Jhalak Foundation presents

Jhalak Review

Jhalak Review’s Gathering of Hope, Resistance and Joy

An evening of discussion, chat and drinks to celebrate the publication of the Jhalak Review, produced by and featuring writers of the global majority, in and beyond UK.

In her extraordinary essay collection, Some of Us Did Not Die (2002), poet and writer, June Jordan asks, “And what shall we do, we who did not die? In their editor’s note for the Jhalak Review, award winning novelist and editor Guy Gunaratne asks a similar question. What shall we do, those of us who survive, especially as writers, dreamers, worldbuilders?

Headlining the evening is a courageous, insightful, compelling panel discussion chaired by Guy Gunaratne in conversation with writers Ibtisam Azem and Mahmoud Muna and other global voices.

The evening celebrates the publication of the Jhalak Review, an editorially independent, 16-page bi-annual insert in The Bookseller, the UK’s main book trade magazine. The Jhalak Review is produced by and features writers of the global majority, both in and outside the UK.

Hot off the press copies of the Jhalak Review are included with the ticket. There will be a cash bar at the venue. Please note the Arcola Bar has a card only payment system.
Books will also available for purchase.

Our panelists:

Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Her stunning novel The Book of Disappearance has been translated into English, Italian, and German, and published this year by And Other Stories and described as “brilliant and audacious” (Kamila Shamsie).

Guy Gunaratne is an award-winning novelist and playwright. They Dylan Thomas Prize and the Jhalak Prize for their debut novel In Our Mad and Furious City (2018) and have been longlisted for the Booker and Goldsmith’s Prize. Their luminous novel Mister, Mister (2023) has been described as “thrillingly ambitious” (Guardian). Guy is the current editor of the Jhalak Review.

Mahmoud Muna is a writer, publisher and bookseller from Jerusalem, Palestine. He runs Jerusalem’s celebrated Educational Bookshop and the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, both centres of the city’s literary scene. He is one of the editors of the recently published Daybreak in Gaza by Saqi Books a record of extraordinary places and people, and of a culture preserved by the people themselves.

Content Warnings:  Discussions related to war, genocide and violence.