Abhirami S grew up in Tamil Nadu and breathes and writes on the unceded land of the Coast Salish peoples. She thinks she wasn't techno-optimist enough to belong in Silicon Valley and feels she isn’t bohemian enough to belong in literary journals.
Agata Maslowska is a poet, writer, and translator born in Poland and living in Scotland. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She received the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. https://agatamaslowska.co.uk Twitter @AgataMaslowska
Akshi Chadha is a writer and literary editor from India. She is currently pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Canthius, The Lumiere Review, Parentheses Journal, The Roadrunner Review, Watch Your Head, Occasus, and elsewhere.
Ambrose Musiyiwa is a poet and a journalist. 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. Books he has edited include Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2019), Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020), and Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (CivicLeicester, 2022).
Amritha Sobrun-Maharaj is an Indian South African who was born in apartheid South Africa and emigrated to New Zealand. She is a social and health psychologist who has conducted research on the impact of the social environment on mental health and its physical manifestations and has published academic reports and articles in international journals.
Anesu Jahura is a young Zimbabwean writer residing in Cape Town, South Africa. He writes general fiction and nonfiction, as well as articles about pressing issues. His favourite activities are writing, weightlifting and spending quality time with his loved ones.
Angela Graham is from Belfast and has had a long career in Wales. She now divides her time between both places. She is an award-winning tv producer and film maker. Seren Books published her poetry collection Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere in June 2022. Her debut collection of short stories A City Burning (Seren Books, 2020) was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.
Angele Mambangula is a refugee from DRC. She is a singer and a choir leader and continues to sing and perform with choirs in London. She welcomed Little Amal at The South Bank 2021 at a performance of A Swallow’s Kiss, a story inspired by the Islington Centre community.
Anisha Bhaduri is an award-winning journalist and writer from Kolkata, India who lives and works in Hong Kong. Her debut crime novella Murders in Kolkata 26 was published by Juggernaut Books in 2020. Anisha has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and her work of literary fiction was first published by Random House India in a bestselling anthology. In 2022, her first short story published in North America earned her a Best of the Net nomination. Also in 2022, her short stories have appeared or have been accepted for publication across five countries in Joyland Magazine, Tampa Review, Harpur Palate, Touchstone Literary Magazine, Sonder Magazine, the other side of hope and Kitaab.
Annie Liones Nguyen is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary artist based in Singapore. Her main mediums of expression are filmmaking and poetry. Her works mainly explore themes of humanism, grief, existentialism and empowerment. Her poetry works can be found or is forthcoming in The Holy Art, Artist Talk Magazine, Trouble Maker Fire Starter, Verum Literary Press, Musing Publications, New Note Poetry and other literary magazines and art exhibitions. She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology and is set to pursue higher education in filmmaking in Los Angeles. Find her at www.annielionesng.com
The Art and Writing Hearth at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, run by Writers and Artists in Residence Sita Brahmachari, Jane Ray and Ros Asquith, has been integral to the centre’s wellbeing services for over a decade. The work from this weekly drop in class with a core of regular members has been exhibited in libraries at Amnesty International and in an exhibition for the UN, Voices on The Wind. Since the Global Pandemic we have moved the class from the creative room at the centre to online. The group is invited to respond to art inspirations by drawing, conversation or writing in the session. These patchwork pieces of creativity are shared and formed together into a communal poem. The writing and art of the group is then published on the website as an inspiration for the whole community. We hope to have more opportunities to exhibit and come together to celebrate the work in person in the future. https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/art-and-writing-class-may-july-2022/
Aryan Ashory is a 17-year-old Afghan poet, filmmaker, human right activist and journalist. Her poems are in four languages: Dari, English, Greek and Deutsch. Aryan volunteers with a Greek organisation as a Dari and handcrafts teacher and has made 5 short and documentary films. She was in charge of a women's space teaching handcrafts and English beginner classes, and has joined Athens Democracy Forum as a reporter in 2019 where she focuses on the voice of young people. Twitter: @AryanAshory
B. Anne Adriaens is a Belgian national currently living in Somerset. Her poetry and fiction reflect her interest in alienation, as well as her concerns about the environment. Her work has appeared in various magazines, including Poetry Ireland Review, Ink Sweat and Tears and Poetry Salzburg Review (forthcoming).
Bänoo Zan has over 250 published poems and other pieces as well as three books, including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She founded Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Toronto’s most diverse and brave reading series. Bänoo is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta, Sept 2022-May 2023.
Betty was born in Kinshasa, a city in DRC. She now lives in London with her auntie and two children. Betty is a Scientist. Her specialist area is Medical Biotechnology and she is in her final year studying Biomedical Sciences. She hopes to become a researcher and a university professor.
Carolina Tytelman is an anthropologist living and working in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Originally from Argentina, she now lives in the city of St. John’s with her family.
Christina Hoag is a former journalist. She is the author of novels Law of the Jungle, Girl on the Brink and Skin of Tattoos. Her short stories and essays have appeared in literary reviews including Lunch Ticket, Toasted Cheese and Shooter, and have won several awards. For more information: https://christinahoag.com
Dani Vilu is an Eastern European living in London, a film history student, a lover of all things artistic and an advocate for biodiversity.
Daniel W.K. Lee is a third-generation refugee, queer, Cantonese American born in Kuching, Malaysia. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The New School, and his debut collection of poetry, Anatomy of Want, was published by QueerMojo/Rebel Satori Press in 2019. Find out more about him at danielwklee.com.
Dariusz Janczewski is a fiction writer. He emigrated to the United States from the then communist Poland in 1984. Dariusz has an MA in English and creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University and a BS in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati. He lives in Missoula, Montana (USA).
