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News & Events

Catch-up with the latest Wasafiri news and look out for exciting events to add to your calendar.

1 September 2025
Wasafiri’s UAE Issue Comes Home
Join us at the launch of Wasafiri 122: The UAE Issue in its home country on Sunday, 14 September, at Bayt AlMamzar in Dubai — for an afternoon of conversation, readings, film, and a community meal.
10 August 2025
No Story is Small: Deepa Bhasthi and Sana Goyal in conversation with Sayari Debnath
We're pleased to announce the first live event – part of the second Bhashavaad: National Translation Conference – with our inaugural International Translator in Residence, Deepa Bhasthi: 'No Story is Small'.
6 August 2025
Making Matters: Nina Mingya Powles & Stephanie Sy-Quia
Wasafiri will be hosting a special event on the subject of craft at Edinburgh International Book Festival with Nina Mingya Powles and Stephanie Sy-Quia.
5 August 2025
Call for Creative Submissions: Solidarities
Wasafiri invites creative submissions in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in response to navigating interlinked global systems of oppressions and seeking to forge transnational solidarities across various boundaries. We invite you to interpret what the term ‘solidarity’ evokes for you — and what it means to be with and for each other in these times. 
4 August 2025
Announcing Our Inaugural International Translator in Residence – Deepa Bhasthi
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 International Booker Prize winner Deepa Bhasthi as Wasafiri's inaugural International Translator in Residence as part of a brand-new three-year partnership with The SALT Project. 
20 June 2025
We've Got History: Wasafiri and Writing the UAE
In celebration of the launch of Wasafiri 122: The UAE Issue, join us for a roundtable discussion with three NYU Abu Dhabi alumni and issue contributors: poet and writer Aathma Nirmala Dious, researcher Noora Jabir, and writer and Wasafiri Deputy Editor Vamika Sinha
9 June 2025
Publishing Commons: A Conversation with Ruby Hembrom and R T Samuel
Join us for a conversation with R T Samuel and Ruby Hembrom — two indie publishers who are championing some of the most radical work in India's literary scene.
21 May 2025
Black Fugitivities: Two-Part Community Event Series
Join Wasafiri for BLACK FUGITIVITIES, a two-part community event series taking place this summer 2025. 
9 May 2025
Quarterlife: An Evening with Devika Rege
Delivered in partnership with The Polis Project and Dialogue Books, join Wasafiri for a special evening with authors Devika Rege and Pankaj Mishra to mark the London launch of Rege’s acclaimed debut novel, Quarterlife
6 May 2025
Call for Papers: Wasafiri x English: Shared Futures 2025
Wasafiri is seeking papers, position pieces, and practice-led contributions for the 2025 English: Shared Futures conference from 3-5 July in York, UK.
2 May 2025
Dislocation & Diaspora – East Asian Poets in Conversation
Join Wasafiri for a poetry reading and panel discussion on dislocation and diaspora with Theophilus Kwek (Commonwealth) and Suji Kwock Kim (Notes from the Divided Country).
Beige background. Photo on left of person with short brown hair and a denim shirt. Photo on right is woman with black hair and a fringe wearing a green scarf.
10 April 2025
Announcing the Winner and Highly Commended for the 2024 Wasafiri Essay Prize
We are thrilled to announce Ashley Barr as the winner of the 2024 Wasafiri Essay Prize for their work, ‘"Avert the Icy Feeling": Bhanu Kapil & Performing the Life of a Poet in White Spaces', while – in a first for the prize – Simar Bhasin has been awarded Highly Commended for her essay, 'A Qissa of Resistance: Desire & Dissent in Selma Dabbagh’s Short Fiction'.
18 February 2025
An Afternoon with Gurnaik Johal
Join author Gurnaik Johal, in conversation with Wasafiri’s Editor and Publishing Director Sana Goyal, to discuss the short story form in relation to questions of literary value, readership, and prize culture. 
30 January 2025
2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize: Open for Submissions
The sixteenth edition of the prize brings an exciting new development as we open to entries in translation – across all three categories – for the first time since the prize was founded by Dr. Susheila Nasta in 2009. We are pleased to share that the 2025 edition of the prize is now open for entries until 11.59pm BST on 30 June, 2025.
23 January 2025
Online Translation Workshops with Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain
Wasafiri is excited to announce translation workshops tutored by our 2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain.
Shelf with magazine files containing back issues of Wasafiri magazine
29 October 2024
Paper Chains: The 40-Year Wasafiri Archive
Wasafiri magazine, in collaboration with Angelique Golding – a PhD student on the magazine's archives, based at Queen Mary University of London – has curated an exhibition chronicling its forty-year publishing history. The exhibition crafts paper chains from Wasafiri’s archives, showcasing the magazine’s evolution over four decades, and its deep connections with Queen Mary University of London, academia, and libraries. 
23 October 2024
Meet the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Winners
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Poetry, Fiction, and Life Writing.
A shelf of folders showing various issues of Wasafiri
7 October 2024
40 Years of Wasafiri: An Exhibition & Two Editors in Conversation
As part of our 40th anniversary year celebrations, we're proud to host an exhibition curated by Angelique Golding, and our two editors – Dr. Susheila Nasta (Founding Editor) and Dr. Sana Goyal (Editor & Publishing Director) – in conversation for the first time.
3 October 2024
Announcing the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Shortlists
We are pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, judged by Isabel Waidner (Fiction), Cristina Rivera Garza (Life Writing), and Meena Kandasamy (Poetry), and chaired by Margaret Busby.
5 September 2024
Writing Your Translation Memoir with Sawad Hussain
Wasafiri is excited to announce the first translation workshop tutored by our 2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain.
8 August 2024
2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence – Sawad Hussain
We are thrilled to announce Sawad Hussain as our first-ever Translator-in-Residence. 
5 August 2024
2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize Ceremony
Join us for the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize ceremony at the Southbank Centre in London on 23 October, 2024.
9 July 2024
The Future of Literary Magazines: Wasafiri at Educating Susan Conference
Wasafiri is pleased to announce a partnership with the Educating Susan conference, which will be held at City, University of London, and include a panel on the future of small magazines chaired and curated by us. 
10 June 2024
Wasafiri 118: Abolitions Launch Event
Wasafiri is delighted to celebrate the publication of Wasafiri 118 Abolitions: Writing Against Abandonment on 4 July, 2024 at Reference Point in London.