Wasafiri
ActiveDescription
Wasafiri is a magazine of international contemporary writing, launched in 1984; its first issue was launched at the University of Kent. Its name stems from the Kiswahili word for travellers, and one of its inaugural aims was to provide literary and critical coverage of writers from African, Caribbean, Asian and Black British backgrounds who often struggled to get adequate attention in the mainstream press. The magazine draws widely across modern culture and the arts, publishing a mix of fiction, poetry, interviews, essays and reviews, and describes itself as a peer-reviewed journal listed in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
It is run by Wasafiri Limited, a registered charity with its own trustees, which is based at Queen Mary University of London under an agreement with the university that its trustees report as renewed to 31 March 2027. It runs the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for fiction, life writing and poetry, which has been running since 2009, and the Wasafiri Essay Prize, and offers writer and translator residencies.
Currently active
Yes
Offers funding
Yes, this infrastructure provides funding in the following categories:
Founding year
1984
Contact details
London
Greater London
E1 4NS
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Categorisation
Type
Tags
Partner Universities
Queen Mary, University of London
Additional Partnerships
The Literary Consultancy; SALT (South Asian Literature in Translation) Project
Last modified:
2026-09-30 14:51:04