2017
Inside and Outside
the Dream Room
BETSY TROTWOOD
56 FARRINGDON ROAD
LONDON EC1R 3BL
WITH POETS, MUSIC AND OPEN MIC
Amir Darwish
Mona Dash
Isabel del Rio
Adnan Al Sayegh
Stephen Watts
Amir Darwish is a British Syrian poet and writer of Kurdish origin. Born in Aleppo, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003. He completed an MA at Durham University before moving to London. His work has been published in the UK, USA, Pakistan, Finland, Turkey and Mexico. His debut collection, Don’t Forget the Couscous was published in 2015. His forthcoming works are an autobiography, From Aleppo Without Love (an autobiography) and Strings of Love and Pain a poetry collection.
Mona Dash. Originally from India, Mona Dash has been living in London for the last fifteen years. She writes poetry and fiction and her work has been published and anthologised widely. Her short stories have been shortlisted in Momaya Press Anthology 2015 and The Asian Writer 2016. Her first novel is ‘Untamed Heart’ (Tara India Research Press, 2016) and next collection of poetry is to be published by Skylark Publications UK in 2017 through a crowd funding initiative. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing( distinction) from London Metropolitan University. With a background in Engineering and Management, she works full time in Technology.
Isabel del Rio is a writer and linguist. She was born in Madrid but has spent most of her life in London. She has published fiction, poetry and language-learning material in both English and Spanish, and regularly takes part in poetry events and short-story readings. Her latest poetry collection is “The moon at the end of my street”, and her most recent bilingual short-story collection is “Zero Negative – Cero negativo” on the subject of bloodshed. She is now working on a thriller and a memoir. She is also an established translator and linguist.
Adnan Al Sayegh Born in al-Kufa (Iraq) in 1955, Adnan al-Sayegh is one of the most original voices from the generation of Iraqi poets known as the Eighties Movement. Adnan uses his words to denounce the devastation of war and the horrors of dictatorship. In 1993 his uncompromising criticism of oppression and injustice led to his exile in Jordan and the Lebanon. After being sentenced to death in Iraq in 1996, he took refuge in Sweden. Since 2004 he has been living in London. In total Al-Sayegh has had 11 books published but his first in English is Biography of an Exile by Arc Publications (2016). It is translated by Stephen Watts and Marga Burgui-Artajo.
Stephen Watts is a poet, editor and translator, with family roots in the Italian Alps. He lives in Whitechapel. He twice won second prize in the National Poetry Competition (1983 and 1992). Recent books of his own work include Gramsci & Caruso (2004), The Blue Bag (2005), Mountain Language / Lingua di montagna (2009), The Language Of It (DVD 2007), and a video-poem Journey To My Father (2009). He edited Amarjit Chandan’s Sonata For Four Hands (2010) and has co-translated poetry by A. N. Stencl (2007), Ziba Karbassi (2009), Adnan al-Sayegh (2009) and Meta Kušar (2010).
Open Mic
WOMEN WRITERS:
FROM EXILE TOWARDS MULTICULTURALISM
BETSY TROTWOOD
56 FARRINGDON ROAD
LONDON EC1R 3BL
with open mic
Aydin Mehmet Ali
Shirin Razavian
Anba Jawi
Shie Raouf
Huda Ayyub
Aydin Mehmet Ali is an intellectual activist, writer and translator. Born in undivided Cyprus she now lives between Cyprus (north and south) and London where she sought refuge from war. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and books and her poetry translations have appeared in international publications. She has performed her work internationally. She is the author of Turkish Speaking Communities & Education – no delight and the editor of Turkish Cypriot Identity in Literature. Forbidden Zones (2013) is a collection of short stories. She is the founder and director of Literary Agency Cyprus (LAC) and Whirling Words, a project for women writers.
Shirin Razavian is a Tehran-born British poet who has appeared in Poetry London, Index on Censorship, Exiled Ink magazine, Agenda and Persian Book Review among others. She has published Farsi and English poetry collections in the UK, the latest of which was Which Shade of Blue in 2010. It featured original works and translations by the poet and translator of Russian literature, Robert Chandler.
Anba Jawi writes in Arabic and English and publishes in an Iraqi daily newspaper called Alaalem that circulates in Baghdad. Anba was one of the pioneering women geologists in Iraq. She holds a PhD from University College London and worked in the refugee sector for more than twenty years.
Huda Thakur is a British born Kashmiri coach, speaker and poet. Writing since she was 9 years old, Huda’s poetry offers reflections nuanced by heart, body and soul. Her first anthology is due for publication in 2017. She has extensive training, experience and academic achievements across the fields of neuroscience, medicine, psychology, leadership and somatics. As a result, Huda is able to coach a wide range of inspiring individuals to lead their personal and professional lives with power, authenticity and success.
Shie Raouf is a Kurdish Iraqi poet who currently performs throughout London and recenlty participated in the Nottingham Literature Festival. She has a legal background and holds a Masters in Law.
Open Mic
Hosted by Dr Nadia Fayidh Mohammed, poet and academic
£5 or £3 2017 Exiled Writers Ink members and asylum seekers
56 FARRINGDON ROAD
LONDON EC1R 3BL
Not From Here
Exploring our arrival in, not just places, but life states to which we are alien. An exploration of a state of being in constant change.
with
Bogdan Tiganov – Romania
Leonardo Boix – Argentina
Navid Hamzavi – Iran
Saradha Soobrayen– Mauritius
Afsaneh Faiz – Iran
Open Mic
Hosted by Dr Abol Froushan
£5 or £3 2017 Exiled Writers Ink members and asylum seekers
Beyond These Walls:
Writers of the Americas on the Theme of Home
Home: a refuge, a dream, a wound, a cause, a borderland, a lost horizon.
Join us in a creative postcard session to protest the Border Wall between the US and Mexico.
Open Mic to follow.
With writers
Barbara L. Lopez Cardona was born in Medellin, Colombia and came to London in 1980 to escape war and the violation of human rights. An active member of SLAP (Spanish and Latin American Poets) and Bards without Borders, her work has appeared in the anthology Fantasmas, amor y mas and In Protest, as well as online literary magazines and blogs. She is an actor and activist as well as writer, and has contributed to many public events, including most recently the Exile Writers Ink Symposium at SOAS: The Danger of Words in the Age of Danger.
Mabel Encinas is a Mexican poet and artist based in London. A member of SLAP and Hispano-American Women Writers on Memory, she is committed to taking her work and experiences as a migrant woman to a wider audience through events, collaborations, publications and workshops – including at the Royal Festival Hall and for Exile Writers Ink. She writes regularly on current affairs and has published a collection of poetry called Intimate View. Last year she was awarded second place in the Festival of Chilean Voices for Latina American Poets in London.
Marta Maretich is the author of three novels: The Merchants of Light, The Bear Suit and The Possibilities of Lions. A published poet and essayist; her account of artistic pilgrimages, “The Incompetent Pilgrim” was included in the anthology, Inspired Journeys, named as one of the top ten travel books of 2016 by National Geographic. Born in Nigeria, she grew up in California and now lives in London with the painter Michael Alford.
Carlos Reyes-Manzo is a poet and social documentary photographer. Persecuted and imprisoned following the military coup in Chile, he claimed asylum in the UK in 1979. His bilingual book of poetry, Oranges in Times of Moon was published in 2006. To mark the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International, he was appointed Amnesty’s inaugural Poet in Residence. In 2014-2015, he was a writer in residence at the Department of Politics, Birkbeck where he is currently an Associate Research Fellow. His poetry and his photography reflect the struggles and hopes of the marginalized and oppressed in society.
Consuelo Rivera is a teacher, sociologist, feminist Lesbian scholar and narrative memoirist who learned the art of imagination from her grandmother and mother. An MA and PhD in Sociology/Women’s Studies, she has published articles in English and two books of poetry in Spanish (La Liberacion de la Eva Desgarrada and Arena en la Garganta). Currently doing an MA in Publishing at the University of Derby, she is co-author and editor of two anthologies in the series Wonder-Makers: Navigator of the Thames with the Hispano-American Women Writers on Memory group.
Host: Catherine Davidson
£5 ENTRY/£3 EWI MEMBERS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
56 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BL (nearest station: Farringdon)
Under a Troubled English Sky
Writing Britain Now with Exiled and Non-Exiled Writers
Elaine Feinstein, Mir Mahfuz Ali, Anthony Howell, Navid Hamzavi
and
Freddy Macha’s songs of social comment, protest and freedom
Elaine Feinstein D.Litt, FRSL is a prize-winning poet, novelist and biographer of Akhmatova and Ted Hughes, noted for versions of the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. Her Memoir, IT GOES WITH THE TERRITORY, appeared in 2013, and her latest book of poems THE CLINIC, MEMORY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS came out in February 2017 (Carcanet Press).
