In response to rising Islamophobia and anti-Semitism across the UK, Exiled Writers Ink will be bringing together a diverse range of Muslim and Jewish writers currently living in Britain. Through workshops, they will explore their personal narratives and literary traditions to create poetic responses.

After these London workshops, we will take our project on the road to expand the conversation. These events with local communities will include poetry, discussion and workshops on the nuances of writing poetry as an enquiry into transnational cultural identities.

Literary Activism

Towards an Open Land: On the Frontline Together

Workshops

Mondays 24th June, 1st, 22nd, 29th July from 6 to 8 pm

SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG (nearest tube: Russell Square)

Facilitated by experienced Muslim and Jewish tutors working together, this short course aims to help you articulate your experiences, drawing on your cultural backgrounds to create work that resists stereotypes and celebrates difference and diversity.
In the face of increasing hostility, the two communities can draw strength and solidarity from one another.
Four workshops build from an exploration of the creative process, to completing work you are proud of.
Come listen, learn and be inspired.

About the tutors:
Shamim Azad is a bilingual poet, storyteller and writer of Bangladeshi origin.
Ariel Kahn is a published novelist and lecturer in creative writing.

After these London workshops we will take the project on the road in England to draw in local communities to interactively expand the conversation about imposed identities.

Register now: exiledwritersink@gmail.com

Free for Exiled Writers Ink 2019 members. Otherwise join EWI (£15) for 4 free workshops. FREE if there is a payment problem.
www.exiledwriters.co.uk

The first event was
On the Frontline: Jewish and Muslim Poets Speak Out
Changing Wor(l)ds Literature Festival
Saturday 25th May from 12.30 to 2.30 pm
Nottingham Writers’ Studio, 25 Hockley, Nottingham NG1 1FH
with poets Amir Darwish, Dr Jennifer Langer, Mohamed Mohamed and Jill Abram.
Come and hear their poems and join them in discussion.

Exiled Writers Ink presents Free Monthly Poetry Workshops

for EWI Members

Learn a new skill each month
6 Poetry workshops

First Floor Studio, Poetry Society, 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX
(Nearest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square)
Register now: exiledwritersink@gmail.com

Offered by Catherine Temma Davidson, poet and experienced tutor.

Catherine Temma Davidson is a published poet, novelist and essayist who has won numerous awards for her work. She teaches at Regents University and has run writing workshops throughout the UK.

She is on the board of Exiled Writers Ink.

Poetry Discussion, Writing Exercises, Feedback and Development.

Read the poems of writers from around the world, and respond to a poetry point and writing exercise inspired by the reading. Every month there will be a chance to create new work as well as an opportunity to share feedback and development insights on revised/drafted work.

Free for members of Exiled Writers Ink. Join now and get free membership for the rest of 2017 and 2018. http://www.exiledwriters.co.uk/membership/

If membership payment is a problem, please contact Jennifer in confidence exiledwritersink@gmail.com

Exiled Writers Ink is pleased to be a new partner on the Free Read Bursary scheme for 2018 to 2021.

• The scheme involves The Literary Consultancy providing a detailed assessment of writers’ literary work to help develop your work.
• The Free Read scheme is for low-income, high-quality writers.

On Job Seeker’s Allowance, Income Support, Disability Benefit, Working Tax Credit and for students, Over 60s and Other. ‘Other’ is for anyone on a low income (i.e. under the minimum wage over the year). Proof is required by the TLC.

• Exiled Writers Ink will select writers who we think would benefit from the scheme.
• The scheme is open to writers of poetry and prose, including short stories, scripts, screenplays and radio plays.
• Writers can submit an extract of their work or the full manuscript across fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, scripts and screenplays.

The Literary Consultancy Free Reads Scheme offers talented, low-income writers the opportunity to apply for bursaried (non-fee paying) access to their valuable commercial services for writers. Established in 1996 as the first service of its kind in the UK, The Literary Consultancy (TLC) offers writers the opportunity to receive an honest, market-aware appraisal of their work through its long-running manuscript assessment service, available for extracts or full manuscripts across fiction, non-fiction, short stories, poetry, scripts and screenplays. TLC has helped a number of writers on to publication, but its main aim is to support writers in developing their work. TLC hand-matches each incoming manuscript to a suitable reader from its list of 80+ professional editors, and writers can expect to receive feedback in the form of a written critique, sent within 4-6 weeks of the application being processed.

If a TLC reader finds that a manuscript is at a very high standard and he or she thinks there may be a potential market for it as well, then we ask the writer to do the necessary revisions and send it to our office where the TLC office will then reassess the manuscript. If TLC finds that they can support a quality manuscript, then they try to place it with an agent. TLC scouts for literary talent, but we never recommend that a writer seek an assessment if their only interest is in being published.

Bart Wolffe Legacy Fund

To assist struggling refugee and migrant writers and to remember talented poet and writer Bart Wolffe from Zimbabwe. Bart was involved in Exiled Writers Ink for many years and was also a committee member.

Funds raised for the Bart Wolffe Legacy Fund will be used for the Exiled Writers Ink literature competition which we hope will take place every two years. We are pleased that Bart’s legacy will live on through his poetry and books and through the competition.

Listen to his poetry

Bart Wolffe was born in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1952 and left in 2002 for exile in Germany via London. He was then in exile in London. He was a Zimbabwean leading playwright with work performed in nine countries. His fourteen plays include The Sisyphus Road (2002), The Art of Accidental Stains (2002) and Killing Rats (2001). He worked extensively, not only in Zimbabwe, but throughout the countries of Southern Africa as well as in Edinburgh running theatre and play writing workshops and touring shows as well as performing. He has several published books, mostly poetry, including of coffee cups and cigarettes (1991) and Changing Skins. His work has been included in numerous anthologies such as New Accents, a joint anthology of five African poets and his collection of short stories is entitled A Twist of Tales (1989). His novel Eye of the Witness (1995) is unpublished for fear of political repercussions. His novel Worm Head was published in 2006. Persona Non Grata, is a collection of stories based on exile and alienation and his biography is Bastard of the Colony. He was a freelance journalist and was involved in the media in film, television, print and radio. Sitcoms and features included observations on society and its issues in Zimbabwe. Waiters, Dr Juju and many more, and his theatre columns commented on the use of stage as a social platform where government control had not altogether taken over the artists’ voices. However, the banning of all independent newspapers and the jamming of radio stations curtailed his freedom to continue to make a living as a writer and free thinker. The lack of freedom of expression meant that continuing as an artist in Zimbabwe became impossible.