Wasafiri

The Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize is now open for entries! Our 2026 Chair is Ellah Wakatama, with Santanu Bhattacharya (Fiction), Jen Calleja (Life Writing), and Mona Kareem (Poetry). Read the full announcement and submit your work by 30 June: buff.ly/s4ol0ap

In this essay, Deepa Bhasthi defends untranslatability, the intentional choice to not translate text, as a necessary practice. Deepa's memoir-manifesto piece, titled 'Language is a Fuse Waiting to Be Lit', is available to read in Wasafiri 125. buff.ly/lS11LRS

Jen Calleja – this year's life writing judge for the 2026 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize – shares what she's looking for when reading entries. The Prize is open until 30 June for writers across the world: buff.ly/V1GkHj4

Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse is a Rwandan writer critically acclaimed in the French-speaking world; her work significantly contributes to the literature on witnessing genocide in Rwanda & beyond. She speaks with @ZoeNorridge about her reading influences & more. buff.ly/1029ZYe

Read an extract from MY OWN DEAR PEOPLE, the forthcoming novel by Jamaican writer Dwight Thompson (@CassavaRepublic), accompanied by a special introduction from the author. buff.ly/JrHUICQ

Read three new poems by Tishani Doshi from her forthcoming collection, EGRETS, WHILE WAR (@BloodaxeBooks). The first, 'Monsieur Tout-Le-Monde', is dedicated to Gisèle Pelicot. buff.ly/5TRYx8S

Then, next Tuesday, we are pleased to present an evening of African and Afro-diasporic writing at Bard Books with six fantastic writers in celebration of our 125th issue, titled 'Living in the Melancholony' after the issue's Editorial. buff.ly/zLyaidU

We have two events coming up with just a handful of tickets left for each! 🧵 This Thursday, join photographer James Clifford Kent (featured in the Art piece of our British Latinx issue, Wasafiri 124) for the launch of YUMA Studios at Reference Point. buff.ly/ANZUjWE

Each spring, we publish the winning pieces from the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in print, complete with custom illustration. In our latest issue, you can read the winners' works from 2025. 🖌️ 2025 prize illustration by Simone Khanyi Hadebe. buff.ly/IWFR79L

In this piece of historical fiction, Rajiv Ramkhalawan narrates the journey of an unnamed Indian man arriving in Trinidad, where he is forced into indentured labour on a sugarcane plantation, subject to vile abuse and violence from 'de white man'. buff.ly/9dypb6L

We're proud that many pieces in our print magazine are published open access — meaning that a selection of original academic research alongside creative writing is freely and permanently available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Read on Taylor&Francis: buff.ly/1lt89RD

Our friends at @GlobalSouthsHub have recently launched the Decolonising Access podcast, hosted by Bethlehem Attfield. Through powerful personal stories, the series exposes how knowledge systems continue to marginalise, and how they can be transformed. buff.ly/baNYXDz

Anita Barton-Williams dissects the reductive, extractive practices prevalent in the market for Caribbean literature, particularly what is lost or harmed when works are translated from Creole into Western colonial languages like French and English. buff.ly/ywvoHxI

.@WasafiriMag has named Safia Elhillo its International 2026 Writer in Residence. The Sudanese-American poet joins the London-based magazine’s residency programme at a moment when her work has never felt more necessary, congratulations @mafiasafia ! ✨ brittlepaper.com/2026/05/safia-…

A huge thank you to @brittlepaper for their generous review of Wasafiri’s 125th issue — describing it as ‘one of the strongest issues the magazine has published’! buff.ly/lWjPGHm Learn more about the issue and order it here: buff.ly/A1VwYf4

Nur Turkmani, who is a writer from Beirut, reads her tender poem, 'In the Eyes of the Night', after Umm Kulthum. Find this poem in our latest issue, Wasafiri 125, alongside a range of spiky, lyrical, photographic, melancholic, and introspective poetry. buff.ly/IWFR79L

This prose-poem from @ReemAbbas is bookended by two encounters at the airport immigration counter. Throughout this text, the silence of a 'survivor of nationality' is played with to mirror how an immigrant must adapt their voice to their environment. buff.ly/8POPB56

Learn more about the framing of our 125th issue – edited by our Deputy Editor @vamika_s – in its Editorial, titled 'Living in the Melancholony', a term used to describe how we cope and feel in this shared oppressive world order. buff.ly/mFuzsMh

This short story by @FarahAhamed is set in Uganda in 2005, against the backdrop of a national debate on Eve Ensler's THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES — a 'foreign', 'feminist' text poised to enter the country, yet already infiltrating its people's politics. buff.ly/XkkgeCa

LAST CHANCE TO SEND US YOUR WORK – Our call for submissions for fiction and non-fiction closes today at midnight! ⏰️ buff.ly/LvLeety

Today is the final day you can access this full article on recent contemporary literature that engages with India’s rising fascism — for free. Don’t miss it! buff.ly/IPy7av9