Join English PEN, in partnership with City of Sanctuary Sheffield, for an evening of readings and discussion with Sudanese authors and translators from across the diaspora.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Sudan – which NGOs and IGOs have called “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world” – father-daughter translators Adil Babikir and Mayada Ibrahim, poet Salma Ali, writer and poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, and writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate Yassmin Abdel-Magied (chair) will explore the traditions, diversity and influences of Sudanese literature. They will read from and discuss their work, and examine the importance of promoting and celebrating Sudanese literary and intellectual culture, and the role of literature in times of conflict.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese diaspora writer, broadcaster, and award-winning social advocate. She has delivered workshops and keynotes in 25 countries, and her internationally acclaimed TED talk, “What Does My Headscarf Mean to You” was chosen as one of TED’s top 10 ideas. At age 16, Yassmin founded Youth Without Borders, leading it for nine years before founding Mumtaza, an organisation focused on the empowerment of women of colour. She has published five books and has been awarded numerous awards for her writing and advocacy. In all her work, Yassmin advocates for transformative justice and a fairer, safer world for all.
Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is widely regarded as one of the leading African poets writing in Arabic. Famous since a teenager, he is admired for the lyric intensity of his poetry and for his principled opposition to Sudan’s dictatorship. His Collected Poems was published in 2010. A distinguished journalist, he was forced into exile in 2012 and now lives in London.
Salma Ali is a Sudanese British poet and a member of the Southbank Centre’s 2024/25 New Poets Collective. Her work has appeared in Mizna’s Black SWANA special issue and PANK’s Azza fi Hawak folio. She was one of the winners of the Tate Collective Open Call for writing inspired by the work of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Salma is currently pursuing a PhD in Genetics at the University of Oxford.
Adil Babikir is a Sudanese translator and copywriter based in the UAE. He has translated and edited several works, including Modern Sudanese Poetry: an Anthology (Nebraska, 2019) and Mansi: A Rare Man in His Own Way, by Tayeb Salih (Banipal Books, London, 2020). His study, The Beauty Hunters: Sudanese Bedouin Poetry: Evolution and Impact, was published by University of Nebraska Press in April 2023. In 2024, he co-translated Samahani, a novel by Sudanese writer Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, along with Mayada Ibrahim.
Mayada Ibrahim is a literary translator, editor, and writer based in Queens, New York, with roots in Khartoum and London. She works between Arabic and English, and her translations have been published by Willows House in South Sudan, Foundry Editions, Dolce Stil Criollo, and 128 Lit. She is the managing editor at Tilted Axis Press, a publisher of contemporary literature by the global majority. Mayada is also an adjunct lecturer of Arabic at Hunter College (CUNY) and a founding member of the Translators Organizing Committee within the National Writers Union.