Wasafiri

Wasafiri
Title	Wasafiri
Founded	1984
Category	Literary magazine
Frequency	Quarterly
Country	United Kingdom
Based	London
Language	English

Wasafiri is a British literary magazine founded in 1984 dedicated to international contemporary writing, with an emphasis on diasporic, postcolonial, and multicultural voices. It publishes fiction, poetry, essays, reviews, interviews, and special thematic issues that feature writers from Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The magazine has been associated with leading figures in world literature and has served as a platform for both established and emerging writers connected to transnational literary networks.

History

Wasafiri was established in 1984 by a group of writers and editors in London influenced by the cultural debates surrounding postcolonialism, migration, and multiculturalism that involved figures associated with Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Black British Arts Movement, and academic initiatives at institutions such as Goldsmiths, University of London and University of Warwick. Early issues featured contributors linked to the literary scenes of Nigeria, India, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Kenya, reflecting the magazine's engagement with diasporic trajectories exemplified by writers from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean. Over successive decades Wasafiri published themed issues and special dossiers that intersected with major cultural events such as the debates following the publication of Edward Said's work and the expanding curricula at universities like University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. The magazine's continuity has spanned editorial changes and institutional partnerships with bodies including arts councils and university departments.

Editorial and Contributors

Editorial leadership has included editors, advisory board members, and guest editors drawn from networks connected to Nobel Prize in Literature laureates, Booker Prize nominees, and Commonwealth literary figures. Contributors have included poets, novelists, essayists, and critics associated with names such as Derek Walcott, Salman Rushdie, Chinua Achebe, Jean Rhys, Grace Nichols, V. S. Naipaul, Ben Okri, Kamala Das, Diane Abbott, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and contemporary voices associated with prizes like the Man Booker Prize and Pulitzer Prize. Guest editors have been drawn from institutions including King's College London and University of Cambridge departments of literature. The magazine has featured translations and translators linked to figures such as Gabriel García Márquez translators, and reviewers connected to journals like The Guardian and New Statesman.

Content and Themes

Wasafiri curates content centered on themes of migration, identity, language, and cultural encounter, often engaging with literary movements that intersect with authors connected to Postcolonial literature, critics associated with Stuart Hall, and theoretical frameworks influenced by Homi K. Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. The magazine publishes fiction and poetry alongside critical essays that dialogue with works by writers from West Africa, East Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and diasporic communities in London and New York City. Special issues have examined topics such as translation studies with contributors linked to PEN International, editing practices associated with Faber and Faber, and pedagogical approaches used at University of Oxford and Harvard University. Profiles and interviews often feature writers engaged with cultural institutions like British Council and festivals such as Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Publication and Distribution

Wasafiri is issued quarterly in print and maintains an online presence distributed through academic and cultural networks associated with publishers and organizations like Routledge, Cambridge University Press, and arts funding bodies such as Arts Council England. It has circulated in bookstores and university libraries alongside journals such as Granta, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker, and is catalogued by library systems connected to British Library and international holdings in institutions like Columbia University and University of Toronto. Subscription and single-copy sales have targeted readers within literary studies programs at Goldsmiths, University of London, SOAS University of London, and creative writing courses at University of East Anglia.

Reception and Influence

Wasafiri has been cited and reviewed in cultural outlets and academic forums linked to critics and publications such as Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, New Statesman, and academic journals in departments of comparative literature at University of California, Berkeley and SOAS. Its role in promoting writers who later received major awards has been noted alongside the trajectories of authors who won the Booker Prize, Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and Nobel Prize in Literature. The magazine's influence extends to curricula in postcolonial studies taught at universities including University of Birmingham and King's College London, and to programming at literary festivals such as Hay Festival.

Awards and Recognitions

Wasafiri and its contributors have been associated with numerous recognitions, including contributors who won the Booker Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize, and regional honors like the Caine Prize for African Writing. The magazine has received support and commendations from cultural funders and honors from academic departments, and has been acknowledged in retrospective surveys of contemporary literature published by presses such as Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury Publishing.

Category:Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom