June Exiled Lit Cafe

Tuesday 24th June 2025 at 7 pm

#RefugeeWeek #CommunityAsSuperpower

Step into my Shoes

Four diverse writers confront the question of identity then and now. Does the new world provide distance and new perspectives; is it transformative?

photo: Stanley Langer

Michael Mehrdad Zand Ahanchian – Soraya Fernandez DF – Tamanna Easar – Jade Amoli Jackson
+
Arsim Shillova of Libraro
will talk about the new publishing platform and answer questions.

Curated and hosted by Valbona Ismaili Luta
poet, therapist and EWI committee member

Michael Mehrdad Zand Ahanchian is a writer, poet, editor and researcher. He was born in Iran but has spent most of his life in the UK. He now lives near Reading and works in London for a community-based charity organisation. His poetry has a penchant for the frayed edges of language, the places where tongues get tied with each other and where sometimes something new emerges. He has read at a wide range of poetry events around the world and has also participated in various collaborations with musicians and sound artists. Many of his projects now focus on spiritual aspects of poetic practice – Michael is a worship leader in the Unitarian and Free Christian church. Most recently, he created a new creative and contemporary translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, called Rubies.

Soraya Fernandez DF is an Ecuadorian poet, textile/multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer based in London. She is part of the group Letreando en Quito, with whom she has published two anthologies with The House of Ecuadorian Culture Quito- Ecuador (2017 & 2022). She published Agujeros (Holes) 2022 London, a collection of poems, short stories, and tales. Recently, 2022 she collaborated in the international exhibition of Cecilia Vicuña: “Brain Forest Quipu” at the Tate Modern. She is a member of the group SLAP Spanish and Latin American poets and Writers, Poesía Pandémica and Poetas del Támesis based in London. She was shortlisted for Arts Richmond “Changes” Poetry Competition Award (2025) London.

Tamanna Easar is a writer from Afghanistan whose work explores themes of humanity, women’s struggles, exile, and the emotional weight of displacement. Her writing captures the resilience and silence of women living under Taliban repression, as well as the longing and alienation of those torn between homeland and exile. Her stories have been published across Afghanistan, Iran, and Europe in Persian. Her debut book—a memoir originally written in Farsi—is currently being translated into English and will soon be published in both languages. Tamanna is also a member of Paranda, a global network of women writers in Afghanistan and the diaspora supported by Untold Narratives and KfW Stiftung. Tamanna’s first short story in English ‘Tongueless Speaker’ will be published in Words Without Borders in July 2025. She is currently working on two cross-cultural collaborations: a creative letter exchange with a German writer, and a co-authored short story with a writer from Indonesia.

Jade Amoli Jackson was born in East Africa, studied journalism and worked as a sports reporter. After members of her family were killed and her own life was threatened, Jade was forced to flee and arrived in the UK in 2001. Her first collection is Moving a Country (2013), and she regularly recites her work in the UK which has included performing her work at Battersea Arts Centre and the Tate Galleries. She is a longstanding member of Freedom from Torture’s Write to Life group and performed in their play Souvenirs. She works as a volunteer at the Refugee Council.

Amir Darwish is a British Syrian poet & writer of Kurdish origin who lives in London. Born in Aleppo in 1979, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003. Amir’s work has been published and anthologised worldwide. His poetry was translated into Arabic, Bengali, Estonian, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, and Turkish, amongst other languages. He was part of several radio programmes, including BBC 4, BBC World Service and Refugee Radio. He was invited and attended literary and poetry festivals worldwide, including Finland, India, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, and Estonia. He is currently a poetry editor at the Other Side of Hope literary magazine. Amir’s two collections of poetry are Dear Refugee (Smokestack, 2019) & Don’t Forget the Couscous (Smokestack, 2015).

49 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HZ
(Russell Square or Holborn tube stations)

£4 for 2025 Exiled Writers Ink Members
£6 for others
Book by Eventbrite or Cash only on the door
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exiled-writers-ink-presents-step-into-my-shoes-with-5-diverse-writers-tickets-1396089454139?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl