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