Presencia & Resistencia: A Wasafiri Celebration of Latinx Writing

Join us at the British Library on Monday, 26 January for an evening of sound, spirit, and connection — a living expression of presencia and resistencia, and of Wasafiri’s ongoing commitment to voices that cross borders and transform the literary map.

Presencia & Resistencia is a vibrant evening of readings, performance, and conversation celebrating British Latinx voices and Wasafiri 124: Presencia y Resistencia — British Latinx Writing & Art, our winter 2025 special issue guest co-edited by Karina Lickorish Quinn and Leo Boix.

Marking a landmark moment in the rise of Latinx literature in the UK, this event honours a movement reshaping the nation’s cultural landscape. Expect a dynamic fusion of voices and multilingual performance – featuring Juana Adcock, Leo Boix, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, and Monika Radojevic, chaired by Karina Lickorish Quinn – and a celebration of the interplay between Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Indigenous languages. The evening will also feature a special video presentation of Peruvian poet Raúl Cisneros reading in Quechua (translated by Constantina Higbee). 

When: Monday, 26 January, 7-8.30pm
Where: Eliot Room, Knowledge Centre, British Library, London
Tickets: £12 (concessions available)

GET TICKETS

Juana Adcock is a poet, translator, and editor writing in both English and Spanish. She is the author of five poetry collections, including I Sugar the Bones (Out-Spoken Press, 2024), which was shortlisted for the 2025 Forward Prize for Best Collection and the Saltire Book Award. She is co-editor of the anthology Temporary Archives: Poetry by Women of Latin America (Arc, 2022) and has translated Laura Wittner’s Translation of the Route (Bloodaxe/PTC, 2024) and Hubert Mati-uwaa’s The Dogs Dreamt, both of which received PEN Translates awards.

Leo Boix is a bilingual Latinx poet, born in Argentina and based in London. His second English collection, Southernmost: Sonnets (Chatto & Windus, 2025), was shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry. His debut English collection, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (Chatto & Windus, 2021), was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice and named one of The Guardian’s top five poetry books of the year. Boix is the editor and lead translator of the groundbreaking Hemisferio Cuir: An Anthology of Young Queer Poetry (Fourteen Publishing). A fellow of The Complete Works program, he co-directs Un Nuevo Sol, nurturing Latinx writers in the UK. Boix was awarded the Bart Wolffe Poetry Prize, the Keats-Shelley Prize, and a PEN Award.

Raúl Cisneros comes from the peasant community of Pariamarca, in Ayacucho Peru, where he was a farmer, cattle herder, and baker. Then he studied to be a language and literature teacher at the San Cristobal de Huamanga National University. He is the founder and member of the Estirpe de Ayacucho Scenic Creation Collective, actor, oral narrator, and musician. He is co-author with Sara Paredes Mansilla of the book Kametsa Asaike. The Performance Arts For Good Community Living in the Original Peoples of the Amazon, which won the Infoartes 2017 prize from the Ministry of Culture of Peru.

Yara Rodrigues Fowler is a writer from South London. Her first novel, Stubborn Archivist, was published in 2019 and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize, and Yara was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2019. Yara’s second novel, there are more things, was published in 2022 and nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and Goldsmiths Prize. It was one of the Sunday Times, BBC Culture, and New Statesman’s books of the year. In 2023, Yara was chosen as one of Granta's 'Best Young British Novelists' in their once-a-decade list.

Constantina Higbee comes from Peru and now lives in London. Her mother language is Quechua and she also speaks Spanish and English. She works with the Rimanakuy community to teach the Quechua language and Peruvian culture in London. She teaches Quechua in the classroom and online and runs a Peruvian dance group.

Monika Radojevic is a London-born poet, performer, and writer, and the youngest winner of the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize. Her writing is a continuous exploration of the messiness of power dynamics. Her dual Brazilian-Montenegrin heritage serves as both inspiration and guidance. Her latest short story collection, A Beautiful Lack of Consequence, was released in March 2025, and her debut novel, Strangerland, will be released in early 2026.

Karina Lickorish Quinn is a Peruvian British writer and a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway University of London. Her works include The Dust Never Settles (Oneworld, 2021), The House of Skin (Stanchion, 2023), and The River Dies Quietly (Oneworld, forthcoming 2027). Karina is working on her next book with an Arts Council England grant.