2026
Exiled Lit Cafe
Wednesday 14th January 2026 at 7 pm
Meet the Authors
The Authors
Brian Chikwava, Mandana Hendessi, Hastie Salih & Karina Lickorish Quinn
Brian Chikwava will be interviewed by Sana Nassari
Mandana Hendessi by Rouhi Shafii
Hastie Salih by Danielle Maisano
Karina Lickorish Quinn by Soraya Fernandez DF
Brian Chikwava is the author of Harare North (Jonathan Cape, 2009). He’s a past winner of the Caine Prize for African Short Fiction. His second novel, Shamiso, was published by Canongate in August 2025.
Dr Hastie Salih has published short stories, poems and two novels – Dahlia and Carys (2023) and The Cradle and the Cage (2025). Hastie is of Kurdish heritage from Sulaymaniyah and has lived in Wales, Germany, Belgium and London. She is a RCGP Fellow and a member of Doctors of the World, Jericho Writers, Royal Society of Literature, Exiled Writers Ink and GLADD.
Mandana Hendessi is a writer and women’s rights advocate whose debut novel, The Almond Garden of Kabul (Afsana Press, 2025), is inspired by her years working in Afghanistan, some of which were spent in women’s prisons. Her fiction explores resilience, memory and silence as acts of resistance. She has also worked in Iraq and Syria, advancing gender equality in some of the world’s fragile regions.
Karina Lickorish Quinn is a Peruvian-British writer who grew up between the English Midlands, Lima and New York. Her first novel was The Dust Never Settles (2021) and her second was The House of Skin (2023). Her fiction, essays and translations have been published in diverse literary journals. She was short-listed for the White Review’s short story prize and her work was featured in Un Nuevo Sol, the first major anthology of British-Latinx writers (Flipped Eye, 2019).
Danielle Maisano Originally from Michigan, Danielle Maisano is a novelist, poet and journalist. Her debut novel, The Ardent Witness (2019) was an award-winning finalist for the 2019 International Book Awards fiction category.
Sana Nassari is a poet and literary translator recently featured in The Observer. She has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Brunel University, SOAS University, and with the Caine Prize, among others.
Rouhi Shafii is a social scientist and author. Her memoir is Scent of Saffron, three generations of an Iranian family (Scarlet Press) while Pomegranate Hearts, is a historical love story in which 20th century Iran is reviewed.
Soraya Fernandez DF is an Ecuadorian poet, textile/ multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer. She has published two anthologies with The House of Ecuadorian Culture Quito, Ecuador (2017 & 2022) and Agujeros (Holes) 2022 London, a collection of poems, short stories and tales.
Curated and hosted by Jennifer Langer, poet and EWI founding director
49 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HZ
Nearest tube stations: Holborn or Russell Square.
£4 for 2026 Exiled Writers Ink Members
£6 for others. Free for asylum seekers
Book by Eventbrite or Cash only on the door
Exiled Lit Cafe – Wednesday 18th February at 7 pm
Poets
Afsaneh Gitiforouz
Ziba Karbassi
Shirin Razavian
on Iran
***
Imprisoned Souls
Aziz Isa Elkun
on Uyghur imprisoned poets
audience readings of poetry
from ‘Imprisoned Souls’
Shohret Nur
Uyghur music
The Uyghur poetry anthology ‘Imprisoned Souls’ will be available for sale in the interval.
Hosted by Dr Jennifer Langer, poet, and Xaviera Ringeling, poet.
49 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3HZ
£6 and £4 for EWI 2026 members.
Free for asylum seekers
Pay on the door in cash or book in advance by Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exiled-writers-ink-the-purpose-of-literature-is-to-turn-blood-into-ink-tickets-1981867637454?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl
Exiled Lit Cafe – Thursday 19th March at 6.30 pm
Exiled Writers Respond to
Keats’ Poetry, Life and Times
Painting by Joseph Severn, of Keats sitting on Hampstead Heath and listening to a nightingale.
Hear the poetry especially created for the event with a range of displaced poets drawing on their own diverse narratives and cultures to write back to Keats’ poems.
Hosted by Tamsin Hopkins, award-winning poet, and Exiled Writers Ink poetry tutor
Including refreshments
at
Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, London NW3 2RR
Hampstead Heath Overground station or Belsize Park (Northern Line)
Pay in advance by Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/refugee-and-migrant-writers-respond-to-keatss-poetry-life-and-times-tickets-1974972073637?aff=oddtdtcreator
Exiled Lit Cafe – Tuesday 28th April at 6.30 pm
Tongues of Fire
Instituto Cervantes London, in collaboration with Exiled Writers Ink, presents an evening of poetry and literature in tribute to Alfredo Cordal and his book Lenguas de Fuego / Tongues of Fire. Guest writers and speakers will explore his legacy.
