Gathering - Durre Shahwar, Nasia Sarwar-Skuse
“The beautiful rolling hills and coastlines are for all of us. Together, we can reimagine the British countryside (and all it represents) and make space so that everyone is welcomed."
Gathering brings together essays by women of colour across the UK writing about their relationships with nature, in a genre long-dominated by male, white, middle-class writers. In redressing this imbalance, this moving collection considers climate justice, neurodiversity, mental health, academia, inherited histories, colonialism, whiteness, music, hiking and so much more.
These personal, creative, and fierce essays will broaden both conversations and horizons about our living world, encouraging readers to consider their own experience with nature and their place within it.
With illustrations by Haricha Abdaal.
“The beautiful rolling hills and coastlines are for all of us. Together, we can reimagine the British countryside (and all it represents) and make space so that everyone is welcomed."
Gathering brings together essays by women of colour across the UK writing about their relationships with nature, in a genre long-dominated by male, white, middle-class writers. In redressing this imbalance, this moving collection considers climate justice, neurodiversity, mental health, academia, inherited histories, colonialism, whiteness, music, hiking and so much more.
These personal, creative, and fierce essays will broaden both conversations and horizons about our living world, encouraging readers to consider their own experience with nature and their place within it.
With illustrations by Haricha Abdaal.
“The beautiful rolling hills and coastlines are for all of us. Together, we can reimagine the British countryside (and all it represents) and make space so that everyone is welcomed."
Gathering brings together essays by women of colour across the UK writing about their relationships with nature, in a genre long-dominated by male, white, middle-class writers. In redressing this imbalance, this moving collection considers climate justice, neurodiversity, mental health, academia, inherited histories, colonialism, whiteness, music, hiking and so much more.
These personal, creative, and fierce essays will broaden both conversations and horizons about our living world, encouraging readers to consider their own experience with nature and their place within it.
With illustrations by Haricha Abdaal.
The line up:
Adéọlá Dewis – Trinidadian artist whose work engages transformation, diaspora and performances of fragments. She is founder of Laku Neg, an artist run company interested in African diaspora knowledge exchange.
Alycia Pirmohamed – co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Programme and author of Another Way to Split Water, shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award 2023 & longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023.
Durre Shahwar – writer and PhD researcher. She is the co-editor of Gathering (404 Ink) and also the co-editor of Just So You Know (Parthian Books). She is a Future Wales Fellow, looking at climate justice through art and the Co-Founder of ‘Where I’m Coming From’ open mic. Durre is working on her debut non-fiction book about language, belonging, and identity.
Hanan Issa – current National Poet of Wales and prolific writer, poet and artist whose debut pamphlet My Body Can House Two Hearts was published by Burning Eye Books.
Jasmine Isa Qureshi – Founder of organisation Queer Rootz, journalist, wildlife television/media, Engagement Officer for the youth led organization A Focus On Nature, Activist, marine biologist, poet and speaker/presenter.
Kandace Siobhan Walker – writer and artist. Her debut pamphlet, Kaleido, was published by Bad Betty Press in 2022. Her collection, Cowboy, will be published by CHEERIO in 2023.
Kate Cleaver – Anglo-Indian writer studying for a PhD with Swansea University. In 2019 she was long listed in the New Welsh Writers Award and has had a memoirs published by Parthian in ‘Just So You Know’ and Honno in ‘Painting the Beauty Queens Orange’.
Khairani Barokka – Minang-Javanese writer and artist, and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Her work has been presented widely internationally, and aims to centre disability justice as anticolonial praxis. Okka's latest book, Ultimatum Orangutan (Nine Arches), was shortlisted for the Barbellion Prize. (Picture description: A black and white photo of an Indonesian woman in profile, with short hair, a visible silver earring and dark dress. Picture credit: Matthew Thompson.)
Louisa Adjoa Parker – writer, poet, and consultant on anti-racism, and equity, diversity and inclusion. She is of English-Ghanaian heritage and based in the southwest. Her books include How to wear a skin (Indigo Dreams), Stay with me (Colenso Books), and She can still sing (Flipped Eye). She has a memoir forthcoming with Little Toller Books. (Photo credit Robin Mills)
Maya Chowdhry – writer and multidisciplinary artist. Her poetry collections include The Seamstress and the Global Garment (Crocus) and Fossil (Peepal Tree Press). She was artist in residence for the Critical Poetics Summer School with Nottingham Trent University. (Photo credit Ean Flangers Photography)
Nadia Javed – Musician, writer, band member of ‘The Tuts’.
Sharan Dhaliwal – founder the UK’s leading South Asian culture magazine Burnt Roti and author of debut non-fiction Burning My Roti (Hardie Grant). She is the Director of Middlesex Pride and was on the list of global influential women for the BBC 100 Women 2019.
Sofia Rehman – independent scholar specialising in Islam and Gender. She works as a knowledge building consultant for Musawah Movement and as a PhD candidate she was a PG Impact Fellow at the Centre of Religion and Public Life and PRHS Scholar. She is founder of the Islam and Gender read alongs & is the author of a Treasury of Aisha bint Abu Bakr (Kube publishing) and the forthcoming monograph, Gendering the Hadith: Recentering the Authority of Aisha, Mother of the Believers (Oxford University Press).
Susmita Bhattacharya – Indian-born writer whose debut novel, The Normal State of Mind (Parthian) was long-listed at the Mumbai Film Festival, 2018. Her short story collection, Table Manners (Dahlia Publishing) won the Saboteur Award for Best Short Story Collection and was a finalist for the Hall & Woodhouse DLF Prize. She received funding from Arts Council England in 2021 to write a radio drama and is a mentor for underrepresented writers.
Taylor Edmonds – poet, writer and creative facilitator from South Wales and author of debut poetry pamphlet Back Teeth (Broken Sleep Books). Taylor was the 21-22 Poet in Residence for the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and has received a Rising Star award from Literature Wales and Firefly Press. Taylor is currently working on her first YA novel.
Tina Pasotra – artist, writer, director and filmmaker whose credits include films and projects ‘I Choose’ (2020), nominated for Best Short Film BAFTA Cymru 2021, ‘But Where Are You From?’ (2017) and ‘Sisters’ (2018). In 2022 Tina received funding from Arts Council Wales to create a project called ‘Mycelium’.