The poems of David Davies explore the traditional-made-new, something he has lived as a first generation immigrant to the USA. His Pushcart- and Bram Stoker-nominated writing has appeared in Granfalloon, The Underwood Press, Rise Up Review, and Shadow Atlas. His poetry collection Messengers of the Macabre was published by NAT 1 in October. https://messengersofthemacabre.com/
Divyanka Sharma loves to represent the world around her, from her native country of India to adopted home in the United States, through the magic of words. Her poetry, fiction, and thought pieces have appeared in the Grief Diaries, Making Connections magazine, Muse India, Wire.in among others. She hopes her writing can transport readers to the world she lives in and imagines. She resides in San Francisco.
Diyo Mulopo Bopengo is a Congolese from the DRC who grew up in South Africa. He fell in love with music, drama and art as teenage but later joined a business school. He is a warm-hearted individual who loves people and mountains. His hidden talent came to life when he joined Good Chance’s Change the Word Poetry Collective in 2019. He has co-published 3 anthologies with the collective.
Dmitry Borshch was born in Dnipropetrovsk, studied in Moscow, today lives in New York. His works have been exhibited at Russian American Cultural Center (New York), HIAS (New York), Consulate General of the Russian Federation (New York), Lydia Schukina Institute of Psychology (Moscow), Contemporary Art Centers (Voronezh, Almaty), Museums of Contemporary Art (Poltava, Lviv). In 1989 he was accepted by the US as a political refugee from the USSR and, since February of this year, a refugee again, fleeing the war from Dnipropetrovsk to New York.
E.E. is a teacher, poet and artist from Egypt. E.E. was part of the Islington Centre for Refugee Art and Writing group for several years, as well as the choir. At Islington Centre E.E. had the opportunity to work with Sita Brahmachari to develop my voice as a poet. Some of E.E.’s poems are based on their paintings, and they are also influenced by songs. E.E. likes to make refrains and choruses (half in Arabic and half in English) and put rhythm to these so that these refrains can be sung. E.E. has performed their poems and sang in numerous places including The Union Chapel, Amnesty International (video), The South Bank and even in the UK Parliament. E.E. is now a member of Writing Room where they have attended classes in poetry and writing children’s fiction. E.E. is currently working on a story for young people.
Edward Gunawan is the author of two chapbooks The Way Back (Start a Riot! Prize winner, Foglifter Press) and Press Play (Sweet Lit). Other publications include Triquarerly, Aquifer, and Intimate Strangers anthology (Signal 8). A queer Indonesian-born Chinese immigrant, he now resides on Ohlone land in Oakland, CA.
Elisabeth Hanscombe is a psychologist and writer who explores autobiography, psychoanalysis, testimony, trauma and creative non-fiction in her writing. Her childhood memoir, The Art of Disappearing was published in 2017. She blogs at https://www.sixthinline.com/
Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. His works have appeared in Ani, Katitikan, Loch Raven Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Tiger Moth Review, Dx Machina, and elsewhere. He lives near Iloilo City.
Fuad Alsohli is from Syria, where he had studied Information Technology at Damascus University. His first work was in 2009 when he shared his brother in the short film Fight Through Time. Afterwards he set up a Facebook magazine, Altal Electronic. His latest work is a novel written in 2019 entitled The Love with Covid.
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo is a Ghanaian writer, poet, editor, & lyricist. Winner of the 2021 Africa Haiku Prize, Singapore Poetry Prize & the LFP/RML/Library of Africa and the African Diaspora chapbook prize, he's the author of five poetry books & the forthcoming Sea Ballet. His writings have appeared in Wales Haiku Journal, EVENT, Prairie Fire, Best New African Poets Anthologies (2018, 2019, 2020).
Gabriele Uboldi (he/they) is a queer, migrant artist, theatre-maker, poet and researcher based in London, working across both English and Italian. Their work is often multi-disciplinary and formally experimental, with a special focus on how marginalised stories can be expressed through non-traditional dramaturgies.
Born in Bulgaria in 1961, Gee I Vee used to publish short fiction, essays, and articles in local newspapers mainly. After his marriage in 1999 and due to some discrepancies in Bulgarian legislation, he was forced to renounce his Bulgarian citizenship publicly, and since then he has been stateless, without any citizenship. Now his writing has appeared from time to time in different English-speaking countries.
The poet Godwin Akinyele is a Nigerian based in the United Kingdom. Godwin writes across genres of poetry, prose and drama. He is also a gospel writer. Godwin is the author of the "Lucifer's Utmost Strategy". He's a law (LLB) graduate of the University of London and a qualified level 7 postgraduate-trained paralegal. Godwin is currently an advisor at Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). He's a passionate writer, speaker, preacher and an advocate for refugees and asylum seekers. This is reflected in the fact that he hosted the Refugees Week nation-wide (Wales) in 2020 (via zoom), in which over 100 attendees including Members of Senedd were in attendance. Godwin has won several awards including High Sheriff of Clwyd Award for his great services to the community. Godwin is Married to Victoria and blessed with kids.
Canadian-American author Grant Hayter-Menzies writes about extraordinary but unsung lives human and animal. He is literary executor for the late playwright William Luce (‘The Belle of Amherst’). He lives with his partner Rudi, son of refugees, in British Columbia, Canada.
Halina Goldstein fell in love with words when she was 5 years old. The relationship suffered greatly from her family’s emigration to Denmark. Fortunately, where her native Polish withered, seeds of English found fertile ground. Halina writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Visit her Awakening To Joyful Living site at HalinaGold.com
Iveren Cheku (she/her) is an emerging Nigerian poet who lives in Makurdi. She writes from a place of deep concern for mental health and social injustice. When she's not writing she's making great dresses and multitasking with a thousand hypothetical scenarios in her head. She says hi on Twitter @Aiveemls
Jen Ross is a Chilean-Canadian journalist with hundreds of published articles who also spent 10 years with the UN before moving to Aruba to write fiction and poetry.
