From Here to There:
Writing Migration
with Poets from Exiled Writers Ink and the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series
Join us for poetry and conversation focusing on migration and (im)mobility.
The readings and conversation take place online on Zoom on
The event is free and open to all. Tickets are available here.
Thursday 5 February 2026, from 7pm till 8.30pm (UK time).
Poets from Exiled Writers Ink and the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series will read and discuss their work and take part in a Q&A session.
The conversation takes place as part of Black History Month 2026.
The event is free and open to all. Tickets are available here.
Jim Aitken is a poet and dramatist living and working in Edinburgh. He is a tutor in Scottish Cultural Studies with Adult Education and he organises literary walks around the city. His last poetry collection was Declarations of Love, published in 2022. Jim is a widely published poet and Associate Editor with Culture Matters.
Afsaneh Gitiforouz is a British Iranian poet, novelist, and a committee member of Exiled Writers Ink. Her work has appeared in SIDHE PRESS anthologies ‘To Light The Trails’ (2024) and ‘To Lay Sun Into a Forest’ (2025), as well as in ‘Radical Roots’ (2024). The Barbican commissioned her in 2022 to lead the poetry session of ‘Age of Many Posts’.
Samuel Julius Habakkuk Kargbo is a Sierra Leonean. He is popularly known as Rabbi, the Watchman, or God Poet. He was born in Wilberforce village, Freetown. He has a BSc in Chemistry from Fourah Bay College, US and an MSc in Environmental Sciences (Hons) from Cyprus International University. He is currently researching Environmental Toxicology at Nagasaki University in Japan. He celebrates others as he loves to see people grow and metamorphose into butterflies.
Nada Menzalji is a British-Syrian poet, author, journalist, and translator. She has published several Arabic poetry collections, including Withered Petals for Dinner and Dark Spots on the Back of the Palm. Her work appears in multiple languages, and her English selection Traces and Blossoms was published by Exiled Writers Ink. She has performed internationally, including as a guest poet at the United Nations.
Karuna Mistry is a British writer from Leicester who’s been published in 70+ anthologies with >100 individual poems. He has two poetry books, “You-me-verse-all Hueman” (2025) and debut, “Sojourn: Transcending Seasons” (2024) https://www.instagram.com/karunamistrypoetry
Ambrose Musiyiwa is a poet and journalist with a background in the intersection between activism, migration, and community action. He coordinates Journeys in Translation, an international, volunteer-driven initiative that is translating Over Land, Over Sea: Poems for those seeking refuge (Five Leaves Publications, 2015) into other languages. Ambrose is also on the editorial board of the Africa Migration Report Poetry Anthology Series
Xaviera Ringeling is a Chilean bilingual poet residing in London since 2012. Her poetry in Spanish was awarded the 2019 New Voices prize by the feminist publishing house Torremozas in Spain. Her first poetry book, Alba, was published in October 2019 by El Ojo de la Cultura, in the UK. She participated in the anthology Leyendo Poesía in London and her poetry in English has been published in the Greenwich Poetry Workshop Pamphlet: The Tide Turns and in the online magazine Perro Negro. Her poetry is included in the anthology Equidistant Voices: Latin American poets in the UK (2023).
Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure is a bilingual award-winning poet, novelist, librettist, short story writer, translator and visual artist who grew up in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. She resides in Wales, usually writing about matters of the heart, the human condition, the migrant experience, womanhood, spirituality and equality. Her novel, Weeping Tomato, won the National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Fiction Book, in Zimbabwe in 2025. Her poetry collection, Starfish Blossoms (2022), won the NAMA for Outstanding Poetry Book, in 2023. In 2020 Samantha established Carnelian Heart Publishing, to amplify the voices of Zimbabwean writers and to democratise African literature. Samantha was voted African publisher of the year in 2023 by Brittle Paper.
Hosted by Dr Tamara Wilson, chair of Exiled Writers Ink. She is an award-winning poet, literary activist and academic. As the granddaughter of Armenian and Pontic Greek orphans, she worked with diverse migrant and refugee groups both as an ESOL lecturer and charity worker. A devout defender of women and minority rights, she collaborated with several NGOs, charities, community centres, and research institutions against the employment of hate speech and discriminatory discourses as a performance of patriotism.