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An interview with Shiva Rahbaran - Winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Life Writing … Shiva Rahbaran was born in Tehran. She was eight years old when the last Persian monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, left Iran giving way to the foundation of the Islamic Republic.

Crystal Mahey-Morgan Keynote: London Bookfair and Publishers Association Inclusivity Conference … Everyone who thinks they we’re here for a day to talk about diversity in publishing is wrong. We’re here to talk about humanity.

The invitation said, “Come one, come all,” but what the hosts of the Barrington Masked Winter Ball meant on that sparkly piece of silver card was, in fact, “You’ve been chosen to attend because of your elegance and prestige.” A beautiful, iridescent…

Publishing African Writers Series: An interview with Keith Sambrook by Nourdin Bejjit … Nourdin Bejjit: You worked for Nelson Publishers before coming to Heinemann Educational Books. What made you decide to move? Keith Sambrook:

Mama Can’t Raise No Man was recently reported to be the only fiction debut by a black male novelist to have been published in Britain this year.

Born in Dublin, Niamh MacCabe grew up in Paris, in north-west Ireland, and in Washington DC, graduating there from the Corcoran School of Art. She worked overseas in the Animated Film industry, eventually returning full-time to Ireland to raise her children.

We asked our readers on social media to let us know what they'll be reading during the festive break. This is their list: @Ovid42 will be reading:

Young Vic Theatre, London, 6 July - 24 August 2013 ‘You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once’. Science fiction writer, Robert A Heinlein, once wrote. And the Young Vic’s production of A Season in the  Congo, brings this sage expression sharply to mind.

Mexico City based British poet and editor, Jack Little, interviews Rocío Cerón, one of the major Mexican poets of her generation. They discuss Rocío's recent work, as well as the influence that place – particularly Mexico City – has on her writing. 

Pedro Serrano has published five collections of poems.

This is an edited extract from the text ‘The Heart of the Moment: An Interview with Alberto Blanco’ which was carried out by Kimberly A. Eherenman. It has been published in parts in The Bitter Oleander and in the magazine Fractal.

2013 was quite the year for African/African diaspora literature.

Sergio Téllez-Pon (Mexico City, 1981) is a poet, essayist, literary critic and editor. His work has been published in various publications and newspapers in Mexico and abroad and translated into English, French and Portuguese.

On 17 April, Colombian author and Nobel Prize winner, Gabriel García Márquez passed away at his home in Mexico City, aged eighty-seven. He has been described as one of literature’s all-time greats — what of the legacy he leaves behind?

Rotimi Babatunde is the author of the short story ‘Bombay’s Republic’, winner of the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Shiva Rahbaran was born in Tehran. She was eight years old when the last Persian monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, left Iran giving way to the foundation of the Islamic Republic.

Louise Kennedy grew up in Holywood Co. Down. She started writing in 2014. In 2015, she won both first place and runner up in Ambit Fiction Contest, and first place in Wasifiri New Writing Competition (Life Writing).

A tale of two bookstores: Nigerian writing and its growth in the Western world … Sola Njoku talks about the amazing resurgence of Nigerian writing over the past decade and some of the reasons for its success.

The 2013 Caine Prize shortlist in making up for what it lacks in diversity (all five stories are by writers from West Africa), features remarkably relatable and topical themes: faith and disappointment, emigration and homecoming, religion and politics.

Wasafiri is delighted to feature a second exclusive extract from the exciting new anthology Safe House: An Anthology of Creative Nonfiction.

Kwame Johnson is forty-two and has been coaching Ryan’s football squad since Ryan started playing regularly at eight.

‘A Just War’ … An extract from, South Haven, the first novel by Hirsh Sawhney …   … As they drove to Deer Run Elementary School on that chilly February evening, a light snow wet the windshield of their rust-coloured car.

In this piece, written to coincide with the centenary of Attia Hosain’s birth, Ritu Menon and Aamer Hussein, co-editors of a new collection of Attia’s fiction drawn from early and previously unpublished archival material, celebrate her enduring influence today.

The enthusiastic first meeting of the New Beacon Book Club took place on a wet March evening in North London. A group of readers met to discuss Foundations, the first volume of poetry by Trinidadian poet and erudite activist John La Rose.