On the Frontline: Muslim and Jewish Poets Speak Out

Nottingham Writers’ Studio

Saturday 25th May 2019, 12:30-2:30

To guarantee a seat for this event, please register.

These are challenging times for Muslims and Jews who are on the front line facing fear and hostility as targets of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. Jewish and Muslim poets represent their varied personal subjectivities resisting the simplistic and dangerous identities imposed on them.

Come and hear them read their poems and join them to discuss the issues and participate in a workshop.

This is an event in the Exiled Writers Ink ‘Towards an Open Land’ literary activism project on exploring issues around identity, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism with Muslim and Jewish writers. We hope alliances will be formed between Jews and Muslims to work together against intolerance. After a series of London workshops we will take our project on the road to expand the conversation.

Amir Darwish is a British Syrian poet and writer of Kurdish origin. Born in Aleppo, he came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 2003. His two poetry collections are Don’t Forget the Couscous and Dear Refugee (Smokestack). From Aleppo without Love is an autobiographical novel. His work has been published in the UK, USA, Pakistan, India, Finland, Turkey, Canada, Singapore and Mexico. Amir has an MA in International Relations of the Middle East from Durham University, UK and a BA in history from Teesside University, UK. Currently, he is doing an MA in creative and life writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Dr Aviva Dautch is a poet, academic and curator. She teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the British Library, Jewish Culture at the University of Roehampton and Modern Jewish Literature at the London School of Jewish Studies. In 2017 Aviva won the Primers prize for emerging poets, with her winning sequence published in Primers Volume Three (Nine Arches Press: 2018), and in 2018 she received an Authors’ Foundation Award from the Society of Authors.

Jennifer Langer is a poet, academic and founder of Exiled Writers Ink. Her poetry has been published in various magazines and she is editor of four anthologies of exiled literature: Bend in the Road (1997); Crossing the Border: Voices of Refugee and Exiled Women (2002); Silver Throat of the Moon: Writing in Exile (2005) and If Salt has Memory: Jewish Exiled Writing (2008, Five Leaves). She holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London in literature of exile.

Mohamed is a British-Somali poet based in London. Founder of the (un)Heard Words, a project focused on using poetry as a tool for interfaith engagement, Mohamed often explores the topic of faith, identity, politics and masculinity in his poems. Mohamed’s poems have been featured in FreeWord, Apples and Snakes, Buzzfeed UK and local and national radio.

http://www.exiledwriters.co.uk