On Guest-Editing Armenia(n)s - Elevation: Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V Hovhannisyan
We spoke to co-guest editors Tatevik Ayvazyan and Naneh V Hovhannisyan about curating, commissioning, and editing our winter 2024 special issue, Wasafiri 120: Armenian(s) – Elevation, which shines a light on modern Armenian identities and experiences. Alongside personal stories of love, loss, and memory, the volume speaks to current global issues – displacement, fragmentation, and conflict — all with eloquence, and all, ultimately, for elevation.
Interviews
Changing the Future: In Conversation with Kaliane Bradley and Anton Hur
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 119: Futurisms, our Associate Editor So Mayer interviews Kaliane Bradley and Anton Hur about their recently published debut novels. They discuss narration and translation, the climate crisis and the erotic, and much more.
InterviewsExtract
‘The Messiness of Our Aliveness’: A Conversation with Sanah Ahsan and Gargi Bhattacharyya
Maya Caspari, Wasafiri's Associate Editor, spoke with them in early July 2024.
Interviews
‘Periodicals Were the Beating Hearts of Global Movements’: An Interview with Revolutionary Papers
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 118: Abolitions - Writing Against Abandonment, Marral Shamshiri interviews Dr Mahvish Ahmad, Dr Koni Benson, and Dr Hana Morgenstern of the Revolutionary Papers, who discuss the importance of mobilising communities and connecting historical and contemporary radical archives to ongoing liberation struggles, all whilst looking at them through an anti-colonical lens.
ExtractInterviews
On Guest-Editing Abolitions – Writing Against Abandonment: Farhaana Arefin and Dr Abeera Khan
Ahead of our launch event on 4 July, we spoke to co-guest editors Farhaana Arefin and Dr Abeera Khan about curating, commissioning, and editing Wasafiri 118: Abolitions - Writing Against Abandonment.
Interviews
In Conversation with Margo Jefferson
In this wide-ranging and generous interview with Franklin Nelson – originally published in Wasafiri 117: The State of the Industry – Margo Jefferson discusses the critic at work and play. Read and download the interview in full on the Taylor & Francis website or order our Wasafiri 117 to read it in print.
InterviewsExtract
Accountability, Liminality, and (Mis)Representations in Translation: Khairani Barokka Interviews Tiffany Tsao
Khairani Barokka, author and former editor of Modern Poetry in Translation, corresponded with Tiffany Tsao, fiction writer and translator of Indonesian literature, for Wasafiri 116: Shorelines: South East Asia and the Littoral.
Interviews
Mythorealism and Native Soil Writing in the International Perspective: An Interview with Yan Lianke
In this expansive interview, Haiyan Xie talks to multiple-award winning author Yan Lianke. Together, they explore how stories resonate across different sociopolitical boundaries and the ways in which authors are reconceptualising realism.
InterviewsExtract
Death, Religion, and Motherhood: An Interview with Claudia Piñeiro
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 115, Silvia Rothlisberger speaks to the award-winning Argentinian author Claudia Piñeiro about the inspiration and inception of her 2021 novel, Elena Knows, which was shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Their conversation explores Piñeiro's writing process and Latin American identity, and spans wider themes from her work, such as motherhood, living with illness, suicide, religion, and crime fiction.
ExtractInterviews
The Power and Pitfalls of Literary Prizes: A Q&A with Diana Evans
In this exclusive interview, Diana Evans, Chair of the Judges of the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, talks about the power and pitfalls of prize success, the importance of writing community and history, and offers advice to prize entrants and literary hopefuls of all kinds.
Interviews
On Guest-Editing Reimagining Education: Angelique Golding
Ahead of our free online event on 25 April – Education: Reimagination, Decolonisation, and Change – we spoke to co-guest-editor Angelique Golding about curating, commissioning, and editing Wasafiri 112: Reimagining Education.
Interviews
Wasafiri Wonders: Rachel Bolle-Debessay
Ever wondered what your favourite writer’s first drafts look like? Or which book they love that nobody’s heard of? Wasafiri Wonders is a series that asks these questions for you.
InterviewsWasafiri Wonders
Wasafiri Wonders: Antony Huen
Ever wondered what your favourite writer’s first drafts look like?
InterviewsWasafiri Wonders
In Conversation with Idza Luhumyo, Winner of the 2022 AKO Caine Prize
In this interview, Idza Luhumyo talks about her various influences, the intersections between forms, and what she looks for when she's reading. Wasafiri: The Caine Prize is one of Africa's biggest literary prizes, and one that comes with a lot of global publicity and attention.
Interviews
A Q&A with CHASE Intern, Jack Rutherford
Over the past five years, Wasafiri has had the privilege of working with PhD students on a CHASE placement to provide them valuable experience in the field of academic and literary publishing.
Interviews
'Talking Histories, Making Stories': An Interview Between Richard Fung and Ramabai Espinet
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 110 – produced during the Covid-19 pandemic – video artist and writer Richard Fung interviews author Ramabai Espinet, discussing the intricate implications of Indo-Caribbean and Chinese cuisine, legacies of indentureship within their communities…
InterviewsExtract
'Write because you cannot live without writing': An interview with Mary Jean Chan and Preti Taneja
With just a short time left to enter the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, which closes on 30 June, 5pm BST, Wasafiri sat down with judges Mary Jean Chan and Preti Taneja to discuss writing advice, the importance of rejection, and what they're looking for in a winning entry. Wasafiri:
InterviewsNew Writing Prize
A Q&A with Marina Salandy-Brown, Chair of the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize
Journalist, critic, and founder of the Bocas Lit Fest, Marina Salandy-Brown has contributed immensely to Caribbean literature and culture, as well as playing a key role in introducing and promoting that literary culture across the world.
InterviewsNew Writing Prize
On 'Crying Clowns' and 'Scandalous Deviants': An Interview with Sang Young Park and Anton Hur
Written by Sang Young Park and translated into English by Anton Hur, Love in the Big City (Tilted Axis Press) was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and has been widely praised for its sharp translation and its tender, humorous examination of Korean queer life.
Interviews
‘We are louder when we are heard together': Sara Ahmed on Complaint!
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 109, Adrija Dey interviews Sara Ahmed, discussing Ahmed's experience of writing her book Complaint!, and the larger process of gathering testimonies, being a 'feminist ear', and working to advocate for others and oneself from an intersectional perspective.
InterviewsExtract
'Against the background of collapse': A Conversation with Jessica Gaitán Johannesson and Daisy Hildyard
In this conversation between Wasafiri Writer-in-Residence Jessica Gaitán Johannesson and novelist Daisy Hildyard, both writers reflect on their upcoming books The Nerves and Their Endings and Emergency, and on the way that the climate emergency has affected and shaped their work.
InterviewsWriter in Residence
‘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
Wasafiri Wonders: Lola Olufemi
Ever wondered what your favourite author’s first drafts look like? Or which book they love that nobody’s heard of? Wasafiri Wonders is a series that asks these questions for you. We spoke with Lola Olufemi, a black feminist writer and CREAM/Stuart Hall Foundation researcher from London.
InterviewsWasafiri Wonders
'The everyday haunting of inherited trauma': Sabba Khan on her graphic memoir The Roles We Play
Shortlisted for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition in 2018, Sabba Khan’s The Roles We Play joins the canon of graphic memoirs by female artists of colour, including Mira Jacob’s Good Talk , Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis , and Manjit Thapp’s Feelings: A Story in Seasons .
Interviews