Alfredo Cordal (Santiago de Chile, 23 April 1941 – London, 7 October 2022), poet and journalist in his native Chile, was forced into exile during Pinochet’s military regime in the 1970s—an exile that remained at the core of his being and about which he never stopped writing. He was also a playwright and a prominent performance artist of his own work. He was an Exiled Writers Ink member.
Juan Calle: Poet, singer-songwriter. Perú.
John Cuevas: Latin American singer-songwriter. Chile.
Eduardo Embry: Poet, academic. Chile.
Adam Feinstein: Author, translator, journalist and film critic. United Kingdom.
Isabel del Rio: Poet, dramatist, diseuse. Spain.
Isabel Ros Lopez: Poet, musician, intersectional feminist. Spain.
Paloma Zozaya: Performer, author, seeker. Mexico.
Presented by Soraya Fernández DF: Poet, fashion designer, EWI committee member. Ecuador.
at
Instituto Cervantes London
15-19 Devereux Court
(off the Strand)
London WC2R 3JJ
Temple tube station
or Chancery Lane or Embankment tube stations
Free but book in advance by Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exiled-lit-cafe-lenguas-de-fuego-tickets-1984897924123
20th May Exiled Lit Cafe at 7.10 pm
Voices Across Generations
painting by Samantha Vazhure
The event aims to weave together poetic voices of different generations of exiles and build bridges between our past and present. We will try to make use of the wisdom of those who came before us and combine it with our lived experiences, through the power of words.
with
first, second, third and fourth generation refugee and migrant poets
Catherine Temma Davidson, Stephen Duncan,
Lily Jamaludin, Kamal Mirawdeli, Marina Sanchez,
Suhrab Sirat
Hosted by Valbona Luta
Plus discussion
Catherine Temma Davidson is a dual citizen with Californian roots who is from a Greek and Jewish immigrant background. Author of the novels, The Priest Fainted and The Orchard, she has published poetry and essays on both sides of the Atlantic. She is a creative facilitator and teaches at Regent’s University. She is an Exiled Writers Ink patron.
Stephen Duncan is a poet and sculptor, He is the son of the poet Beata Duncan who fled from Nazi Germany to Britain, and the grandson of the Weimar playwright Hans Rehfisch. He will explore these generational connections and the creative experience of the refugee and of ‘creation in a time of destruction’, part of a creative collaboration in Kyiv with Ukrainian sculptors in solidarity with their country,
Lily Jamaludin is a Malaysian human rights campaigner and writer based in London. She won the Mercedes-Benz Creative Excellence award in 2017 for her short play “Our Compliance” in the Short+Sweet Malaysia theatre festival and was featured as an Emerging Writer in the 2018 George Town Literary Festival. Her works have been published in anthologies.
Kamal Mirawdeli is a British/Kurdish poet, thinker and writer. He has published three poetry collections in English: Passage to Dawn (2002), Kurdish Odyssey (2021) and Poesophical Visison and Works- Anthology (2026). His latest philosophical work in English is Unlocking Existence in a Grain of Salt- Phonetic Ontology of Xoda and Ezda (2026).
Marina Sanchez is a mix of Indigenous Mexican and Spanish. She is an award-winning poet and translator, widely published in literary journals and anthologies. She is one of four Latinx female writers featured in Wasafiri’s January 2026 issue showcasing British Latinx Writing & Art.
Suhrab Sirat is a poet, writer and journalist who works for the BBC World Service. Born in 1990, in Afghanistan, Suhrab came to the UK as a political refugee in 2014. His poems and literary essays have been widely published across Persian speaking countries. He won several awards in Afghanistan and represented Afghanistan at the Rio International Literary Festival in 2013. His first poetry collection in English is The Eighth Crossing (Exiled Writers Ink, 2021).
at
49 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HZ
Nearest tube stations: Holborn and Russell Square
£4 Exiled Writers Ink 2026 members. £6 others. Free for asylum seekers.
Cash only on the door.
or
In advance by Eventbrite
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exiled-writers-ink-presents-voices-across-generations-tickets-1988766947476?aff=oddtdtcreator