I am currently Writer-in-Residence at Seven Sisters Country Park and along the Sussex Heritage Coast until October 2023, commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority,(SDNPA) writing new work and curating a further body of work by other women of global majority heritage as part of a literature-focused arts programme , We See You Now, funded by Arts Council England. Learn more here.
Glimpse: My first fiction story, The Beard, is now out. as part of Glimpse, the first anthology of Black British speculative fiction published by Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, edited by Leone Ross. Order here.
After five years of writing, amazing support & belief from New Writing South & this year, a Chapter & Verse mentoring scholarship from Sable Lit/ TLC, I have just completed the manuscript of my artist memoir-plus, In the Skin of a Stranger. I am now seeking agent and publisher interest.
Listen to my podcast, The Colour of Chalk here. Latest episode, Not So Far Apart, on a walk at Seaford Head, Sussex, with Dulani Kulasinghe, on poetry of the climate emergency and legacies of Empire across the landscape
Watch online now : If You Can Imagine on YouTube – a film of my creative response to an archeological report and findings following the Seaford Head cliff fall this year – a poetic meditation on deep time, climate emergency and heritage loss using stunning drone footage and a performance in the landscape. Part of the Seaford Head Archeology project and intersecting with my own current research and new writing along the coast for my project. Funded & supported by South Downs National Park, Archeology South East UCL, Historic England, Seaford Town Council.
Listen to: The Hidden Valley, my debut Radio commission as writer/presenter on Into the Wild, for Radio 3’s The Essay, produced by Novel Audio, one of five new pieces by writers/poets of urban/rural nature writing .
Summer has been busy : Readings, Walk & Write at Charleston Festival of the Garden, our Roundtable ‘We See You Now: Writing New landscapes and Walking the Global Imaginary’ at Common Threads International Conference, Brighton University, I was guest poet at Printer’s Playhouse, Eastbourne, trying out new material from my upcoming commissioned work & ran my first public Walk & Write at Seven Sisters Country Park (where I am Writer-in-Residence) for South Downs National Park Renature Festival and Writing our Legacy’s Changing Chalk programme.
For further updates, check back here/the SDNP project site, join my malling list and/or follow #SevenSistersCountryPark, #WeSeeYouNow. The We See You Now programme is also supported by Writing our Legacy, New Writing South and a range of other partners, including. so far, ONCA and Enthum Foundation.
Listen to Care(free) a new piece of poetic prose I wrote during my time as Associate artist at Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality Studies Centre, exploring contemporary and mythical intersections between care, freedom and human rights.
Watch and make /reflect along with our vimeo workshop series on the emotional commons in times of crisis , Craft in Common, commissioned by Craftspace and now touring as part of We Are Commoners, (part of Crafting the Commons ). Craftspace and this project recently co-won the 2020 Achates Prize
Check out my sculpture on the cover of a new edition of Suffrage Plays by Methuen, edited by Naomi Paxton here.
Archived speaking events : Listen here to me talking with wordsmith and artist Omope Daiboku, on a new Podcast series ‘Life in a Time of Corona’, about the effect of the crisis on our creativity, and relationship to environment and daily life.
In conversation with Philosopher Sacha Golob (Kings College) as part of a series of Visual Arts and Philosophy Salons at Fernandez and Wells, Somerset House, London. Podcast here
In conversation at the Stuart Hall Library at INIVA with Dr Christine Checinska -Shaw. Listen here. (scroll to bottom for file)
On Radio 4 Midweek with Libby Purves, talking about gift, debt, art and birth alongside Satish Kumar, Brian Blessed and Mark Harris. Listen to the programme on Iplayer here.
Burning The Books : 30 min film documenting my collaborative performance project on debt across 9 cities, is online on vimeo – watch here. 2011-15 tour Funded by Arts Council England.
Follow me on twitter @AlinahAzadeh or instagram alinahazadeh.
