The Perfect Handspring by Muthoni wa Gichuru
I was in standard six, twelve years old, as thin as an acacia sapling and just as rough. I joined the queue of bloomer-clad girls and waited my turn. The test for making it to our school’s Physical Education team would be a perfect handspring:
Nonfiction
Gathering by Susan Hunter Downer
I woke up at 4:12am on 27 December and it was gone. It stayed for Christmas and Boxing Day and then just disappeared. It’s not that I don’t know where to find my table, it’s that I don’t know how to find it, and I’ve got to find it because … I can’t quite touch the future without it.
Fiction
Wasafiri Wonders: Khairani Barokka
Poet, editor, translator, and art scholar Khairani Barokka speaks to us about translating life, texts that inspire her, and more.
Interviews
After the Apocalypse
If you've ever read Emily St John Mandel's novel Station Eleven, you may have spent a lot of time recently thinking about Emily St John Mandel's novel Station Eleven. Namely, could it be, is it possible—will it get that bad? If the book is new to you, a brief plot summary from the back cover:
Nonfiction
'Too much talking. We’ve got work to do'
Ellah P Wakatama OBE is Editor at Large, Canongate Books Ltd.; Senior Research Fellow at Manchester University (Centre for New Writing) and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing.
Nonfiction
Pantoum of Soldiers by Joanna Johnson
My father hid in the basement … painting uniforms on metal soldiers, his finger tips … rough as bark. I climbed to the top of the cherry tree … to spy on the neighbors while I chewed on pits. Painting uniforms on metal soldiers, his finger tips … cracked from the paint thinner.
Poetry
Writing Britain Now: Isabel Waidner
Isabel Waidner is a writer and critical theorist. … Their novel We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff (2019) was shortlisted for the 2019 Goldsmiths Prize and is currently shortlisted for this year's Republic of Consciousness Prize.
Fiction
'A Towering Figure': Tribute to Kamau Brathwaite (1930-2020)
Kamau Brathwaite, who passed away on February 4th 2020, is one of the Caribbean’s most influential and original poetic voices.
Nonfiction
A Losing School Team by David McVey
Our school Debating Society had a lot going for it. For a start, it was a handy refuge during wet weather; once a week we had access to the Lecture Theatre in the warm, dry heart of the school which was otherwise out of bounds during the lunch break.
Nonfiction
The Thing About Being In Love Is That by Omar Sakr
Arab Australian poet Omar Sakr writes a love poem in praise of the 'confetti endearment': 'habibi'.
Poetry
Hard Borders by James Young
James Young is a Northern Irish writer, translator and journalist. His short fiction has appeared in a number of literary journals, and as a journalist he has written for several leading newspapers and websites.
Fiction
Writing Britain Now: Jessica Mookherjee
Jessica Mookherjee, highly commended in the 2017 Forward Prizes, published her second collection of poems, Tigress, with Nine Arches Press late last year.
Nonfiction
The End of History by Tom Sastry
They said history was over. I wanted them … to be wrong. I wanted things to turn. I wanted a world I could find … beautiful on its own, without any … particular good news. I’d never had … a truth that could hold me.
Poetry
Season's Readings: 35 Years of Wasafiri, 35 Literary Works
To mark the milestone of Wasafiri’s 100th issue, we invited Alastair Niven to cast an eye over the literary output of the past three and a half decades and pick thirty-five outstanding books from the last thirty-five years.
Nonfiction
The Holy Family at the Border by Margaret Pritchard Houston
They have walked all night … through the desert, this couple: José y Maria … and the baby. duermete mi niño … duermete por favor. … Por favor. … Their English isn’t great – they’ve got a bit. Yes sir. No sir. Thank you sir. They’ve got that down pat.
Poetry
Writing Britain Now: The Books of Sheffield and Newcastle
Comma Press’s ‘Reading the City’ series has been traversing the globe since 2006, sourcing a selection of ten authors from specific cities to collate ten short stories that depict the social, historical or political essence of their contemporary city.
Nonfiction
Picong by Desirée Seebaran
‘Picong’ is a Trinidadian word for taunting, and this poem addresses the experiences of colourism and cruelty that are so insidious and ubiquitous, not only culturally but within families.
Poetry
Wasafiri Wonders: Anthony Joseph
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.
Interviews
Natural Causes by Ruby D. Jones
‘Natural Causes’ deftly narrates two parallel stories: of the narrator’s discovery of a dead blue tit in her garden, and her reflections on the death of a close friend, whose death—of natural causes or by suicide?—is an unresolved presence in her life.
Nonfiction
'I am always writing a novel': In Conversation with Romesh Gunesekera
Florian Stadtler speaks to Sri Lankan British novelist Romesh Gunesekera. Here, Gunesekera further expands on themes and concerns his work engages, first brought up in his interview with Wasafiri founder Susheila Nasta for 'An Island is a World': One to One with Romesh Gunesekera, published in our 35th anniversary issue – Wasafiri 100.
Interviews
Third Person Female by Alicia Mietus
The fraught intricacies of a mother-daughter relationship form the core of 'Third Person Female', woven from the fabric of day-to-day life, shared cooking, childhood memories—and the differences of age and culture that flare up in the face of a new and unexpected relationship.
Fiction
Writing Britain Now: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan’s debut poetry collection, Postcolonial Banter, was published by Verve Poetry Press in 2019. It features some of her most well-known and widely performed poems as well as some never-seen-before material.
Nonfiction
Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2019: Winners Announced
The winners of the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2019, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, were announced at our 35th birthday festival, 'An Island Full of Voices: Writing Britain Now', at the British Library on 9 November.
Nonfiction
An Island Full of Voices Is Almost Here
On the 9 November, Wasafiri will bring together readers, writers and past contributors from all over the world for a day of workshops, talks and debates on the challenges and potentials of writing within, and through, our current fraught times. Featuring: