News & Events

We are thrilled to announce Pakistani translator and writer Haider Shahbaz as Wasafiri's new International Translator in Residence.

Join us for a multidisciplinary event on Friday, 10 July, at Queen Mary University of London's BLOC Cinema, featuring a performance by Jason Allen-Paisant and a roundtable conversation with Hazem Jamjoum, SJ Kim, Chantelle Lewis, Louisa Munch, and Nat Raha – chaired by Wasafiri Associate Editor Maya Caspari – to gather and explore varying perspectives on who creates knowledge and from where. 

We’re thrilled to announce a series of four creative, exploratory online writing and translation workshops led and curated by Wasafiri’s Translator in Residence (Endangered Languages), Juana Adcock. Building on short, pre-recorded audio and video of the authors reading their work, as well as translated reading material, participants will explore some of the issues at stake when bringing works from Indigenous languages into English. These workshops will run monthly from June to September 2026.

We are delighted to share that Sudanese American poet Safia Elhillo is our new International Writer in Residence from April to September 2026. 

Join us for a special event on contemporary African and Afro-diasporic writing with Sulaiman Addonia, Brian Chikwava, Shady Lewis, and Fiston Mwanza Mujila and his translator Roland Glasser – chaired by Irenosen Okojie – at Bard Books in East London on 19 May 2026. 

Poet, translator, and editor Juana Adcock joins Wasafiri as Translator in Residence – Endangered Languages from April-September 2026. She works with Mè’phàà (Tlapanec) and Tu'un Savi (Western Baja Mixtec), spoken in the northeastern mountain region of Guerrero, Mexico, where she lived and worked closely with the poets Hubert Matiúwàa and Fernanda Kookuilo'o on the translation of their works into English. 

Wasafiri is open for creative submissions in fiction and non-fiction until 1 May 2026. We seek innovative creative writing that in form, focus, or theme aims to expand the boundaries of global literary culture. Throughout our long history, we have platformed and sparked exciting cross-genre and inter-regional conversations, and we welcome your work in our pages.

Opportunities are available for LAHP-funded PhD students to join Wasafiri on placements this year.

We are thrilled to announce Gavin Herbertson as the winner of the 2025 Wasafiri Essay Prize for his essay, 'Interleafing the Philoctetes Figure: Derek Walcott’s Omeros and The Isle is Full of Noises'.

Since 2009, when it was inaugurated by our Founding Editor Dr. Susheila Nasta, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize has been awarded to some of the most thrilling new voices in life writing, poetry, and fiction from around the world. We are delighted to announce that the 2026 edition is now open for entries until 11.59pm BST on 30 June 2026.

An opportunity is available for a CHASE-funded PhD student to join Wasafiri on a year-long editorial placement. The placement will provide invaluable experience within an internationally-recognised academic and literary journal in preparation for a career within academia, publishing, or the arts sector. 

We are excited to open applications for a UK-based Translator in Residence working with/in Endangered Languages — and invite proposals from translators specialising in translating from endangered languages into English, in any genre. 

Join us at Reference Point, London on 5 February as we celebrate the launch of Wasafiri 124: Presencia y Resistencia, our landmark British Latinx issue. This special event brings together an extraordinary constellation of artists, writers, performers, and thinkers whose work embodies the vibrancy and resilience of Latinx creativity in the UK.

Wasafiri, the UK’s leading magazine of international contemporary writing, is seeking new trustees to expand our board, including experienced professionals with expertise in the following areas: Legal, Treasurer/Finance, and Fundraising.

In collaboration with Wasafiri magazine, UK Small Press Futures will host an afternoon of panels dedicated to publicity and the future of independents. This is the first event of a year-long series that addresses the most pressing issues for small publishers, as we work towards reimagining and creating a sustainable literary ecosystem. 

Attend three online writing workshops curated and led by Wasafiri's Writer in Residence Cara Thompson.

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Poetry, Fiction, and Life Writing. 

We are thrilled to welcome Anton Hur, Fiction judge of the 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, to our institutional home – Queen Mary University of London – to deliver a writing workshop and public lecture this autumn.

We are thrilled to announce Nottingham’s first Nature Poet Laureate, writer, performer, and artivist Cara Thompson as Wasafiri’s new Writer in Residence in a special partnership with Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. 

Attend four curated online writing workshops tutored by our inaugural International Translator in Residence, Deepa Bhasthi.  

We are pleased to share the shortlists for the 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, judged by Anton Hur (Fiction), Noreen Masud (Life Writing), and Yasmine Seale (Poetry), and chaired by Romesh Gunesekera. 

Wasafiri and Tagore's Salon are delighted to be co-hosting an event with writers Dur e Aziz Amna and Farah Ali (also Reviews Editor at Wasafiri), titled Writing Through Pain: On Labour and Literature.

We're delighted to be partnering with Birmingham Literature Festival for an event with writers Dalia Al-Dujaili and SJ Kim on the subject of belonging to a land and to a nation.

Wasafiri, Centre for Contemporary Writing (Queen Mary University of London), and Fitzcarraldo Editions present an afternoon of poetry with Sophie Chauhan, Sasha Debevec-McKenney, and lisa minerva luxx.