeared in Smartish Pace, sx salon, Barrelhouse, The Caribbean Writer, Wasafiri and elsewhere. In 2016, he won the Marvin E Williams Literary Prize from The Caribbean Writer. — The waters train you to re…

Welcome by Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo/Tamil writer and video artist based in liminal spaces. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Akwaeke holds two degrees, including an MPA from New York University. The Miles Morland Foundation recently awarded her a 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship for her second novel…

Under the Tamarind by Royston Emmanuel

Royston Emmanuel is a teacher trainer at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, St. Lucia, specializing in digital media, technology in education and Literature. He is inspired by the writings of Caribbean poets Mervyn Morris and Kamau Brathwaite, particularly the ability to use language in unique…

After the end of England by Gillian Best

Gillian Best is a writer whose debut novel will be published by Freight Books in Spring 2017. Her fiction has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize (2013) and published in her native Canada and the UK. She currently lives and works in Bristol. The shortlisted entry below is an extract from her for…

Greek Lessons by Jill Germanacos

Jill Germanacos has lived outside the UK for the past twenty years, moving from Paris to Kazakhstan to Romania with her husband’s work before settling in Greece in 2001. Despite Greece’s current woes, it has been a great place to bring up our four children and give them exposure to their partly Gree…

How to make Pan Catalan by Mark Fiddes

Mark Fiddes is a London poet whose first collection, The Chelsea Flower Show Massacre, was published by Templar Poetry in March 2015. It has since been shortlisted in the 2015 Saboteur Awards. His work has been published in Aesthetica Magazine, the Frogmore Papers and Southword and he has been reco…

Dreamsplitter Robin by James Ganderton

Robin Ganderton has already outlived John Keats and is on course to do the same with Percy Bysshe Shelley. Last year he won the Terry Hetherington Award for Welsh Writers Under Thirty and has just been selected to receive a Literature Wales bursary to work on his novel in progress. You can follow hi…

The Kitchen Duppy by Beth Thompson and Ovarn Brown

Ovarn Brown was born in Black River, Jamaica. Beth Thompson was born in Melbourne, Australia. ‘The Kitchen Duppy’ is the first story they have written together. — The night jasmine flowers once the sun sets. It sends pollen on the wings of moths and gnats to bump into yellow-lit lanterns and drop p…

At the speed of light, squared by AKaiser

AKaiser’s poems have recently appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, Temenos Journal and Coldnoon: Travel Poetics. This past spring, she was a resident at JIWAR, Spain. She is a translator, currently working on the writings of Cebrià de Montoliu, the first translator of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass into…

Walking in Lapeyrouse by Ayanna Gillian Lloyd

Ayanna Gillian Lloyd is a fiction and life writer from Trinidad & Tobago. She has been published in The Caribbean Writer and was shortlisted for Wasafiri’s New Writing Prize and the Smallaxe Literary Competition in 2014. She is an alumna of the Cropper Foundation Residential Workshop, The St Jam…

Supply and Demand by Glen Wilson

Glen Wilson lives in Portadown, Co. Armagh with his wife Rhonda and children Sian and Cain. He has been published in Iota, A New Ulster and The Interpreters House. In 2014 he won the Poetry Space competition and was shortlisted for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize. He is currently working on his first…

Ellery Creek by Anne Vines

Anne Vines is based in Melbourne, Australia. She was shortlisted in the Henry Handel Richardson Short Story Award, The Age Short Story Award and the Alan Marshall Short Story Award and commended in the Varuna Harper-Collins Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. She won the Boroondara Pri…

My Father’s War by Paola Trimarco

Paola Trimarco is a writer and linguist. Her short stories and essays have appeared in several literary magazines and her stage plays have been performed at London’s King’s Head Theatre and Arts Theatre Cambridge Studio. She has recently authored Digital Textuality published by Palgrave Macmillan. -…

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