Mir Mahfuz Ali was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He studied at Essex University. He dances, acts, has worked as a male model and a tandoori chef. He has given readings and performances at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and other theatres in Britain and beyond. His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, London Magazine, Poetry London, Ambit, PN Review and Poetry (Chicago). Mahfuz was short-listed for the New Writing Ventures Awards 2007 and Picador Poetry prize 2010. He is the winner of Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2013. Midnight, Dhaka is his first full collection published by Seren 2014. He is now working on his second book.
Anthony Howell is a poet and novelist whose first collection of poems, Inside the Castle was brought out in 1969. In 1986 his novel In the Company of Others was published by Marion Boyars. He has published twelve volumes of poetry, the latest is From Inside (The High Window Press). His Selected Poems came out from Anvil, and his Analysis of Performance Art is published by Routledge. His poems have appeared in The New Statesman, The Spectator and The Times Literary Supplement. In 1997 he was short-listed for a Paul Hamlyn Award. Plague Lands, his versions of the poems of Fawzi Karim were a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. He has just translated the Poems of Alain-Fournier (Carcanet).
Navid Hamzavi is an award-winning Iranian writer. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. His works of fiction includes the collections, Rag-and-Bone Man, 2010 and, London, City of Red, 2016 in Iran. Both were severely censored by the Ministry of Cultural and Islamic Guidance. He has given reading and performances at various festivals and his stories and articles have appeared in English magazines such as ‘Ambit’, ‘Stand’, Asymptote’ and ‘Critical Muslim’.
Freddy Macha is a Tanzanian born writer and musician. Bongo Celebrity Blog portrayed him as amongst influential artists in East Africa. He has published two Swahili story collections, won writing awards, recorded several albums and fronted bands in Tanzania, Germany, Brazil and UK. Currently he runs workshops in schools, jails and colleges, while performing live music regularly and is fervently keen on television, media and film work.
Open Mic
Host: Amir Darwish, poet
£5 ENTRY/£3 EWI MEMBERS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
The Kurdish Sisterhood
Poetry Cafe
22 Betterton Street
London WC2H 9BX
Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square
by artist: Shina Saeed
We are delighted to welcome
Choman Hardi’s second collection Considering the Women (Bloodaxe 2015) was shortlisted for the 2016 Forward Prize.
She comes to us fresh from the Ledbury Festival.
Bejan Matur is a poet, journalist and expert on Kurdish issues and was born of an Alevi Kurdish family in Marash, south-east Turkey.
She too comes to us from the Ledbury Festival.
Tara Jaff: harpist
Tara Jaff has embraced the Celtic Harp upon which she plays a range of music including Kurdish music in particular folk songs.
Shie Raouf is from the city of Slemani in Kurdistan. She is a performance poet based in London.
Shie comes from a legal background and has completed the LLB, LPC and LLM.
Shina Saeed is originally from the Kurdish region in Iraq, and has a degree in Fine Art from the Central Saint Martin’s School of Art of Design.
For the past eight years, her art work and poetry have focused on the issue of so-called ‘honour killings’.
Open Mic
£5 ENTRY/£3 EWI MEMBERS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS
Flight Into Uncertainty
Poetry Cafe
22 Betterton Street
London WC2H 9BX
Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square
In the Pergamon Museum Artist: Gabriella Hargrave
Exiled Writers Ink welcomes you to an evening of Poetry and Prose with
Miriam Frank, Dumi Senda, Shirin Razavian and Mahmood Jamal
Music by Rachelle Goldberg (Violin)
Plus: Questions and Open Mic
Hosted by Esther Lipton
Miriam Frank was born in Spain during the Civil War and spent her early years in Vichy France. Her autobiography is My Innocent Absence(Arcadia Books 2010) and her latest book is An Unfinished Portrait, Journeys Around my Mother (Gibson Square Books 2017). She has translated literary works from Spanish into English.
Dumi Senda is an Oxford University MSc African Studies graduate, acclaimed performance poet and children’s book author born in Zimbabwe. He has gained an international reputation for peace activism and work to inspire young people.
Shirin Razavian is a Tehran-born British poet whose work has appeared in Poetry London, Index on Censorship, Exiled Ink Magazine, Agenda and Persian Book Review among others. She has published five Farsi and English poetry collections in the UK including Which Shade of Blue.
Mahmood Jamal was born in India and his family later moved to Pakistan. He is a poet who has performed at leading poetry venues in London and around the UK. His published works include : Sugar Coated Pill (Word Power 2006/7) and Silence Inside A Gun’s Mouth (Kala Press London 1984) in addition to Islamic Mystical Poetry, Urdu Poetr
An Evening of British Bangladeshi Poetry
With contributors to the new anthology of British Bangladeshi Poetry
Edited by Stephen Watts and Shamim Azad
Host: poet Stephen Watts
Plus: Questions and Open Mic
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX
Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square
At a time when writers are endangered in Bangladesh, we present the wide-ranging voices of exciting British Bangladeshi poets. Their sensibilities range from solidarity, nostalgia and trauma linked to Bangladesh, to the exploration of the complexity in UK life and the racism they endure.
£5 entry/£3 EWI members and asylum seekers
London Now by Latin American and Spanish Poets and Writers
With Sofia Buchuck, Barbara Lopez Carmnona, Soraya Fernandez, Eduardo Embry,
Leo Boix, Isabel Ros Lopez
Music and song by Sofia Buchuck
Plus Discussion and Open Mic
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX (Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square)
£5 entry/£3 EWI members and asylum seekers
Arts Across Borders
Poetry: Abol Froushan, Afsaneh Gitiforouz, Alev Adil and Alemu Tebeje.
Theatre: Performance from ‘Evros: The Crossing River’ by Seemia Theatre plus discussion with the director and actors
Music: Song and accordion by Grace
Film: Clips from ‘Football Dream’ by Iranian film-maker Sohrab Kavir plus discussion
Open Mic
Host: Abbas Faiz, human rights activist and poet
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX (Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square)
£5 entry/£3 EWI members and asylum seekers
The Absurd
Embrace the absurd condition of human existence (Camus)
An evening of writing, music and discussion
The Myth of Sisyphus
Aviva Dautch
teaches at the British Library and Bethlem Museum of the Mind (the original Bedlam). She has an MA in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths and a PhD in poetry from Royal Holloway. Her poems are published in magazines including Agenda, Modern Poetry in Translation, The North, The Rialto and The Poetry Review. She is on the 2017 shortlist for Primers, The Poetry School/ Nine Arches Press award for new writing.
Aamer Hussein
was born and brought up in Karachi and moved to London to complete his education in 1970, aged fifteen. A graduate of SOAS, he has been writing since the 80s; his first collection, Mirror to the Sun, appeared in 1993 . He has since published four acclaimed collections, This Other Salt (1999), Turquoise (2002) Insomnia (2007) and the award-winning 37 Bridges (2015), and two novels, Another Gulmohar Tree (2009) and The Cloud Messenger (2011). His latest work is a brief collection of fictions entitled Love and its Seasons (Mulfran Press, 2017). He also writes in Urdu and frequently visits Pakistan. Aamer Hussein is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies (University of London), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Leona Medlin
was born and mostly raised in Michigan. She came to London, a cultural and romantic immigrant in the ‘70s. For the past ten years, she has lived in Cardiff where she is writing a book of memoir and history, Remembering Japan, and editing her own New and Selected Poems. She runs Mulfran Press, whose authors include Aamer Hussein and Adnan al-Sayegh. Her own poems, translations and essays are published in magazines, anthologies, broadsheets and her Vennel Press collection The Tilted Mirror.
Navid Hamzavi
is an award-winning Iranian writer. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Cultural and Critical Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. His works of fiction includes the collections, Rag-and-Bone Man, 2010 and, London, City of Red, 2016 in Iran. Both were severely censored by the Ministry of Cultural and Islamic Guidance. He has given reading and performances at various festivals and his stories and articles have appeared in English magazines such as ‘Ambit’, ‘Stand’, Asymptote’ and ‘Critical Muslim’.
Open Mic
Host: Navid Hamzavi
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX
(Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square)
£5 entry/£3 EWI members and asylum seekers.
If payment is a problem for asylum seekers, no problem: contact exiledwritersink@gmail.com