Joel Mordi is a social science student, writer, and activist: he is a leading voice in the niche of Sustainable Development, speaker at offline/online conferences, co-written an academic article with Olive, given LGBT+ themed presentations/panels with the University of York and an interview with the University of East London.
Born and raised in Manila, Katrina Macapagal now lives in Edinburgh with her partner and daughter. She has a PhD in film and media studies and is the author of Slum Imaginaries and Spatial Justice in Philippine Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). She likes writing poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction.
Koffi is from west Africa. He likes football and enjoys writing since his encounter with the Islington Centre. That place has been an asylum, a cocoon in which he confidently builds up his footsteps in the UK.
Behind the closed doors of her room in Tehran, Iran, L. Amani wrote things nobody ever read. Then in January 2022, she put her life in a suitcase and moved to Ireland to start a creative writing course. Uncle Jamal is her first published story.
Landa wo is a poet from Angola, Cabinda and France. His work has appeared in Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, Nashville Review, Poetry New Zealand, The Common, and Raleigh Review, among other publications. Politically engaged his work deals with prominent issues of social justice, discrimination and cultural strife.
Lena Rissmann is a postgraduate student at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London). Her writing is shaped by the perspective of a young and curious woman. Most of her short stories and poems centre around a woman as the protagonist and try to creatively explore different societal issues. Originally, Lena is from Geneva (Switzerland) and has studied Communication and Innovation in Berlin, Paris and London.
Loraine Masiya Mponela is a community organiser and migrants rights campaigner based in Coventry, England. She is the Co-Chair for the #StatusNow4All (https://www.statusnow4all.org) campaign which is a campaign calling for indefinite Leave To Remain for everyone that needs it in UK and Ireland. Loraine is a member for Coventry asylum and refugee action group (CARAG), a peer-led self-organised community group. She is originally from Malawi. Loraine has a lovely son, Comfort and a daughter in-law Rumbani.
Lucía Pereira (Montevideo, Uruguay) studies English Literature and Culture in Spain, where she moved when she was five. There, she has been published in literary journals such as Página Salmón. She reads and writes because she craves to merge with another.
Lucy Popescu’s books include A Country of Refuge, an anthology of writing on refugees and asylum seekers and A Country to Call Home, focusing on the experiences of young refugees. Lucy mentors members of Write to Life (Freedom from Torture). She reviews books for The Observer, FT and TLS among other publications.
Marina Antropow Cramer is the child of post WWII Russian refugees from the Soviet Union. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, Istanbul Literary Review, Wilderness House, Bloom Literary Magazine, and the inaugural issue of the other side of hope. She is the author of the novels Roads, Anna Eva Mimi Adam, and Marfa’s River (2023).
Maryna Krazhova is a Belarusian-born author from Boston, U.S. The majority of her poetry and short stories are written in her native language. As an AmeriCorps member, she serves refugees and immigrants at Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and is interested in diversity, cultural issues, and the rights of ethnic minorities.
Michele Witthaus is based in the UK. Her writing has appeared in a number of anthologies and other publications and her pamphlet, From a Sheltered Place, was published in August 2020 by Wild Pressed Books. She is the 2020 winner of Leicester Writers’ Club’s Ena Young Award for Poetry.
Monica Mody is the author of Kala Pani (1913 Press), the forthcoming Bright Parallel (Copper Coin), and three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground press). Her writing appears in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She was born in Ranchi, India, and currently lives in the United States. Visit her at www.drmonicamody.com
Born in the Deep North of the U.S.A., Morning-meadow Jones is a migrant, multi-medium creative and mother of nine, penning poetry and practicing various arts from her home in Wales, UK. Her work has been featured in Overtly Lit, TERSE.Journal, and Duck Duck Mongoose Magazine.
N has been a regular contributor of the Islington Art and Writing Class for many years. She studied art as an undergraduate and postgraduate both in her homeland and in Britain. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited widely.
Naomi Abraham is a writer of Ethiopian-Eritrean descent. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a young girl and then to Japan where she spent much of her childhood. Today she is the co-founder of Resonance, a social change strategic communications hub, where she works as a communications/story strategist. This story was developed from a film script she wrote more than a decade ago. The story is inspired by true events involving her beloved late father.
Ntela was born in Angola and now lives in the UK with her family. Ntela loves writing, reading new things and also cooking. She enjoys connecting with people and making friends at the Islington Centre.
Patricia is a community champion and sanctuary ambassador helping migrant and refugee communities in their struggle with the harsh policies and systems including accommodation and health access. She is an immigrant in the UK and passionate about promoting the right to asylum and access to healthcare for everyone.
Priscilla Okoye writes about self-healing, growth, and resilience in distress. She has Masters degrees in English Language and in Leadership and Human Resources Management and is presently studying to be a psychotherapist. She is a stay-home-mum and volunteers as a blog writer, newsletter designer, library attendant, and website content creator/administrator.
Rad Popp is a London-based Romanian writer and director.
Radhika Maira Tabrez is a writer, editor, L&D specialist, TEDx speaker, and Radio Show Host. Her debut novel In The Light Of Darkness won the much-coveted Muse India – Satish Verma Young Writer Award in 2016. Radhika’s stories and essays have appeared in over a dozen anthologies and magazines since then. In 2018, she became the first Indian ever to speak at a TEDx event in Bangladesh. She won the Rising Stars India Award (2017), and 100 Most Inspiring Writers by Indian Awaaz (2018). She was one of the Program Mentors for the Chevening Writers Series held in Malaysia in 2020. After short stints in Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Penang (Malaysia), Radhika is now building a new nest in sunny Kamloops.
