Abíọ́dún Abdul is a Yorùbá-Nigerian writer and UNESCO Cities of Literature Global Poetry Slam Winner 2022. Her expressive writing includes life essays, diasporic travel stories and upcoming autoethnographical memoir-polemic series ‘Stained Glass Eyes: A Memoir on Race, Family and Multiculturalism’ encompassing her schooling across Nigeria, the UK and Japan. She also writes Yorùbá-centred short stories and poetry on social justice as well as topics celebrating our common humanity. Fascinated by how grammar could be poetically bent to facilitate new meaning and enhance creative expression, she has worked for several years in higher education as an English Language Lecturer & Assessor across the globe. Through this, she conceived initiatives promoting intercultural intelligence - What Colour Are Your Senses? - and combatting prejudice - The Scottish Racism Project. Her work has been published in anthologies; she writes and podcasts for literary magazines; performs at literary festivals and events; and presents at academic conferences.
Alberto Quero is a poet, narrator and semiotician. He was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela and has always worked as a language professor. He holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics, a Masters in Literature and a Doctorate in Humanities (University of Zulia). Member of the Venezuelan Association of Semiotics, the International Writers, Association of Spain and the International Writers’ Parliament of Colombia. He has published six books of short stories, two collections of poems and several peer-reviewed papers about literature written in Spanish. His academic interests go from Medieval Peninsular Poetry to the Latin American ‘Boom’. He has received several literary awards and has been included in three dictionaries of Venezuelan writers. His works have appeared in a number of compilations, in Spanish, English and French. He is the Latin American journalist for Literary News, a radio show at CKCU 93.1, a FM station that belongs to Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada).
Bakr Al Jaber is a 30-year-old Syrian poet. In his work Bakr explores the relationship between universal beauty, war and the duality of existence. He is currently residing in The Netherlands. He has a published project 'let’s talk loudly and laugh a lot' in collaboration with Dutch photographer Hillie de Rooij, besides many other contributions in collective books and magazines. In 2020 he was short-listed for El Hizjra literatuurprijs. In 2022 he was part of two art residences, one in Saudi Arabia, organized by Hafiz gallery, and the other was in collaboration between International Literature Festival Utrecht and Mooie Woorden. Recently he has been involved in a few community art projects in The Netherlands.
Bhaswati Ghosh writes and translates fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her first book of fiction is Victory Colony, 1950. Her first work of translation from Bengali into English, My Days with Ramkinkar Baij. Bhaswati’s writing has appeared in several literary journals. She lives in Ontario, Canada and is currently working on a book on New Delhi, India’s capital. Outside the world of writing, Bhaswati enjoys travelling during the winter months, especially across Latin America. In the summer months, she likes taking in bird songs and rabbit hops in her Ontario backyard, where her husband lovingly grows an edible garden every year. Visit her at: https://bhaswatighosh.com/
Basir Ahang is a poet, journalist, and actor who was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan. He currently lives in the United Kingdom. Due to the threats, he received as a journalist, Basir was forced to leave his home country. In 2008, he sought refuge in Italy, where he lived as a political refugee. Basir belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, which has a long history of persecution in Afghanistan. In 2015, Basir published his first book of poetry in Italian titled Sogni di Tregua (Dreams of Truce). That same year, he participated in the International Poetry Festival of Medellín in Colombia. In 2019, he was invited to China and took part in the International Poetry Festival of Chengdu. In 2021, some of his poems were published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press in the volume titled Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives.
An Afro-Caribbean woman, Camele-Ann White was born in Jamaica, and immigrated to the United States as a child. Camele-Ann has written, choreographed, and directed dance and theatre productions, and has worked as a teaching artist, arts administrator, and attorney. She holds a BA in Film Studies from Yale University, and a JD/MBA from UCLA. Her poem, ‘The Gaze,’ was published in As/Us Literary Journal. Camele-Ann resides in New York, and is a lifelong lover of poetry, speculative fiction, dance, and musical theatre.
Elena Georgiou is from Cyprus. She was born in Ammohostos (Famagusta), the most beautiful town in the Mediterranean. She lived there with her family until the Turkish invasion in 1974. Since then Elena is a refugee in her own country. She temporarily lives in Larnaca until she is allowed to return home.
Elvina Valieva (she/her) was born in Baku, raised in Qazan, and currently lives in Berlin. She writes poetry and prose in Russian. Her works have been published among others by perito.media, Грёза and Артикуляция. Her writing is currently focused on decolonial imagination and familial mythology.
