
Shorelines Poets Showcase
Explore these shifting, evocative poems from three poets featured in Wasafiri 116: Shorelines: Southeast Asia and the Littoral.
Poetry

From Our Waters by Nuraliah Norasid
Read an exclusive extract from this atmospheric, immersive, and haunting short story, which was first published in Wasafiri 116: Shorelines: South East Asia and the Littoral, our winter special issue co-guest edited by Nazry Bahrawi, Joanne Leow, and Y-Dang Troeung.
Fiction

Exclusive Extract: Landbridge by Y-Dang Troeung
Y-Dang’s work, connections, and beliefs have profoundly shaped this special issue. To mark the arrival of Wasafiri 116, we're privileged to share this timely extract from her memoir, Landbridge, which draws attention to the US bombings of (neutral) Cambodia, following Henry Kissinger’s recent death.

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

‘The Gravity of Her Existence’: Madeleine Thien on Y-Dang Troeung
This beautiful, moving meditation on Y-Dang Troeung’s work was written and delivered by Madeleine Thien on the occasion of a celebration of life held at the University of British Columbia on 7 March 2023.
ExtractNonfiction

ESEA Lit Fest: Highlights by Mailé Nguyen
The 2023 ESEA Literature Festival, the UK's first East and Southeast Asian literary festival, was held this September in partnership with the ESEA Publishing Network.
Nonfiction

Not as a Noun but as a Verb: Alvin Pang and Laura Jane Lee on home
State of Play brings together conversations between an international line-up of poets, taking place over the course of a year. Edited by Eddie Tay, a Singapore-born, Hong Kong-based poet, and literature professor, and Jennifer Wong, a Hong Kong-born, British-based poet, and Wasafiri's former writer in residence, the anthology explores themes ranging from the sense of home and racialised expectations, community, and language. In this extract from their essay in the collection, Alvin Pang and Laura Jane Lee dwell on the 'unhomed world' and 'home-loose-ness', belonging, and nomadic beings.
ExtractNonfiction

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