This month at 𝘏𝘢𝘫𝘢𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴, we’ll be discussing 🅿🅻🅰🆈 with the fabulous @durreshahwar.bsky.social! Come along to @housmansbookshop.bsky.social on 20 May to think about play as a life-affirming practice that can open us up to more expansive ways of living 🥏🏄🏽🎺🎲⚽️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hajar-read...

Started my day today with some Annie Ernaux. Every time I get stuck with writing, I return to books that gave me confidence in it in the first place. Books that feel like they are inventing a new form of writing. Books that reveal something new every time you re-read them. #reading #books #writing

Eid Mubarak to all celebrating ✨

Pleased to be Disability Arts Cymru's March Artist of the Month, and to talk about my interdisciplinary practice as a researcher, writer, tutor, artist and my solo exhibition which presents a counterarchive of the experience of seeking sanctuary and asylum. www.disabilityarts.cymru/post/artist-...

Artist of the Month: Durre Shahwar

Our Artist of the Month is Durre Shahwar, an award-winning writer, editor, and artist whose work examines identity, narrative form, and the politics of representation.

disabilityarts.cymru

My proudest achievement is building a book family that powers this prize In 10 years, Jhalak Prize has grown from a single prize to a portfolio of 3 awards: 1. Jhalak Children’s & Young Adult Prize, 2. Jhalak Poetry Prize 3. Jhalak Prose Prize BEHOLD THIS EXCELLENCE! #jhalakprizeat10

+ @durreshahwar.bsky.social’s “cynefin” which is absolutely captivating and I couldn’t have read fast enough🇵🇰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @foldingrockmag.bsky.social

A man?? winning the Booker prize????? Is that even possible? It hasn't happened since the far-flung days of 2023. Our legends say that a man also won it in the ancient, prehistoric era of 2021, but surely that is just an old wives tale meant to frighten MFA students before bed.

The Guardian view on the Booker prize winner: putting masculinity back at the centre of literary fiction | Editorial

Editorial: David Szalay’s Flesh breaks from a decade of female-centred interiors and reopens a genre many thought closed to men

theguardian.com

It was an honour to be in conversation with Sara Ahmed last week about her new book, No Is Not A Lonely Answer. I've been reflecting on things I've said no to, the spaces that make it hard to advocate for better, and the changes that arise from complaint. I really recommend everyone read it.

If there's one thing you read today, read Camilla Grudova's essay on the precariousness of making a living from writing when you're from an underprivileged background and the ways that writers shift and adapt snd often have to make do. I felt so incredibly seen by it.

The Stinging Fly@stingingfly.bsky.social · last yr.

NEW essay by CAMILLA GRUDOVA, part of our ongoing series of reflection on the writing life edited by @oneflawediris.bsky.social ”Money matters: whatever other job a writer does, whether shop assistant or professor, it is subsidising the publisher.” Read more: stingingfly.org/2025/06/25/t...

Last week, for Refugee Week, I reflected on what nature taught me about migration and how you see your place in the world when you have been a former refugee. You can read it here on my Substack: open.substack.com/pub/durre/p/...

What Nature Taught Me About Migration

Thoughts on Refugee Week

open.substack.com

Cardiff primary school teachers and similar folks, you should go to this. Darren is brilliant.

Darren Chetty@darrenchetty.bsky.social · last yr.

Link here: literacytrust.org.uk/events/creat...

It was a delight to be a judge for this anthology that celebrates South Asian poetry, and to get to read such a range of excellent submissions on so many different themes.

Renard Press@renardpress.com · last yr.

Delighted to announce judges @betarish.bsky.social, @farhanashaikh.bsky.social & @durreshahwar.bsky.social have convened & curated the final 50 poets for the Remembrance anthology, celebrating South Asian poetry, founded by Suman Gujral 🙌🤩 Selection here: thirdspacestories.com/remembrance-...

Spotted at @queeremporium.bsky.social Cardiff @suchmayer.bsky.social

Saw this on another platform today and it resonated deeply.

PRE-ORDERS NOW OPEN, w 10% discount! Please buy & spread the word—this is the book of my life, & pre-orders are v impt for its flight. First blurbs have come in, from Bhanu Kapil & Jeremy Tiang, am so honoured &constantly verklempt 🤍 #CripLit tiltedaxispress.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?...

Annah, Infinite (paperback) - preorder — Tilted Axis Press

By Khairani Barokka, translated from the painting Annah La Javanese. This is an escape story. In Annah, Infinite , the dominant narratives surrounding Paul Gauguin’s famous painting Annah la ...

tiltedaxispress.us11.list-manage.com

Okka (Khairani Barokka; she/her/dia)@mailbykite.bsky.social · last yr.

The book of my life (so far), ANNAH, INFINITE is an escape story. A translation of a painting, in speculative nonfic, poetry & art. Took 14 yrs, &I’m inviting you to love it as I do. Aug 19 UK, Nov 11 US. For reviews/i’views/events: tramy@tiltedaxispress.com www.tiltedaxispress.com/annah-infini...

My creative non-fiction piece, Making/Unmaking, written for @nvpoco.bsky.social is now available to read online for free! Bringing together themes of sustainability, ancestral connection across continents, regional practices, making and unmaking of cultural identity. www.yumpu.com/en/document/...

Such a huge loss. I was writing and researching the hierarchies of language when I came across his work and felt a huge shift in my own due to it. Rest in power. What a legacy you leave behind.

Lit Hub@literaryhub.bsky.social · last yr.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the Kenyan novelist, playwright, poet, and critic, has died at 87.

Once again had poems rejected by a Serious Grown-up Magazine. So if you want a poem (unserious? too serious? too many raging puns?) in ur inbox, lmk & I'll send you one.

a woman in a red dress is holding a microphone and says you get a car and you get a car

Alt: Oprah Winfrey, a Black woman in a fitted red suit, is holding a microphone and saying to her studio audience: you get a car and you get a car and you get a car.

media.tenor.com

Had the most wonderful time at #awwe25. Have come away inspired, fulfilled, moved by good people and incredible papers, with new knowledge and lots of photos of beautiful Wales. Have been trying to go to #awwe conference for a few years now. Third time lucky. Diolch o galon.

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · last yr.

One more #awwe25 session tonight: @durreshahwar.bsky.social ‘s autofiction centred on her dual Welsh-Pakistani heritage.

Eisiau ysgrifennu am natur a'r argyfwng hinsawdd? Dyma'r dosbarth meistr i chi. Book Inclusive Journalism Cymru's free Zoom masterclass on environmental writing! 🌱 Gwesteion/Guests: @durreshahwar.bsky.social, Owen Sheers, Taylor Edmonds 21/5 19:00 amam.cymru/inclusivejou...

Very happy to have written a piece drawing on the themes of sustainability, regional practices, and making/unmaking, building upon research from my Future Wales Fellowship for @nvpoco.bsky.social. The magazine is brilliantly curated and is launching tomorrow with an online event.

New Voices in Postcolonial Literature Network@nvpoco.bsky.social · last yr.

We're very happy to announce our fourth title and author in our series of posts on the contributions to New Voices in Postcolonial Studies Magazine No. 2: "Imagining Postcolonial Futures"! ☀️ ▶︎ Introducing "Making/Unmaking" by Durre Shahwar @durreshahwar.bsky.social

📍The launch will take place 7th May 19:00-20:30 GMT Online 🎟️ Register here for a free ticket: www.eventbrite.com/e/nvpoco-mag...

Join us in celebrating the work of our authors, learning more about NVPoco, and discussing the future of postcolonial studies. The launch will include readings of creative/critical works by Alan Palacios, Sonakshi Srivastava, @durreshahwar.bsky.social, James Lapping, George Harris, and Owen Buchan

We're delighted to announce the launch of the latest issue of of New Voices in Postcolonial Studies Magazine edited by Soph Harris-Nijmeijer and Juni Kvarving (@juni-kvarving.bsky.social) on the theme of "Imagining Postcolonial Futures"!

A belated thank you to @durreshahwar.bsky.social and @hananelizabethissa.bsky.social for an enjoyable and enlightening chat about Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature at Central Library Hub. Available to reserve now!

In her poetry published in The Dial, Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha considers how simple pleasures and pains—like the warmth of the sun and wrist pain—take on new meaning during wartime: www.thedial.world/articles/lit...

Poems by Dalia Taha — The Dial

“Enter Sun”, “Enter Wrist Pain”, and “Enter Poem”

thedial.world

Booking is now open for University of Bristol’s annual Writers Day. A full line-up of workshops, talks and Q&As, featuring headliners Vanessa Kisuule and CJ Skuse. £25 full rate and £15 concessions. bristol.ac.uk/english/stud...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: weaponising the language of activism to shame people, or believing there's a singular correct way to be an activist is often inherently privileged and never intersectional. It also just doesn't serve any community you claim to be doing the work for.

I'll be delivering a PGR seminar online tomorrow with Queen Mary University, about my research and writing of autofiction and how it may or may not lend itself to decolonising how we write. It's free to attend by anyone. durreshahwarpgrs.eventbrite.co.uk

Are you an LAHP-funded student? Gain hands-on experience at a renowned literary magazine and learn how to run a literary prize through our new placement opportunity. ⏰ Deadline: 11.59pm BST, Sunday, 20 April Apply: