News & Events

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).

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'.

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. 

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.

Wasafiri is excited to announce translation workshops tutored by our 2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain.

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. 

We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Poetry, Fiction, and Life Writing.

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.

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.

Wasafiri is excited to announce the first translation workshop tutored by our 2024/2025 Translator-in-Residence Sawad Hussain.

We are thrilled to announce Sawad Hussain as our first-ever Translator-in-Residence. 

Join us for the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize ceremony at the Southbank Centre in London on 23 October, 2024.

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. 

Wasafiri is delighted to celebrate the publication of Wasafiri 118 Abolitions: Writing Against Abandonment on 4 July, 2024 at Reference Point in London.

Wasafiri is pleased to announce a collaboration with JAAG for the 2024 edition of the festival, which will include a Wasafiri chaired and curated panel on poetry and translation. 

Wasafiri is delighted to present this celebration of Wasafiri 116 Shorelines: South East Asia and the Littoral taking place on March 16 2024, at mam's books in Seattle, USA.

Wasafiri is pleased to announce two online poetry workshops tutored by our 2023/24 Writer-in-Residence, Reece Williams, taking place this spring.

Featuring three contributors from Wasafiri magazine’s ‘The State of the Industry’ spring 2024 issue, the first issue in its 40th anniversary year, and chaired by Wasafiri Editor and Publishing Director Sana Goyal, this panel brings together writers and translators to discuss writing and labour…

For 15 years, the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize has awarded some of the most exciting new voices in life writing, poetry, and fiction from around the world.

We are delighted to reveal our latest Writer-in-Residence, the talented poet and writer Reece Williams.

Wasafiri is pleased to announce that Sana Goyal, who has been with the magazine since 2019, has been appointed Editor and Publishing Director.

We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in Poetry, Fiction, and Life Writing.

We are pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2023 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize, judged by Leila Aboulela (Fiction), Aanchal Malhotra (Life Writing), and Caleb Femi (Poetry), and chaired by Diana Evans . Celebrating new writers…

Wasafiri is excited to announce an afternoon of readings and conversation, Windrush: Writing the Scandal , which will take place live in partnership with Black Cultural Archives at their space on Windrush Square, London on 24 June 2023. Windrush: