Nonfiction

In this photo essay, Nazik Armenakyan discusses the rise of female photographers in Armenia, her own career path and positionality, the ethics of shooting vulnerable subjects, and the freedom to follow her intuition. Translated by Ani Jilavyan and commissioned in tandem with Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation.

Wasafiri is proud to publish the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize shortlisted pieces. In this piece of life writing, Abu Leila mixes forms to dazzling effect, incorporating interviews, prose, and verse to chart a personal and familial history of Palestinian resistance. 

Wasafiri works with Editors at Large across South East Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Middle East. During their tenure, each Editor at Large writes a piece reflecting on an aspect of their literary locality. In this piece, Şermin Sezer-Toraman reflects on how contemporary Turkish women writers, through works blending magical realism, ecocriticism, and the spectre of the recent pandemic, address the interconnectedness of nature and women's oppression.

In this Meditations piece, Anahit Ghazaryan contemplates what motivates people to learn Armenian — and how language itself is lost, reshaped, hidden, questioned. Translated from the Eastern Armenian by Ani Jilavyan, this piece has been commissioned to celebrate Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation.

Wasafiri remembers Bapsi Sidhwa, one of the most important writers of South Asian historical and feminist fiction, in this tribute by Dr Maryam Mirza. Born in Pakistan, Sidhwa wrote the novels Ice-Candy Man and The Crow Eaters, among others, covering themes of colonialism, violence against women, and Partition.

This collaborative ode to the tradition of the Armenian memory book, or houshamadyan – from Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation – comprises a unique survey of the genre by historian Khatchig Mouradian, an essay and maps by urbanist Garine Boghossian, poetry by Christopher Kazar Janigian, and art by Masha Keryan.

Wasafiri Editor-at-Large Yaser Hassan Ali explores the emergence of Kurdish pop poetry in the Bahdinan region of Iraqi Kurdistan in the early 2000s. 

In this life writing excerpt from Wasafiri 120: Armenia(n)s – Elevation, Sylvia Alajaji explores the emotional, historical, and cultural nuances of Armenian diasporic existence, interweaving personal memories with collective ongoing struggles, and drawing on music as a medium of cultural preservation and identity.

In this moving and revealing essay, writer and translator Anton Hur brings his trademark wit to reflect on the 'earthquake' moment of Han Kang winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature and comment on literary prize cultures.

In this 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.

For our 40th Anniversary Issue, titled and themed around ‘Futurisms’, it is with great pride that we feature Chila Burman’s ‘The Smile You Send Returns to You’ on our cover. We asked our Art Editor, Professor Leon Wainwright from The Open University, to provide a deeper understanding of how Burman’s work continues to inspire and provoke thought — encouraging us to envision a future shaped by the stories and struggles of the past. 

This extract from our autumn issue, Wasafiri 119: Futurisms, is an exploration of the synergy between writers and dreamers, and a deep dive into our dreams — both our ‘sleep-dreams’, and those that provide our vision for the future.

Wasafiri is proud to publish the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize shortlisted pieces. These poems, essays, and short stories detail a range of emotions and experiences, produced by promising new writers from all over the globe. In this life writing piece, Mica Montana Gray reconstructs family history through memories and stories, highlighting the importance of honouring and remembering one's past as a bridge to the present.

Wasafiri is proud to publish the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize shortlisted pieces. These poems, essays, and short stories detail a range of emotions and experiences, produced by promising new writers from all over the globe. In this life writing piece, Madeleine Ballard portrays the tenderness and the careful navigation of a mother daughter relationship.

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.

In this rallying piece Meena Kandasamy – Poetry judge for the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – traces her own journey as a writer, and sheds light on the importance of authenticity in poetry. She also talks about the types of poems that inspire her and what she is looking for in this year’s submissions.

Annie Paul’s ‘Letter from Kingston’, published in our latest spring issue, Wasafiri 117: The State of the Industry, compares the global recognition of Jamaican writers and visual artists, highlighting the disparity in their success and the debates surrounding Jamaican writers and artists who choose to remain in the Caribbean versus those who emigrate, focusing on the complexities and nuances of this decision.

In this inspiring piece, Fiction Judge for the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Isabel Waidner traces their own reading and writing career and explores the importance of libraries for working class writers in developing their craft.  

This life writing piece by Kayte Ferris explores past relationships and the impact of life choices through a series of items 'listed for sale'.

Jen Calleja's satirical and razor-sharp lead feature, 'Custard Pies', published in our latest spring issue, Wasafiri 117: The State of the Industry, and featuring five pastel-coloured pies ('one for each heckle I've received at a panel discussion about literary translation'), dwells on the fallacies of an 'ideal translator' — including notions of fidelity, mentorship, and who has the right to translate. This short essay, similarly and characteristically spiky and acerbic, questions preconceived notions around the translator's role and work from a personal perspective.

This reflection on 'Life in the UK' by SJ Kim explores the profound through seemingly mundane moments, such as a family meal or meeting with an editor.

This beautiful, moving meditation on Y-Dang Troeung’s work was written and delivered by Madeleine Thien on the occasion of a celebration of life held at the University of British Columbia on 7 March 2023.

The 2023 ESEA Literature Festival, the UK's first East and Southeast Asian literary festival, was held this September in partnership with the ESEA Publishing Network.

State of Play brings together conversations between an international line-up of poets, taking place over the course of a year. Edited by Eddie Tay, a Singapore-born, Hong Kong-based poet, and literature professor, and Jennifer Wong, a Hong Kong-born, British-based poet, and Wasafiri's former writer in residence, the anthology explores themes ranging from the sense of home and racialised expectations, community, and language. In this extract from their essay in the collection, Alvin Pang and Laura Jane Lee dwell on the 'unhomed world' and 'home-loose-ness', belonging, and nomadic beings.