Warsan Shire in Conversation

Celebrated Somali-British poet Warsan Shire will close Africa Writes 2018, a literary festival celebrating the best of African literature on the continent and the diaspora. The festival is hosted by the Royal African Society.

In her first UK public appearance since her poetry reached millions of people in Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, Shire will be in conversation about her work, process and inspiration, and will speak about her new projects that explore the intersections of art and healing. Shire is the first person under 30 to headline the event in the festival’s seven-year history.

Shire was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize in 2013, and in 2014 was selected as Poet in Residence for Queensland, Australia, and appointed as the first Young Poet Laureate for London. Shire's poetry has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Estonian, Swedish and Somali.