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Landmarking Migrancy, Community and Connection

Fri, 08 Nov

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ZERO

An evening of readings, performances and short talks celebrating the creativity and insights of migrant authors over the centuries.

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Landmarking Migrancy, Community and Connection
Landmarking Migrancy, Community and Connection

Time & Location

08 Nov 2024, 18:30 – 21:00

ZERO, 168 High St, Guildford GU1 3HW, UK

About the Event

An evening of readings, performances and short talks celebrating the creativity and insights of migrant authors over the centuries. Part of the University of Surrey's 'Landmarking' programme for the 2024 Being Human festival and reflecting the work of Surrey's 'Mobilities' research centre, this event will focus on how displaced writers integrate themselves into unfamiliar surroundings and societies, establishing new communities and connections. 


The material presented will be both historical and contemporary, ranging from Lord Byron in the early nineteenth century to Jhumpa Lahiri in the present day. The evening will conclude with in-person readings by Melanie Hyo-In Han, Arbër Qerka-Gashi and Anitha Sundararajan.


Melanie Hyo-In Han is author of My Dearest Yeast and Sandpaper Tongue, Parchment Lips, whose poetry similarly explores themes of diaspora, transnationalism and ‘hyphenated’ identity. Currently undertaking a Creative Writing PhD at Surrey, Melanie writes from and about the Korean American diasporic experience, as well as about her personal experience of creative relocation from East Africa, where she grew up, to the USA and Britain. Arbër Qerka-Gashi and Anitha Sundararajan have both published work in the literary magazine the other side of hope: journeys in refugee and migrant literature. Arbër is the founder of the digital educational platform Balkanism and co-founder of the events organisation the Balkan London Collective; his recent work has addressed both the story of his’s Kosovan parents’ journey of asylum to London and contemporary multicultural London as seen through the lens of inter-generational experiences and memories. Anitha is a Tamil writer now living in London, and her work grows from and explores the Tamil diasporic experience.


This University of Surrey event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 7–16 November 2024. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with generous support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.

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