Rifat Mahbub lives and works in London; in her memory she often lives in Dhaka, where she grew up, and in her writings, she lives everywhere. She writes both in Bangla and English. She wrote her PhD thesis on first-generation Bangladeshi educated women in Britain (2014, University of York).
Roger Craik was born in Leicester, UK, and has worked in universities in England, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania, as well as at Kent State University, Ohio, at which he is Professor Emeritus. He enjoys watching the birds every day.
Sabir Zazai is a former refugee from Afghanistan who now leads the Scottish Refugee Council. Sabir’s early education was interrupted by the war in Afghanistan, when he was internally displaced with his family when he was still at primary education. However, his resilience, hope and a strong desire for education helped him to graduate from Coventry University with a degree in Human Resources Management, and a Masters in Community Cohesion Management. Recently he was conferred with a Honorary Doctorate at the University of Glasgow for services to community, and received the Lord Provost award for human rights. Sabir is now Honorary President of City of Sanctuary and a Visiting Practice Fellow at the Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.
Saheli Khastagir is a writer, painter and an international development professional from India, based in New Orleans. Her recent work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Current Affairs, Ligeia Magazine, Emrys, Full Stop, The Bombay Literary Magazine, and other publications and anthologies. You can visit her website at: www.sahelikhastagir.com.
Sandra is Hope’s Mummy. Sandra is from Congo and has lived in London for six years. She has been a client and a volunteer at Islington Centre where she started a baby reading and singing group. She has also performed in a production of ‘Swallow’s Kiss’ at The South Bank Centre and her storytelling has been recorded by The National Literacy Trust.
Sheela Burrell holds a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno where she had her first short story published in Common Wages, a university journal. Sheela also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Education from University Science of Malaysia, Penang. A trained teacher, Sheela taught English Language to secondary school children in Malaysia. She moved to England after her marriage to her British husband and continued teaching at a further education college. Later, she worked with international students at a local university in Essex. Sheela has been a preschool teacher, a lecturer, a tutor, an educational support worker for undergraduates as well as a writer. Her memoir Marrying Across Borders about an international marriage will soon be published by Onwards and Upwards.
Sheng-mei Ma (馬聖美mash@msu.edu) is Professor of English at Michigan State University in Michigan, USA, specializing in Asian Diaspora culture and East-West comparative studies. He is the author of over a dozen books, including The Tao of S (2022); Off-White (2020); Sinophone-Anglophone Cultural Duet (2017); The Last Isle (2015); Alienglish (2014); Asian Diaspora and East-West Modernity (2012); Diaspora Literature and Visual Culture (2011); East-West Montage (2007); The Deathly Embrace (2000); Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures (1998); and the memoir Immigrant Horse’s Mouth (2023). Co-editor of five books and special issues, Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile (2018) among them, he also published a collection of poetry in Chinese, Thirty Left and Right (三十左右).
Sita Brahmachari is Writer in Residence at The Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants where she works in the Art and Writing Hearth alongside Artists in Residence Jane Ray and Ros Asquith. Sita is an internationally award-winning author of intergenerational plays, poems, animation, and novels for young adults. Sita has an MA in Arts Education and has written widely on the experience of integration of refugee survivor people into new homelands. Her work has been endorsed by Amnesty International. In her extensive career working in schools and communities Sita has collaborated with many organisations within the refugee sector including Freedom from Torture, Counterpoint Arts, Book Aid International, Free Word, Write for Rights and Young Roots. In 2021 Swallow’s Kiss, dedicated to the Islington Centre community, written by Sita and illustrated by Jane Ray, became the welcome story for Good Chance Theatre’s ‘Little Amal’ at London’s South Bank. It included storytelling and choir performance by many of the clients featured in ‘Patchwork of Hope’.
https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/
https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/art-and-writing-class-2022/
Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Sunayna Pal happily resides in Maryland with her husband, children, plants, and an invincible goldfish. She is a third-generation refugee. Find more on her at sunaynapal.com Follow her on LearningAboutSindh for more poems.
Tara Goldsmith left the country of her birth and much later went back to the third version of the same country. In between, she has travelled the world, exploring not only the cultures of other countries but also her own identity and inner conflicts about family, tradition, loss and the struggle to create a meaningful future. She is now settled in the English countryside with her dogs and books.
Tonderai Chiyindiko is a professional actor, theatre reviewer, workshop facilitator, arts and culture writer and creative industries consultant. As an immigrant from Zimbabwe, he has navigated the perils of being on the margins and is passionate about articulating the “African foreigner in Africa” experience on various platforms.
Yakin Kinger is an architect and is currently a teaching associate at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. His current research focuses on decoding the archival photographs of the uprising of 1857 through a postcolonial lens and theorising industrial modernity in colonial India in the late 19th century.
Yessica Klein is a Brazilian born writer based in Berlin after stints in São Paulo, London, Liverpool, and Lisbon. She holds a MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University (UK) and her writing has been featured on 3:AM, SALT., The Moth, and The Lighthouse Review. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Awards and the 2017 Jane Martin Poetry Prize.
Youngbear Roth is retired and resides with his wife of forty-eight years in Los Angeles, California. Since returning to the United States. The author has published essays on touch therapies and energy healing, lectured on the California university circuit, and written for film and stage. Youngbear’s fiction writing is stored and available for reading at The Richard Brautigan Library--Clark County Historical Museum, Vancouver Washington.
