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

Giant Flamingo Great For Pool Float by Laura Lynes
Navigating the bleakness of consumerism, capitalism, and the workplace with tart humour and a sharp eye, Laura Lynes' short story excavates the warm undersides of mundane tragedies, brimming with the possibilities of resilience, love, and poetry.
ExtractFiction
Photography, Poetry, and Polyphony: Postmemory of The Gwangju Massacre in Han Kang’s Human Acts
Originally a poet, South Korean writer Han Kang has 'interwoven her textual practices encompassing poetry, essay, and novels.' Her book Human Acts (translated by Deborah Smith), a provocative testimony of the Gwangju massacre and simultaneously a lyrical rumination on how to narrate the event, is the outcome of Han's project on state violence from Gwangju to Buenos Aires. This study by Heewon Chung seeks to read Human Acts as a literary product of the postmemory generation, arguing that the novel's aesthetic characteristics of intermediality, intertextuality, and polyphony should be considered in order to grasp the various types of trauma transmission in the text. Read the full article online or in the print issue of the magazine.
ExtractNonfiction
Promise Me, O Women by Sadia Khatri
A deeply moving and measured piece of life writing, which lays bare the experience of abortion and its aftermath. With an arresting narrative voice, Karachi-based writer Sadia Khatri explores questions around gender, ritual, and remembrance amid the refrains of grief.
Nonfiction
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
Exclusive Extract: A Little Luck by Claudia Piñeiro
To mark Women in Translation month, and in anticipation of our interview with Claudia Piñeiro in our forthcoming autumn issue Wasafiri 115, we're pleased to share an exclusive extract from A Little Luck, Piñeiro's new novel translated by Frances Riddle and published by Charco Press.
Fiction
Wasafiri at Large: Indonesian Writers and Mental Health
In its inaugural year, Wasafiri was joined by five Editors at Large based in Southeast Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand. As part of our Wasafiri at Large series, each Editor at Large has shed a valuable light on their local literary scene.
Editors at LargeNonfiction
Hazel V Carby in Conversation: ‘You Cannot Accept Their Terms’
In this exclusive extract from  Wasafiri 114: Windrush:
Extract
Two Poems by Akila Richards
To celebrate the publication of our summer special issue, Wasafiri 114: Windrush - Writing the Scandal, guest edited by Henghameh Saroukhani and John McLeod, we are pleased to present two Windrush-oriented poems by Akila Richards.
Black Man on the Run by Ira Mathur
This exclusive extract from Ira Mathur's pacy and piercing short story, 'Black Man on the Run', first published in Wasafiri 114: Windrush: Writing the Scandal, opens with a feeling, and a homecoming, one that’s stopped short at the border.
Fiction
Kasila's Dream by Foday Mannah
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe — in all their diversity and complexity.
Fiction
Ghost by Gloria Blizzard
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe — in all their diversity and complexity.
Meditations: Shalvi Jaxay Shah on 'Violent Phenomena: 21 Essays on Translation'
Wasafiri’s ‘Meditations’ is a series that features creative and personal responses to new literature, asking writers to seek connections with themselves, their own work, and the text they’re reading.
MeditationsNonfiction
Autofiction and Emotional Truth by Durre Shahwar
In this reflective essay, Durre Shahwar, Wasafiri's Writer-in-Residence, reflects on her journey to autofiction, the genre's 'slippery and elusive' capacity for deeper, emotional truths, and the writerly work of reaching beyond the self into community and into new ways of seeing.
NonfictionWriter in Residence
Making News: Notes on a Scandal by Gary Younge
In this exclusive extract from Wasafiri 114: Windrush:
NonfictionExtract
Wasafiri at Large: Name Trails in Aotearoa New Zealand
Wasafiri works with Editors at Large across South East Asia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and the Middle East. Each Editor at Large during their tenure writes a piece reflecting on an aspect of their literary locality.
Editors at Large
Three Sisters by Susie Thornberry
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays, and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe – in all their diversity and complexity.
New Writing Prize
Papaya by Jimin Kang
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize.
New Writing Prize
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.
InterviewsNew Writing Prize
SILVO by Laurie Bolger
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays, and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe – in all their diversity and complexity. In this poem, Laurie Bolger draws on the work of Jamaica Kincaid to produce a moving and personal insight disguised within a set of simple instructions.
Poetry
War and the Writer-Witness by Theodora Danek
We’re pleased to share an exclusive extract from '"An Act of Politicised Attention": War and the Writer-Witness', our review essay from Wasafiri 113. The essay features writing on three texts in translation – What Have You Left Behind? by Bushra al-Maqtari, translated by Sawad Hussain; Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets, translated by Eugene Ostashevsky; and Five Days Untold by Badr Ahmad, translated by Christiaan James – where the writers write about war — 'a war that is not a memory, a war that is not seen from abroad, but war as it is felt daily'.
ExtractNonfiction
The Salt in the Air by Haniya Habib
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe — in all their diversity and complexity. In Haniya Habib's evocative piece of life writing, she examines the passing of time both within a person's life, and within relationships.
New Writing PrizeNonfiction
The Small h history of Life by Aanchal Malhotra
In this exclusive piece, Aanchal Malhotra, Life Writing judge for the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, looks to her own work on archiving and making alive again the memories and histories of Partition, dwells on her recent foray into fiction following years of writing non-fiction…
New Writing PrizeNonfiction
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. Our winter 2022 special issue, Reimagining Education considers what education means within and beyond the classroom, investigating government intervention and the reclamation and exploration of decolonisation, and addressing the forces of change and continuity in Britain today. Golding talks, among other things, about her hopes for the kinds of conversations this issue will provoke.
Interviews
Jummah by Sanah Ahsan
Wasafiri is pleased to publish the pieces shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize. The poems, essays, and short stories in this series showcase the best new writing from the best new writers across the globe – in all their diversity and complexity.