Giada Nizzoli is an Italian writer based in Chester, UK. She’s the author of the poetry pamphlet Ghost Hometowns, the magical realism short story collection Set in Marble, and the poetry book Will-o’-the-Wisps. She shares her work and writing journey on Instagram at @giada_writes, and you can find out more about her at giadanizzoli.co.uk
Julia Niro is a Brazilian nurse who writes in her spare time. Her new poetry book Poesia Condensada is available now and can be found online in some stores, such as Amazon and Waterstones. Her poems are written in Portuguese, and mainly explore misadventures that surround us throughout life: disappointments in love, personality conflicts, responsibilities, among others. Apart from her book, she published a scientific article and wrote some texts about love, sadness, existentialism, and issues regarding being alive. Instagram: @julianiro / @poesiacondensada
Juliana Castañeda is a young writer who divides her time between her hometown, Bogotá, her cherished Montreal, and any corner of the globe where she can snag affordable plane tickets or find a place to crash. Her days are filled with a mix of studying, creating cherished memories with friends and family, writing, and immersing herself in music. One of her proudest achievements is her self-created website, misentidopesa.com, where she shares her Spanish texts.
Lily Inga was born in Rwanda and had to flee as a child during war and genocide, and went on a journey as a refugee. Lily has lived in refugee camps and in different countries before she joined Europe and settled in France, where she got an opportunity to study, explore her potential, and heal. Books and words have been a major tool to help her heal throughout her journey until today. Lily has worked for different humanitarian organisations and in diplomacy for the UN Agencies. Now Lily lives in London, UK , where she takes time to reflect on migration and refugee journeys, including her own. She writes poetry and short stories, and for her writing is a way to take ownership of their own stories.
Liudmila Voloshchuk is a 74-years-old from Kyiv. Her consciousness was shaped by her family, which belonged to the Ukrainian intelligentsia. She started writing poetry at school and dreamt of becoming a journalist. Lyudmila graduated from the Agricultural Academy and for 20 years worked at the National Exhibition Centre, promoting agricultural science. In 1999, her husband died and her son, a civil aviation pilot, was killed in a plane crash. Her garden and poems saved her from despair. After the outbreak of war, she moved with her daughter and grandson to Poland, then to the UK. With her daughter, Ganna, a choreographer, she has a creative collaboration. Her daughter creates the choreography, she writes poems, which Ganna translates into English to share with friends.
Maria Iotova is a writer and editor for the development sector. She holds two Masters; one in Journalism and the other in Refugee Studies. When Maria was four, her family migrated from Bulgaria to Greece. Ever since, she has lived and worked in six countries across Europe, Africa, and East Asia. Currently, she lives in the dynamic city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece.
Musembi wa Ndaita, originally from Kenya, is a writer based in Philadelphia. His poem is in Kiikamba, a Bantu language of Kenya. He was longlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His non-fiction and fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Africology, In the Sands of Time, the other side of hope, Diaspora Messenger, and Mere Orthodoxy.
Priscilla Okoye is a poet, a psychology student, and an advocate for resilience. With three published poems and unpublished stories, Priscilla weaves emotions into her writings, showcasing a creative spirit eager to explore uncharted narratives. As a psychology student, Priscilla explores the complexities of the human mind, seeking understanding and healing.Beyond academia, Priscilla coordinates a women’s group, supporting and empowering survivors of gender-based violence, who are also refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. In Priscilla Okoye, poetry, psychology, and advocacy converge, creating a dynamic force for change.Priscilla collaborated with her mother, Nkoli Uzochukwu, on the translation of her poem into Igbo.
Reza Khalilzadeh holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. His profession in Iran has primarily revolved around advertising photography, weddings, and news photography. Reza has worked in the fields of graphic design and advertising for various brands in Iran. In addition to his visual arts pursuits, he is also involved in music, playing the Daf and Tanbur.
Simone Toji is an anthropologist, author and playwright. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, from a family of Japanese heritage. She has poems and short stories published in Brazilian collections. She was part of the 2018 Sesi-British Council Dramaturgy Centre, which resulted in the play Miragens (Sesi-SP Press). She also participated in the Laboratory of Playwriting for Women in 2019, having her piece ‘O que nos move’ published in the volume Pavio Vermelho Fogo (Giostri Press) in 2021. In this same year, her play Nébulas ou Pandemia C. Ovídio 1.9 was published in a collection organized by Tusp Press. Her most recent work, the ethnographic study The immensity of being singular was published in 2023 by HAU Books and Chicago University Press.
Tiago Duarte Dias is originally from Rio de Janeiro, and currently lives in Malmö, Sweden. He has published poems and short stories in English at TERSE.Journal, Dyst, Empyrean Literary Magazine and in Portuguese at Litteris7. Besides, he is the creator of a music project called Warmest Winter (http://warmestwinter.bandcamp.com) and has a doctoral degree in Anthropology. Drawing inspiration from among others, Machado de Assis, The National, James Joyce, Anne Carson, Ingmar Bergman, and Louise Glück, his work deals with the frailty of human life. In a world that is invariably indifferent, not only to our suffering and joy, but also to how we deal with it, irony, hope, cynicism, naivety and stoicism are some of his artistic coping mechanisms. He has also recently become a father to his first daughter.
Yana Sanko is a Belarusian poet and social anthropologist. In exile since 2020, and has lived in Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden since then. Yana writes anthropological and autoethnographic poetry in Belarusian and English, working with subjects of family history, trauma, displacement, and multilingual experiences.
Alberto Quero is a poet, narrator and semiotician. He was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela and has always worked as a language professor. He holds a BA in Literature and Linguistics, a Masters in Literature and a Doctorate in Humanities (University of Zulia). Member of the Venezuelan Association of Semiotics, the International Writers, Association of Spain and the International Writers’ Parliament of Colombia. He has published six books of short stories, two collections of poems and several peer-reviewed papers about literature written in Spanish. His academic interests go from Medieval Peninsular Poetry to the Latin American ‘Boom’. He has received several literary awards and has been included in three dictionaries of Venezuelan writers. His works have appeared in a number of compilations, in Spanish, English and French. He is the Latin American journalist for Literary News, a radio show at CKCU 93.1, a FM station that belongs to Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada).
Bakr Al Jaber is a 30-year-old Syrian poet. In his work Bakr explores the relationship between universal beauty, war and the duality of existence. He is currently residing in The Netherlands. He has a published project 'let’s talk loudly and laugh a lot' in collaboration with Dutch photographer Hillie de Rooij, besides many other contributions in collective books and magazines. In 2020 he was short-listed for El Hizjra literatuurprijs. In 2022 he was part of two art residences, one in Saudi Arabia, organized by Hafiz gallery, and the other was in collaboration between International Literature Festival Utrecht and Mooie Woorden. Recently he has been involved in a few community art projects in The Netherlands.
Bhaswati Ghosh writes and translates fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her first book of fiction is Victory Colony, 1950. Her first work of translation from Bengali into English, My Days with Ramkinkar Baij. Bhaswati’s writing has appeared in several literary journals. She lives in Ontario, Canada and is currently working on a book on New Delhi, India’s capital. Outside the world of writing, Bhaswati enjoys travelling during the winter months, especially across Latin America. In the summer months, she likes taking in bird songs and rabbit hops in her Ontario backyard, where her husband lovingly grows an edible garden every year. Visit her at: https://bhaswatighosh.com/
Basir Ahang is a poet, journalist, and actor who was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan. He currently lives in the United Kingdom. Due to the threats, he received as a journalist, Basir was forced to leave his home country. In 2008, he sought refuge in Italy, where he lived as a political refugee. Basir belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, which has a long history of persecution in Afghanistan. In 2015, Basir published his first book of poetry in Italian titled Sogni di Tregua (Dreams of Truce). That same year, he participated in the International Poetry Festival of Medellín in Colombia. In 2019, he was invited to China and took part in the International Poetry Festival of Chengdu. In 2021, some of his poems were published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press in the volume titled Contemporary Italian Diversity in Critical and Fictional Narratives.
An Afro-Caribbean woman, Camele-Ann White was born in Jamaica, and immigrated to the United States as a child. Camele-Ann has written, choreographed, and directed dance and theatre productions, and has worked as a teaching artist, arts administrator, and attorney. She holds a BA in Film Studies from Yale University, and a JD/MBA from UCLA. Her poem, ‘The Gaze,’ was published in As/Us Literary Journal. Camele-Ann resides in New York, and is a lifelong lover of poetry, speculative fiction, dance, and musical theatre.
Elena Georgiou is from Cyprus. She was born in Ammohostos (Famagusta), the most beautiful town in the Mediterranean. She lived there with her family until the Turkish invasion in 1974. Since then Elena is a refugee in her own country. She temporarily lives in Larnaca until she is allowed to return home.
Elvina Valieva (she/her) was born in Baku, raised in Qazan, and currently lives in Berlin. She writes poetry and prose in Russian. Her works have been published among others by perito.media, Грёза and Артикуляция. Her writing is currently focused on decolonial imagination and familial mythology.
Giada Nizzoli is an Italian writer based in Chester, UK. She’s the author of the poetry pamphlet Ghost Hometowns, the magical realism short story collection Set in Marble, and the poetry book Will-o’-the-Wisps. She shares her work and writing journey on Instagram at @giada_writes, and you can find out more about her at giadanizzoli.co.uk
Julia Niro is a Brazilian nurse who writes in her spare time. Her new poetry book Poesia Condensada is available now and can be found online in some stores, such as Amazon and Waterstones. Her poems are written in Portuguese, and mainly explore misadventures that surround us throughout life: disappointments in love, personality conflicts, responsibilities, among others. Apart from her book, she published a scientific article and wrote some texts about love, sadness, existentialism, and issues regarding being alive. Instagram: @julianiro / @poesiacondensada
Juliana Castañeda is a young writer who divides her time between her hometown, Bogotá, her cherished Montreal, and any corner of the globe where she can snag affordable plane tickets or find a place to crash. Her days are filled with a mix of studying, creating cherished memories with friends and family, writing, and immersing herself in music. One of her proudest achievements is her self-created website, misentidopesa.com, where she shares her Spanish texts.