Agata Maslowska is a poet, writer, and translator born in Poland and living in Scotland. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She received the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. https://agatamaslowska.co.uk Twitter @AgataMaslowska
Akshi Chadha is a writer and literary editor from India. She is currently pursuing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Canthius, The Lumiere Review, Parentheses Journal, The Roadrunner Review, Watch Your Head, Occasus, and elsewhere.
Ambrose Musiyiwa is a poet and a journalist. 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. Books he has edited include Bollocks to Brexit: an Anthology of Poems and Short Fiction (CivicLeicester, 2019), Black Lives Matter: Poems for a New World (CivicLeicester, 2020), and Poetry and Settled Status for All: An Anthology (CivicLeicester, 2022).
Amritha Sobrun-Maharaj is an Indian South African who was born in apartheid South Africa and emigrated to New Zealand. She is a social and health psychologist who has conducted research on the impact of the social environment on mental health and its physical manifestations and has published academic reports and articles in international journals.
Anesu Jahura is a young Zimbabwean writer residing in Cape Town, South Africa. He writes general fiction and nonfiction, as well as articles about pressing issues. His favourite activities are writing, weightlifting and spending quality time with his loved ones.
Angela Graham is from Belfast and has had a long career in Wales. She now divides her time between both places. She is an award-winning tv producer and film maker. Seren Books published her poetry collection Sanctuary: There Must Be Somewhere in June 2022. Her debut collection of short stories A City Burning (Seren Books, 2020) was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize.
Angele Mambangula is a refugee from DRC. She is a singer and a choir leader and continues to sing and perform with choirs in London. She welcomed Little Amal at The South Bank 2021 at a performance of A Swallow’s Kiss, a story inspired by the Islington Centre community.
Anisha Bhaduri is an award-winning journalist and writer from Kolkata, India who lives and works in Hong Kong. Her debut crime novella Murders in Kolkata 26 was published by Juggernaut Books in 2020. Anisha has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and her work of literary fiction was first published by Random House India in a bestselling anthology. In 2022, her first short story published in North America earned her a Best of the Net nomination. Also in 2022, her short stories have appeared or have been accepted for publication across five countries in Joyland Magazine, Tampa Review, Harpur Palate, Touchstone Literary Magazine, Sonder Magazine, the other side of hope and Kitaab.
Annie Liones Nguyen is a Vietnamese multidisciplinary artist based in Singapore. Her main mediums of expression are filmmaking and poetry. Her works mainly explore themes of humanism, grief, existentialism and empowerment. Her poetry works can be found or is forthcoming in The Holy Art, Artist Talk Magazine, Trouble Maker Fire Starter, Verum Literary Press, Musing Publications, New Note Poetry and other literary magazines and art exhibitions. She currently holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology and is set to pursue higher education in filmmaking in Los Angeles. Find her at www.annielionesng.com
The Art and Writing Hearth at Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, run by Writers and Artists in Residence Sita Brahmachari, Jane Ray and Ros Asquith, has been integral to the centre’s wellbeing services for over a decade. The work from this weekly drop in class with a core of regular members has been exhibited in libraries at Amnesty International and in an exhibition for the UN, Voices on The Wind. Since the Global Pandemic we have moved the class from the creative room at the centre to online. The group is invited to respond to art inspirations by drawing, conversation or writing in the session. These patchwork pieces of creativity are shared and formed together into a communal poem. The writing and art of the group is then published on the website as an inspiration for the whole community. We hope to have more opportunities to exhibit and come together to celebrate the work in person in the future. https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/art-and-writing-class-may-july-2022/
Aryan Ashory is a 17-year-old Afghan poet, filmmaker, human right activist and journalist. Her poems are in four languages: Dari, English, Greek and Deutsch. Aryan volunteers with a Greek organisation as a Dari and handcrafts teacher and has made 5 short and documentary films. She was in charge of a women's space teaching handcrafts and English beginner classes, and has joined Athens Democracy Forum as a reporter in 2019 where she focuses on the voice of young people. Twitter: @AryanAshory
B. Anne Adriaens is a Belgian national currently living in Somerset. Her poetry and fiction reflect her interest in alienation, as well as her concerns about the environment. Her work has appeared in various magazines, including Poetry Ireland Review, Ink Sweat and Tears and Poetry Salzburg Review (forthcoming).
Bänoo Zan has over 250 published poems and other pieces as well as three books, including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father. She founded Shab-e She’r (Poetry Night), Toronto’s most diverse and brave reading series. Bänoo is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Alberta, Sept 2022-May 2023.
Betty was born in Kinshasa, a city in DRC. She now lives in London with her auntie and two children. Betty is a Scientist. Her specialist area is Medical Biotechnology and she is in her final year studying Biomedical Sciences. She hopes to become a researcher and a university professor.
Carolina Tytelman is an anthropologist living and working in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Originally from Argentina, she now lives in the city of St. John’s with her family.
Christina Hoag is a former journalist. She is the author of novels Law of the Jungle, Girl on the Brink and Skin of Tattoos. Her short stories and essays have appeared in literary reviews including Lunch Ticket, Toasted Cheese and Shooter, and have won several awards. For more information: https://christinahoag.com
Dani Vilu is an Eastern European living in London, a film history student, a lover of all things artistic and an advocate for biodiversity.
Daniel W.K. Lee is a third-generation refugee, queer, Cantonese American born in Kuching, Malaysia. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at The New School, and his debut collection of poetry, Anatomy of Want, was published by QueerMojo/Rebel Satori Press in 2019. Find out more about him at danielwklee.com.
Dariusz Janczewski is a fiction writer. He emigrated to the United States from the then communist Poland in 1984. Dariusz has an MA in English and creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University and a BS in graphic design from the University of Cincinnati. He lives in Missoula, Montana (USA).
