Where We Find Ourselves: Diaspora Poems and Stories from Arachne Press

Join South London publisher, Arachne Press, for an evening of readings and conversation based around the anthology Where We Find Ourselves: Poems and Stories from U.K. Writers of the Global Majority. Writers from African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, South American, Chinese and Malay communities contributed to this anthology on the theme of ‘maps and mapping’.

Join us to hear stories and poems of finding oneself and getting lost, colonialism and diaspora, childhood exploration and adult homecoming, followed by a Q and A session with our panel of poets and authors.

Farhana Khalique – Farhana Khalique is a writer, voiceover artist and teacher from south-west London. She is also the editor of Desi Reads, a submissions editor at SmokeLong Quarterly and a former Word Factory Apprentice Award winner. Find Farhana at @HanaKhalique

Ngoma Bishop – Author of the novel ‘Spread Your Wings and Fly’. Poems in several publications including The Whole Story by the Istorians, 100 Years Unheard: WW1 & the Afrikan Diasporan Woman and Black, I am. Twitter: @BishopNgoma

Nikita Chadha – Nikita is a writer, poet and social commentator who advocates for an intersectional lens and approach to be utilised – she is committed to spotlighting the ‘other’, those who are chronically unheard and underrepresented within society. Her poetry focuses on the experiences of the South Asian diaspora, mental health and identity. She is also a patient voice advocate, lead facilitator and speaker for Cysters (a non-profit that specialises in supporting marginalised people with reproductive and mental health problems). Instagram: @nikkaayyy_c @didacticdiaspora @cystersgroup

Marina Sánchez – Marina Sánchez is an award-winning poet and translator, widely published in literary journals and international anthologies. She is Indigenous Mexican, Spanish and British. Her new pamphlet Mexica Mix (Verve) is out now.

Emily Abdeni-Holman – Emily Abdeni-Holman is a British-Lebanese writer with a deep interest in relationship to place and in how we’re constituted by the past – by what’s come before. She writes academically and creatively, and her interests concern language, land, spirituality, body, and culture. She keeps an archive of resources on these and other things on Twitter at @hemaliee.

L Kiew – A chinese-malaysian living in London, L Kiew works as a charity sector leader and accountant. She holds a MSc in Creative Writing and Literary Studies from Edinburgh University. Her debut pamphlet The Unquiet was published by Offord Road Books in 2019. She was longlisted in the 2019 National Poetry Competition and was a 2019/2020 London Library Emerging Writer. L Kiew is currently working on her first collection. Twitter: @l_kiew