Lily Inga was born in Rwanda and had to flee as a child during war and genocide, and went on a journey as a refugee. Lily has lived in refugee camps and in different countries before she joined Europe and settled in France, where she got an opportunity to study, explore her potential, and heal. Books and words have been a major tool to help her heal throughout her journey until today. Lily has worked for different humanitarian organisations and in diplomacy for the UN Agencies. Now Lily lives in London, UK , where she takes time to reflect on migration and refugee journeys, including her own. She writes poetry and short stories, and for her writing is a way to take ownership of their own stories.
Liudmila Voloshchuk is a 74-years-old from Kyiv. Her consciousness was shaped by her family, which belonged to the Ukrainian intelligentsia. She started writing poetry at school and dreamt of becoming a journalist. Lyudmila graduated from the Agricultural Academy and for 20 years worked at the National Exhibition Centre, promoting agricultural science. In 1999, her husband died and her son, a civil aviation pilot, was killed in a plane crash. Her garden and poems saved her from despair. After the outbreak of war, she moved with her daughter and grandson to Poland, then to the UK. With her daughter, Ganna, a choreographer, she has a creative collaboration. Her daughter creates the choreography, she writes poems, which Ganna translates into English to share with friends.
Maria Iotova is a writer and editor for the development sector. She holds two Masters; one in Journalism and the other in Refugee Studies. When Maria was four, her family migrated from Bulgaria to Greece. Ever since, she has lived and worked in six countries across Europe, Africa, and East Asia. Currently, she lives in the dynamic city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece.
Musembi wa Ndaita, originally from Kenya, is a writer based in Philadelphia. His poem is in Kiikamba, a Bantu language of Kenya. He was longlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His non-fiction and fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Africology, In the Sands of Time, the other side of hope, Diaspora Messenger, and Mere Orthodoxy.
Priscilla Okoye is a poet, a psychology student, and an advocate for resilience. With three published poems and unpublished stories, Priscilla weaves emotions into her writings, showcasing a creative spirit eager to explore uncharted narratives. As a psychology student, Priscilla explores the complexities of the human mind, seeking understanding and healing.Beyond academia, Priscilla coordinates a women’s group, supporting and empowering survivors of gender-based violence, who are also refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants. In Priscilla Okoye, poetry, psychology, and advocacy converge, creating a dynamic force for change.Priscilla collaborated with her mother, Nkoli Uzochukwu, on the translation of her poem into Igbo.
Reza Khalilzadeh holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. His profession in Iran has primarily revolved around advertising photography, weddings, and news photography. Reza has worked in the fields of graphic design and advertising for various brands in Iran. In addition to his visual arts pursuits, he is also involved in music, playing the Daf and Tanbur.
Simone Toji is an anthropologist, author and playwright. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, from a family of Japanese heritage. She has poems and short stories published in Brazilian collections. She was part of the 2018 Sesi-British Council Dramaturgy Centre, which resulted in the play Miragens (Sesi-SP Press). She also participated in the Laboratory of Playwriting for Women in 2019, having her piece ‘O que nos move’ published in the volume Pavio Vermelho Fogo (Giostri Press) in 2021. In this same year, her play Nébulas ou Pandemia C. Ovídio 1.9 was published in a collection organized by Tusp Press. Her most recent work, the ethnographic study The immensity of being singular was published in 2023 by HAU Books and Chicago University Press.
Tiago Duarte Dias is originally from Rio de Janeiro, and currently lives in Malmö, Sweden. He has published poems and short stories in English at TERSE.Journal, Dyst, Empyrean Literary Magazine and in Portuguese at Litteris7. Besides, he is the creator of a music project called Warmest Winter (http://warmestwinter.bandcamp.com) and has a doctoral degree in Anthropology. Drawing inspiration from among others, Machado de Assis, The National, James Joyce, Anne Carson, Ingmar Bergman, and Louise Glück, his work deals with the frailty of human life. In a world that is invariably indifferent, not only to our suffering and joy, but also to how we deal with it, irony, hope, cynicism, naivety and stoicism are some of his artistic coping mechanisms. He has also recently become a father to his first daughter.
Yana Sanko is a Belarusian poet and social anthropologist. In exile since 2020, and has lived in Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden since then. Yana writes anthropological and autoethnographic poetry in Belarusian and English, working with subjects of family history, trauma, displacement, and multilingual experiences.
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