The poems of David Davies explore the traditional-made-new, something he has lived as a first generation immigrant to the USA. His Pushcart- and Bram Stoker-nominated writing has appeared in Granfalloon, The Underwood Press, Rise Up Review, and Shadow Atlas. His poetry collection Messengers of the Macabre was published by NAT 1 in October. https://messengersofthemacabre.com/
Divyanka Sharma loves to represent the world around her, from her native country of India to adopted home in the United States, through the magic of words. Her poetry, fiction, and thought pieces have appeared in the Grief Diaries, Making Connections magazine, Muse India, Wire.in among others. She hopes her writing can transport readers to the world she lives in and imagines. She resides in San Francisco.
Diyo Mulopo Bopengo is a Congolese from the DRC who grew up in South Africa. He fell in love with music, drama and art as teenage but later joined a business school. He is a warm-hearted individual who loves people and mountains. His hidden talent came to life when he joined Good Chance’s Change the Word Poetry Collective in 2019. He has co-published 3 anthologies with the collective.
Dmitry Borshch was born in Dnipropetrovsk, studied in Moscow, today lives in New York. His works have been exhibited at Russian American Cultural Center (New York), HIAS (New York), Consulate General of the Russian Federation (New York), Lydia Schukina Institute of Psychology (Moscow), Contemporary Art Centers (Voronezh, Almaty), Museums of Contemporary Art (Poltava, Lviv). In 1989 he was accepted by the US as a political refugee from the USSR and, since February of this year, a refugee again, fleeing the war from Dnipropetrovsk to New York.
E.E. is a teacher, poet and artist from Egypt. E.E. was part of the Islington Centre for Refugee Art and Writing group for several years, as well as the choir. At Islington Centre E.E. had the opportunity to work with Sita Brahmachari to develop my voice as a poet. Some of E.E.’s poems are based on their paintings, and they are also influenced by songs. E.E. likes to make refrains and choruses (half in Arabic and half in English) and put rhythm to these so that these refrains can be sung. E.E. has performed their poems and sang in numerous places including The Union Chapel, Amnesty International (video), The South Bank and even in the UK Parliament. E.E. is now a member of Writing Room where they have attended classes in poetry and writing children’s fiction. E.E. is currently working on a story for young people.
Edward Gunawan is the author of two chapbooks The Way Back (Start a Riot! Prize winner, Foglifter Press) and Press Play (Sweet Lit). Other publications include Triquarerly, Aquifer, and Intimate Strangers anthology (Signal 8). A queer Indonesian-born Chinese immigrant, he now resides on Ohlone land in Oakland, CA.
Elisabeth Hanscombe is a psychologist and writer who explores autobiography, psychoanalysis, testimony, trauma and creative non-fiction in her writing. Her childhood memoir, The Art of Disappearing was published in 2017. She blogs at https://www.sixthinline.com/
Eric Abalajon is currently a lecturer at the University of the Philippines Visayas, Iloilo. His works have appeared in Ani, Katitikan, Loch Raven Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, The Tiger Moth Review, Dx Machina, and elsewhere. He lives near Iloilo City.
Fuad Alsohli is from Syria, where he had studied Information Technology at Damascus University. His first work was in 2009 when he shared his brother in the short film Fight Through Time. Afterwards he set up a Facebook magazine, Altal Electronic. His latest work is a novel written in 2019 entitled The Love with Covid.
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo is a Ghanaian writer, poet, editor, & lyricist. Winner of the 2021 Africa Haiku Prize, Singapore Poetry Prize & the LFP/RML/Library of Africa and the African Diaspora chapbook prize, he's the author of five poetry books & the forthcoming Sea Ballet. His writings have appeared in Wales Haiku Journal, EVENT, Prairie Fire, Best New African Poets Anthologies (2018, 2019, 2020).
Gabriele Uboldi (he/they) is a queer, migrant artist, theatre-maker, poet and researcher based in London, working across both English and Italian. Their work is often multi-disciplinary and formally experimental, with a special focus on how marginalised stories can be expressed through non-traditional dramaturgies.
Born in Bulgaria in 1961, Gee I Vee used to publish short fiction, essays, and articles in local newspapers mainly. After his marriage in 1999 and due to some discrepancies in Bulgarian legislation, he was forced to renounce his Bulgarian citizenship publicly, and since then he has been stateless, without any citizenship. Now his writing has appeared from time to time in different English-speaking countries.
The poet Godwin Akinyele is a Nigerian based in the United Kingdom. Godwin writes across genres of poetry, prose and drama. He is also a gospel writer. Godwin is the author of the "Lucifer's Utmost Strategy". He's a law (LLB) graduate of the University of London and a qualified level 7 postgraduate-trained paralegal. Godwin is currently an advisor at Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). He's a passionate writer, speaker, preacher and an advocate for refugees and asylum seekers. This is reflected in the fact that he hosted the Refugees Week nation-wide (Wales) in 2020 (via zoom), in which over 100 attendees including Members of Senedd were in attendance. Godwin has won several awards including High Sheriff of Clwyd Award for his great services to the community. Godwin is Married to Victoria and blessed with kids.
Canadian-American author Grant Hayter-Menzies writes about extraordinary but unsung lives human and animal. He is literary executor for the late playwright William Luce (‘The Belle of Amherst’). He lives with his partner Rudi, son of refugees, in British Columbia, Canada.
Halina Goldstein fell in love with words when she was 5 years old. The relationship suffered greatly from her family’s emigration to Denmark. Fortunately, where her native Polish withered, seeds of English found fertile ground. Halina writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Visit her Awakening To Joyful Living site at HalinaGold.com
Iveren Cheku (she/her) is an emerging Nigerian poet who lives in Makurdi. She writes from a place of deep concern for mental health and social injustice. When she's not writing she's making great dresses and multitasking with a thousand hypothetical scenarios in her head. She says hi on Twitter @Aiveemls
Jen Ross is a Chilean-Canadian journalist with hundreds of published articles who also spent 10 years with the UN before moving to Aruba to write fiction and poetry.
Joel Mordi is a social science student, writer, and activist: he is a leading voice in the niche of Sustainable Development, speaker at offline/online conferences, co-written an academic article with Olive, given LGBT+ themed presentations/panels with the University of York and an interview with the University of East London.
Born and raised in Manila, Katrina Macapagal now lives in Edinburgh with her partner and daughter. She has a PhD in film and media studies and is the author of Slum Imaginaries and Spatial Justice in Philippine Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). She likes writing poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction.
Koffi is from west Africa. He likes football and enjoys writing since his encounter with the Islington Centre. That place has been an asylum, a cocoon in which he confidently builds up his footsteps in the UK.
Behind the closed doors of her room in Tehran, Iran, L. Amani wrote things nobody ever read. Then in January 2022, she put her life in a suitcase and moved to Ireland to start a creative writing course. Uncle Jamal is her first published story.
Landa wo is a poet from Angola, Cabinda and France. His work has appeared in Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, Nashville Review, Poetry New Zealand, The Common, and Raleigh Review, among other publications. Politically engaged his work deals with prominent issues of social justice, discrimination and cultural strife.
Lena Rissmann is a postgraduate student at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London). Her writing is shaped by the perspective of a young and curious woman. Most of her short stories and poems centre around a woman as the protagonist and try to creatively explore different societal issues. Originally, Lena is from Geneva (Switzerland) and has studied Communication and Innovation in Berlin, Paris and London.
Loraine Masiya Mponela is a community organiser and migrants rights campaigner based in Coventry, England. She is the Co-Chair for the #StatusNow4All (https://www.statusnow4all.org) campaign which is a campaign calling for indefinite Leave To Remain for everyone that needs it in UK and Ireland. Loraine is a member for Coventry asylum and refugee action group (CARAG), a peer-led self-organised community group. She is originally from Malawi. Loraine has a lovely son, Comfort and a daughter in-law Rumbani.
Lucía Pereira (Montevideo, Uruguay) studies English Literature and Culture in Spain, where she moved when she was five. There, she has been published in literary journals such as Página Salmón. She reads and writes because she craves to merge with another.
Lucy Popescu’s books include A Country of Refuge, an anthology of writing on refugees and asylum seekers and A Country to Call Home, focusing on the experiences of young refugees. Lucy mentors members of Write to Life (Freedom from Torture). She reviews books for The Observer, FT and TLS among other publications.
Marina Antropow Cramer is the child of post WWII Russian refugees from the Soviet Union. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, Istanbul Literary Review, Wilderness House, Bloom Literary Magazine, and the inaugural issue of the other side of hope. She is the author of the novels Roads, Anna Eva Mimi Adam, and Marfa’s River (2023).
Maryna Krazhova is a Belarusian-born author from Boston, U.S. The majority of her poetry and short stories are written in her native language. As an AmeriCorps member, she serves refugees and immigrants at Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and is interested in diversity, cultural issues, and the rights of ethnic minorities.
Michele Witthaus is based in the UK. Her writing has appeared in a number of anthologies and other publications and her pamphlet, From a Sheltered Place, was published in August 2020 by Wild Pressed Books. She is the 2020 winner of Leicester Writers’ Club’s Ena Young Award for Poetry.
Monica Mody is the author of Kala Pani (1913 Press), the forthcoming Bright Parallel (Copper Coin), and three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground press). Her writing appears in numerous literary journals and anthologies. She was born in Ranchi, India, and currently lives in the United States. Visit her at www.drmonicamody.com
Born in the Deep North of the U.S.A., Morning-meadow Jones is a migrant, multi-medium creative and mother of nine, penning poetry and practicing various arts from her home in Wales, UK. Her work has been featured in Overtly Lit, TERSE.Journal, and Duck Duck Mongoose Magazine.
N has been a regular contributor of the Islington Art and Writing Class for many years. She studied art as an undergraduate and postgraduate both in her homeland and in Britain. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited widely.
Naomi Abraham is a writer of Ethiopian-Eritrean descent. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a young girl and then to Japan where she spent much of her childhood. Today she is the co-founder of Resonance, a social change strategic communications hub, where she works as a communications/story strategist. This story was developed from a film script she wrote more than a decade ago. The story is inspired by true events involving her beloved late father.
Ntela was born in Angola and now lives in the UK with her family. Ntela loves writing, reading new things and also cooking. She enjoys connecting with people and making friends at the Islington Centre.
Patricia is a community champion and sanctuary ambassador helping migrant and refugee communities in their struggle with the harsh policies and systems including accommodation and health access. She is an immigrant in the UK and passionate about promoting the right to asylum and access to healthcare for everyone.
Priscilla Okoye writes about self-healing, growth, and resilience in distress. She has Masters degrees in English Language and in Leadership and Human Resources Management and is presently studying to be a psychotherapist. She is a stay-home-mum and volunteers as a blog writer, newsletter designer, library attendant, and website content creator/administrator.
Rad Popp is a London-based Romanian writer and director.
Radhika Maira Tabrez is a writer, editor, L&D specialist, TEDx speaker, and Radio Show Host. Her debut novel In The Light Of Darkness won the much-coveted Muse India – Satish Verma Young Writer Award in 2016. Radhika’s stories and essays have appeared in over a dozen anthologies and magazines since then. In 2018, she became the first Indian ever to speak at a TEDx event in Bangladesh. She won the Rising Stars India Award (2017), and 100 Most Inspiring Writers by Indian Awaaz (2018). She was one of the Program Mentors for the Chevening Writers Series held in Malaysia in 2020. After short stints in Dhaka (Bangladesh), and Penang (Malaysia), Radhika is now building a new nest in sunny Kamloops.
