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Discover poetry, interviews, fiction, and more, published by Wasafiri.

Book cover of Know Your Place Anthology
Know Your Place Anthology reviewed by Zeba Talkhani
Know Your Place is a collection of essays on working class experiences by 22 writers including Kit de Waal, Durre Shahwar Mughal and Catherine O’Flynn.
Nonfiction
Book cover of Bare Lit Anthology
Bare Lit Anthology reviewed by Dzifa Benson
Bare Lit Anthology reviewed by Dzifa Benson … On the one hand, it’s a shame that a book such as the Bare Lit anthology is necessary.
Nonfiction
Photo Monique Roffey
Monique Roffey Interview – The Tryst
Monique Roffey was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and educated in the UK. She is the author of six books, five novels and a memoir. Three of her novels are set in Trinidad and the Caribbean region.
Nonfiction
Photo of Rafael Gamero
Ray by Rafael Gamero
Ray … 1. Ray and I got suspended from school for a whole week and we were the only two kids around to enjoy it.
Fiction
Cook cover of The Concubine & The Slave-Catcher by Qaisra Shahraz next to photo of the author
The Journey by Qaisra Shahraz
New Delhi and Kot Badal Khan, India; Lahore, Pakistan, August 1967 Poor Raju was having the same dream again. In it, he was once more the boy he had been, aged seven years old. “Water, water!” he demanded in his child’s piping voice, tugging at the man’s arm.
Fiction
Photo of Saadat Hasan Manto
Letter to Uncle Sam by Saadat Hasan Manto
Saadat Hasan Manto was an Indo-Pakistani writer, playwright, and author considered among the greatest writers of short stories in South Asian history. Here we reproduce one of his letters (translated from Urdu by Khalid Hasan) to Uncle Sam i.e. the USA, by kind permission of the Universal Poetries website. 
NonfictionPoetry
Book cover of A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee next to photo of the author
Neel Mukherjee in conversation with Anjali Joseph
I’ve known Neel Mukherjee for about eight years. A mutual friend introduced us in Bombay a couple of years after his first novel, Past Continuous, was published in India and had gone on to win the Crossword Book Award for Fiction. When Neel and I met, I was working for ELLE in Bombay.
Nonfiction
Photo of Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Green Eyed by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
Green Eyed                                                                                                                              … Due to a genetic mutation which occurred 6,000-10,000 years ago,  all blue-eyed people share an ancestor  from the Caucasian region…
Poetry
Photo of Helen de Burca
A Pair of Silk Stockings by Helen de Burca
In exactly two months, it would be her ninety-ninth birthday. This they murmured repeatedly, although sometimes she thought it had been only once. Between bouts of dozing, her eyes wandered over the walls and ceiling, often returning to a tiny wisp of abandoned cobweb in one corner.
Fiction
Cook cover of Refugee Tale II next to photo of Olivia Laing
Olivia Laing Interview – Refugee Tales II
Olivia Laing is a British writer and cultural critic. She is the author of three books: To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring and The Lonely City. Her tale 'The Abandoned Person's Tale' appears in Refugee Tales: Volume II, which is out now from Comma Press.
Nonfiction
Book cover of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy next to photo of the author
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness – Book Review
A review of Arundhati Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Nonfiction
Tea with Bereket by Marta Naigzy Woodward
In this fiction piece, the narrator finds herself falling for her sister's new love interest. Torn between loyalty to her sister and her desire, she struggles to control her emotions.
Fiction
Photo of Steph Vidal-Hall
Tips for Starting a Writing Group by Steph Vidal-Hall
In 2011 I interviewed novelist Anna Lawrence at Pow Wow Festival of Writing.
Nonfiction
Photo of Cheryl Anderson
Round Yard by Cheryl Anderson
Chicken a bawl … We used to keep chickens in the backyard. They came to us by way of My Uncle Sam’s Ford Cortina; yellow exterior, black roof and two furry dice hanging from the rear view mirror. Class.
Fiction
Book cover of Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross next to photo of the author
Review: Come Let Us Sing Anyway by Leone Ross
Having been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for her novels All the Blood Is Red and Orange Laughter, critically acclaimed author and lecturer Leone Ross returns with Come Let Us Sing Anyway, a raucous, vibrant collection of short stories that rattles along, genre hopping with chameleon-like gusto.
Nonfiction
Photo of Lesley Nneka Arimah
An Interview with Lesley Nneka Arimah - Caine Prize Shortlist
An Interview with Lesley Nneka Arimah - Caine Prize Shortlist … Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria) is shortlisted for The Caine Prize for 'Who Will Greet You At Home' published in The New Yorker (USA. 2015) .
Nonfiction
Photo of Zillah Bowes
Dogs Who Like Fish by Zillah Bowes
Dogs Who Like Fish … The football field in Siolim’s still green, hopeful after yesterday’s monsoon rain. Only the dogs are out, sleeping sideways … as if fallen in constellation from the sky … like storm drops.
Poetry
Photo of Bushra al-Fadil
An Interview with Bushra al-Fadil - Caine Prize Shortlist
An Interview with Bushra al-Fadil - Caine Prize Shortlist … Bushra al-Fadil (Sudan) is shortlisted for The Caine Prize for 'The Story of the Girl whose Birds Flew Away' translated by Max Shmookler with support from Najlaa Osman Eltom…
Nonfiction
Photo of Ioanna Mavrou
Things Lost by Ioanna Mavrou
Things Lost by Ioanna Mavrou … Things Lost, a preliminary report, scribbled on the margins of a Cyprus Airways magazine page I should remember to tear off before landing: Ten dollars on a book I don't feel like reading at all, not just on the plane, but possibly ever in my entire life.
Fiction
Photo of Arinze Ifeakandu
An Interview with Arinze Ifeakandu - Caine Prize Shortlist
Arinze Ifeakandu (Nigeria) is shortlisted for The Caine Prize for 'God's Children Are Little Broken Things' published in A Public Space 24 (A Public Space Literary Projects, Inc., USA. 2016). Arinze was the editor of The Muse (No.
Nonfiction
Book cover of Dark Chapter by Winnie M Li next to photo of author
Review: Dark Chapter by Winnie M Li
Winnie M Li’s impressive debut novel Dark Chapter takes an unflinching look at rape through the experience of a young American-Taiwanese woman who is brutally attacked by a teenage boy while hiking through the West Belfast countryside.
Nonfiction
Photo of Chikodili Emelumadu
An Interview with Chikodili Emelumadu - Caine Prize Shortlist
Chikodili Emelumadu (Nigeria) is shortlisted for The Caine Prize for ‘Bush Baby' published in African Monsters, edited by Margaret Helgadottir and Jo Thomas (Fox Spirit Books, UK. 2015).
Nonfiction
Photo of Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
An Interview with Magogodi oaMphela Makhene - Caine Prize Shortlist
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene (South Africa) is shortlisted for the Caine Prize 2017 for 'The Virus’ published in The Harvard Review 49 (Houghton Library Harvard University, USA. 2016).
Nonfiction
Book cover of Everyone Know I am A Haunting by Shivanee Ramlochan next to photo of author
Shivanee Ramlochan in conversation with Monique Roffey
Shivanee Ramlochan is a Trinidadian poet, arts reporter and book blogger. She reviews Caribbean literature for the  Trinidad and Tobago Guardian ’s Sunday Arts Section, and is the Book Reviews Editor for  Caribbean Beat  Magazine.
Nonfiction