Events

This event is part of the Book Week Scotland 2020 Digital Festival: https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland This Book Week Scotland, we have teamed up with Interfaith Scotland to bring you this event featuring Leila Aboulela and Nadine Aisha Jassat. Leila and Nadine will be discussing the future, connections and connectivity, and the role faith and interfaith plays in their creative processes. Leila Aboulela is the author of five novels, Bird Summons, The Translator, The Kindness of Enemies, Minaret and Lyrics Alley (Fiction Winner of the Scottish Book Awards). Leila was the first winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and her latest story collection, Elsewhere, Home won the Saltire Fiction Book of the Year Award. She was long-listed three times for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her plays The Insider, The Mystic Life and others were broadcast on BBC Radio and her fiction included in publications such as Freeman’s, Granta and Harper’s. Nadine Aisha Jassat is an award-winning writer and the author of Let Me Tell You This (404 Ink). Her poetry, narrative non-fiction, and short stories feature widely online and in print, including in the celebrated anthology It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race.She has performed her work internationally and has drawn significant acclaim, including being named by Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay in her official selection of 10 Compelling ‘BAME’ writers working in the UK, as part of the British Council and National Centre for Writing’s International Literature Showcase. Leila and Nadine are joined by chair Jill Stevens.

Join us for Makar to Makar, an exciting new series of live-streamed conversation, spoken word and music gigs. Created, curated and hosted by Jackie Kay, the Makar and the National Poet for Scotland, Makar to Makar will showcase a dazzling line-up of established lyrical talent and emerging voices on Thursdays at 7pm. This week Jackie is joined by Nadine Aisha Jassat, Hannah Lavery and Suzanne Bonnar. For more information visit makar2makar.com Produced by the National Theatre of Scotland in association with Home Manchester, Edinburgh International Book Festival and School of Arts and Media, Salford.

As part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival's Outriders programme exploring the shifting landscapes of contemporary Africa, rising star of Scottish poetry Nadine Aisha Jassat embarked on a poignant journey across the south-east of the continent with Zimbabwe-based writer and film-maker Tsitsi Dangarembga, whose 1988 debut Nervous Conditions was included in the BBC's 2018 list of the 100 books that shaped the world. Fascinated by the rich tradition of storytelling in their shared Zimbabwean ancestry and the voices erased within it, they set out to retrace the funereal route of David Livingstone, whose body was carried from modern day Zambia to the coast of Tanzania by his two attendants, Susi and Chuma. Their adventure took an unexpected turn when Jassat was forced to return to the UK at short notice during the height of the pandemic, leaving Dangarembga to complete the journey solo. They share their unforgettable experience, and some of the writing it inspired, with researcher Kate Simpson, whose own work seeks to bring the stories of the women of Livingstone’s expeditions out from the shadows. With a special introduction by Zimbabwean poet Tinashe Tafirenyika, who reads her poem Sarah Baartman, produced in partnership with pan-African writers collective Jalada Africa, the place to discover specially curated new writers and voices.

Bradford Literature Festival Digital programme 2020 www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk For ages 11-18+ Yorkshire poet Nadine Aisha Jassat shares poetry written by Yorkshire folk in Yorkshire dialect and accents, exploring the diversity of heritage and language in our county and showcasing the importance of voice and point of view.