Rifat Mahbub lives and works in London; in her memory she often lives in Dhaka, where she grew up, and in her writings, she lives everywhere. She writes both in Bangla and English. She wrote her PhD thesis on first-generation Bangladeshi educated women in Britain (2014, University of York).
Roger Craik was born in Leicester, UK, and has worked in universities in England, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania, as well as at Kent State University, Ohio, at which he is Professor Emeritus. He enjoys watching the birds every day.
Sabir Zazai is a former refugee from Afghanistan who now leads the Scottish Refugee Council. Sabir’s early education was interrupted by the war in Afghanistan, when he was internally displaced with his family when he was still at primary education. However, his resilience, hope and a strong desire for education helped him to graduate from Coventry University with a degree in Human Resources Management, and a Masters in Community Cohesion Management. Recently he was conferred with a Honorary Doctorate at the University of Glasgow for services to community, and received the Lord Provost award for human rights. Sabir is now Honorary President of City of Sanctuary and a Visiting Practice Fellow at the Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.
Saheli Khastagir is a writer, painter and an international development professional from India, based in New Orleans. Her recent work has appeared in Prairie Fire, Current Affairs, Ligeia Magazine, Emrys, Full Stop, The Bombay Literary Magazine, and other publications and anthologies. You can visit her website at: www.sahelikhastagir.com.
Sandra is Hope’s Mummy. Sandra is from Congo and has lived in London for six years. She has been a client and a volunteer at Islington Centre where she started a baby reading and singing group. She has also performed in a production of ‘Swallow’s Kiss’ at The South Bank Centre and her storytelling has been recorded by The National Literacy Trust.
Sheela Burrell holds a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno where she had her first short story published in Common Wages, a university journal. Sheela also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Education from University Science of Malaysia, Penang. A trained teacher, Sheela taught English Language to secondary school children in Malaysia. She moved to England after her marriage to her British husband and continued teaching at a further education college. Later, she worked with international students at a local university in Essex. Sheela has been a preschool teacher, a lecturer, a tutor, an educational support worker for undergraduates as well as a writer. Her memoir Marrying Across Borders about an international marriage will soon be published by Onwards and Upwards.
Sheng-mei Ma (馬聖美mash@msu.edu) is Professor of English at Michigan State University in Michigan, USA, specializing in Asian Diaspora culture and East-West comparative studies. He is the author of over a dozen books, including The Tao of S (2022); Off-White (2020); Sinophone-Anglophone Cultural Duet (2017); The Last Isle (2015); Alienglish (2014); Asian Diaspora and East-West Modernity (2012); Diaspora Literature and Visual Culture (2011); East-West Montage (2007); The Deathly Embrace (2000); Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures (1998); and the memoir Immigrant Horse’s Mouth (2023). Co-editor of five books and special issues, Transnational Narratives in Englishes of Exile (2018) among them, he also published a collection of poetry in Chinese, Thirty Left and Right (三十左右).
Sita Brahmachari is Writer in Residence at The Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants where she works in the Art and Writing Hearth alongside Artists in Residence Jane Ray and Ros Asquith. Sita is an internationally award-winning author of intergenerational plays, poems, animation, and novels for young adults. Sita has an MA in Arts Education and has written widely on the experience of integration of refugee survivor people into new homelands. Her work has been endorsed by Amnesty International. In her extensive career working in schools and communities Sita has collaborated with many organisations within the refugee sector including Freedom from Torture, Counterpoint Arts, Book Aid International, Free Word, Write for Rights and Young Roots. In 2021 Swallow’s Kiss, dedicated to the Islington Centre community, written by Sita and illustrated by Jane Ray, became the welcome story for Good Chance Theatre’s ‘Little Amal’ at London’s South Bank. It included storytelling and choir performance by many of the clients featured in ‘Patchwork of Hope’.
https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/
https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/art-and-writing-class-2022/
Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Sunayna Pal happily resides in Maryland with her husband, children, plants, and an invincible goldfish. She is a third-generation refugee. Find more on her at sunaynapal.com Follow her on LearningAboutSindh for more poems.
Tara Goldsmith left the country of her birth and much later went back to the third version of the same country. In between, she has travelled the world, exploring not only the cultures of other countries but also her own identity and inner conflicts about family, tradition, loss and the struggle to create a meaningful future. She is now settled in the English countryside with her dogs and books.
Tonderai Chiyindiko is a professional actor, theatre reviewer, workshop facilitator, arts and culture writer and creative industries consultant. As an immigrant from Zimbabwe, he has navigated the perils of being on the margins and is passionate about articulating the “African foreigner in Africa” experience on various platforms.
Yakin Kinger is an architect and is currently a teaching associate at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. His current research focuses on decoding the archival photographs of the uprising of 1857 through a postcolonial lens and theorising industrial modernity in colonial India in the late 19th century.
Yessica Klein is a Brazilian born writer based in Berlin after stints in São Paulo, London, Liverpool, and Lisbon. She holds a MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University (UK) and her writing has been featured on 3:AM, SALT., The Moth, and The Lighthouse Review. She was shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Awards and the 2017 Jane Martin Poetry Prize.
Youngbear Roth is retired and resides with his wife of forty-eight years in Los Angeles, California. Since returning to the United States. The author has published essays on touch therapies and energy healing, lectured on the California university circuit, and written for film and stage. Youngbear’s fiction writing is stored and available for reading at The Richard Brautigan Library--Clark County Historical Museum, Vancouver Washington.
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