Evento 11: Momtaza Mehri in conversation with Cristina Ward

Poetry of the World

Momtaza Mehri is an award-winning writer and researcher working across poetry, criticism, education, and radio. Since 2014, her work has been featured in outlets such as Granta, Poetry International, The Poetry Review, Artforum, Vogue, and The Guardian.

Described by Bernardine Evaristo as “a truly transnational 21st-century poet whose words resonate across the world,” Mehri was named Young People’s Laureate for London and is currently Poet-in-Residence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge. Her debut poetry collection, Bad Diaspora Poems, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and won the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Eric Gregory Award, and the Somerset Maugham Award. The book explores what it means to write poetry of the diaspora, weaving together her own family’s experiences with the stories of many others in 19th- and 20th-century Somalia.

In conversation with a Spanish poet of her generation, Mehri will reflect on her writing and on the role poetry can play in challenging a world shaped by race, class, and gender.

The talk will be moderated by Cristina Ward, Director of the Arts Department at the British Council in Spain.

A book signing will follow the event.

Event in English

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