Mapping the City – European writers in London

On the 14th of May, I attended an event hosted by the European Parliament Liaison Office in London at Europe House called "Mapping the City – European writers in London". This event was also supported by University College London (UCL) to promote their new European Literary Map of London, as well as their public exhibition "Lost & Found".

Pictured: Europe House located on Smith Square, seen at the far end of the road, flying a European and Ukrainian flag.

The main event was a talk from a panel, including four European writers, all of whom had applied to become writer in residence at UCL for the European Literary Map project, from across Europe. They talked about their work, their connections to London and what they want to achieve with their writing. This event was also hosted and curated by journalist and presenter, Rosie Goldsmith.

Pictured from left to right: Domas Raibys, Nisrine Mbarki, Ciara Broderick, Iryna Shuvalova.

The first writer on the panel was Clara Broderick, an Irish writer and also official writer-in-residence for UCL as part of the European Literary Map project. She described how she wanted to both raise awareness of the influence Irish people and culture have had on London, through the migrations of Irish people in the 19th century to the modern day, as well as raise awareness surrounding the Irish Gaelic language. Despite English being her first language, she aspires to write more in Gaelic first, rather than thinking and translating into the language as she has been doing and has already translated many of her English works into Gaelic. She hopes that by promoting the language, for example by adding the first Gaelic work to the European Literary Map in the near-future, she can contribute to the normalisation of Gaelic and its acceptance as a true, European language. To end off, she read a short story she had written about rural Ireland and the social tension between the traditional way of life and modern living. She is currently working on her first novel as well.

The second writer on the panel was Nisrine Mbarki, a Dutch multilingual poet, writer and translator. She wants to contribute to the European Literary Map by writing about the living languages of London as well as the sounds of the city; as a multilingual, she wants to promote the diversity of languages found in London, which she is always impressed by when visiting the city. As a translator, she works with translating Arabic texts and poems into Dutch and English as well as translating from Tamazight (an Amazigh language spoken in North Africa), one of her native tongues alongside Dutch. In addition, she talked about decolonising translation and dismantling orientalist attitudes towards non-European languages that are common in translation. Then, she read several of her poems, which switched between Dutch, Tamazight and Arabic – she also read a passage from a novel she is working on, titled ‘Boiling Point’, which will include 7 stories about 7 cities, all from a non-white perspective, including London.

The third writer was Domas Raibys, a Lithuanian comedian and slam poet. He mostly talked about the importance of comedy and music in life and how London is a major hub for these art forms, as well as the importance of laughter and fun in general. He said he wanted to contribute to the European Literary Map with some comedy and said he also wanted to introduce Lithuanian to the map, as he believed that Lithuanian in general is a relatively unknown European language with little presence outside the country. Whereas the other panellists have more concrete and established careers, Domas described how he jogs for work; he offers to advertise for other people by jogging, in marathons or just through a busy area, by wearing adverts whilst jogging. He described jogging as his ‘addiction’ and shared with the audience the event that encouraged him to pursue jogging as a career. When he wrote a one-man play, he decided to advertise it by running a marathon wearing wooden clogs, garnering attention on social media as well as from official media outlets. Hilariously, he forgot the original reason for this performance, to advertise his play, forgetting to tell anyone, however, it inspired him to use his passion for jogging for work. To end off, he read some of his comedic works in Lithuanian with rough English translation.

The last writer on the panel was the Ukrainian writer and translator Iryna Shuvalova. Despite living in Oslo, Norway, she has visited London a lot since moving out of Ukraine several months prior to the Russian invasion; she talked about her mother’s experience of learning English in London, starting from just a few words to being able to speak the language on a day-to-day basis, which she wants to include in the European Literary Map in the form of poetry. She talked more broadly about her work and her focus on the voices of Ukrainian exiles, including herself, both from before and after the invasion. She emphasised that the ongoing conflict does not define Ukraine and its literature, that there is more to Ukraine than just the current suffering and tragic news stories. She also warned about creating a ‘Hierarchy of Pain’ when writing about areas of conflict, especially Ukraine, where depending on one’s unfortunate circumstances, people should receive different levels of sympathy – she warned that we should not measure pain by comparing our experiences against each other and competing against each other for sympathy. To finish, she read several extracts from her poems, which included both Ukrainian and English extracts.

An image of the European Literary Map of London: see the link at the bottom of this article.

To bring a close to the event, all four writers were invited onto the stage and asked as a group about their opinions on London, the London Literary Map, and multilingualism, literature and multiculturalism in general. Ciara Broderick commented on the importance of bringing the different voices from across the centuries and across different cultures onto the same map, helping to show London’s multicultural background. She also highlighted the need for empathy and tolerance. Nisrine Mbarki described how she did not feel like a stranger in London because of its multicultural nature and its over 300 spoken languages, also describing the city as a ‘linguistic dream’. Domas Raibys talked about the influence alternative comedy from the city had had on his work whilst also stressing the importance of putting all genres onto the European Literary Map, even if their work is not traditionally seen as literature or not of the same nature as famous 19th and 20th century writers. Lastly, Iryna Shuvalova spoke about London and the EUs’ multiculturism and tolerance as a ‘construct’, albeit in a positive way rather than it being negative as the word ‘construct’ is often implied to be.

In addition to the panel, there were small displays advertising the London Literary Map, as well as the broader "Lost & Found" project led by UCL, which the European Literary Map is a part of. There were also another mini-exhibition about as part of the "Lost & Found" project about: the many sounds of London, inequality in London and the size of the city.

The link to the European Literary Map can be found here.