Join award-winning poet Nadine Aisha Jassat as she launches her debut poetry collection Let Me Tell You This with the Glasgow Women’s Library.
Shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award recipient, Nadine is an up-and-coming voice in the UK’s poetry scene.
‘Nadine is a poet of rare talent and voice.’ Elizabeth Reeder, author of Ramshackle
‘[Nadine] masterfully evokes the often beautiful, sometimes painful specificity of her mixed heritage whilst invoking the universality of being a woman looking for answers to questions that shouldn’t need to be asked.’ Sabrina Mahfouz, author of How You Might Know Me
Nadine’s poems seep into the reader and deliver a punch to the chest. One not to be missed. A vital exploration of racism, gender and the sustaining and restorative bonds between women, her poems seep into the reader and deliver a punch to the chest. Celebrate Nadine’s new publication alongside brilliant guests, with powerful performances, a Q&A, and signing to mark the occasion.
Nadine Aisha Jassat is an award-winning writer, poet, and creative practitioner. Her essays and short stories have been published widely online and in print, including in New Writing Scotland, The British Council’s ‘Discover’ Project (for which she won the UK open call), Picador’s It’s Not About the Burqa, and 404 Ink’s Nasty Women. She is known for combining the creative arts with social justice, and her work has drawn significant acclaim: in 2018 she received a New Writers’ Award from the Scottish Book Trust, as well as being shortlisted for the Outspoken London Poetry Prize (Poetry in Film), and the prestigious Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. In 2017, she was named as one of 30 Inspiring Young Women Under 30 in Scotland. Let Me Tell You This is her first full length collection.
Esme Allman is a final year student reading History at the University of Edinburgh. She is an actor, poet, researcher, theatre-maker and activist. She is currently serving as the University Association’s Women’s Officer, working to combat sexual harassment and forge a strong, inclusive community of women. Her work also challenges the university and pushes to decolonise academia. She has been writing and performing poetry since 2015, and has performed with Scotland-based Loud Poets and Heaux Noire. Her work incorporates ideas of colonialism, diaspora, blackness, memory and nostalgia.
Iona Lee is a poet, artist and performer. She was born in Edinburgh and raised in East Lothian by two theatre actors. Iona fell in to spoken word at the tender age of 17 as a way of getting in to pubs underage, later winning the title of Scottish Slam Champion in 2016. She is currently an illustration student at the Glasgow School of Art and fronts a beat poetry band called Acolyte. Iona has performed at the Edinburgh Book Festival, StAnza, Glastonbury and organises the spoken word at the Kelburn Garden Partry. She has performed in Paris, Vienna and all over the UK. Iona’s first pamphlet was published with Polygon in 2018.
Chitra Ramaswamy is an award winning journalist and writer. Her first book, Expecting, a collection of nine essays for the nine months of pregnancy and birth, was published in April 2016 by Saraband. It won the Saltire First Book of the Year award and has been described as “immediately, poignantly, gripping… magnificent” by Zoe Williams, “elegant, funny, brimming with acute observations and suffused with a gentle intimacy” by Gavin Francis, and “a glorious read” by Denise Mina. She currently writes mainly for The Guardian.
This event is for open to all and is free to attend. Please book below (you will be taken through the shopping cart but no charge will be made) or you can call us on 0141 550 2267. If you have booked a place and are no longer able to attend please let us know so that we can make your place available to someone else.
Glasgow Women’s Library is wheelchair accessible, with lifts to the first floor and the Mezzanine Floor. We have accessible toilets and all the bathrooms are individual closed stalls and are gender neutral. Our larger Events Space is fitted with an induction loop. A portable induction loop is also available. For paid events free companion tickets are available.
Find more information on Accessibility at GWL or contact us and we will be very happy to offer assistance.