Turn Up For The Books

Authors from Ukraine, Palestine, and Ghana feature at an event exploring writing from conflict zones at Durham Book Festival this October.

‘Writing from Conflict’ sees Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska, Ghanian novelist Peace Adzo Medie, and the Palestinian journalist and author, Ibtisam Azem, discuss their personal experiences of the devastation caused by war and the trauma of displacement.

This event, dedicated to showcasing recent refugee literature, has been produced by Turn Up for the Books Young Programmers aged 18-25, working with New Writing North and supported by the County Durham Community Foundation.

Turn Up for the Books is a project designed as part of Durham Book Festival to give young people an insight into careers within literature, the arts and events programming.

Turn Up for the Books said: “We are grateful for the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in areas of the publishing industry. Through collaborative brainstorming and group work, we developed a pertinent theme for this year's book festival and chose relevant authors with fresh ideas to discuss. Our team divided responsibilities - from crafting this press release to managing social media promotion - and collaborated to formulate thought-provoking questions for our speakers. We hope you will join us in spreading the word, helping to support both emerging voices in literature and young people aspiring to careers in publishing.”

Yeva Skalietska will discuss her memoir, You Don’t Know What War Is (Bloomsbury, 2023).

Yeva’s childhood was disrupted by the invasion of Kharkiv in February 2022, as she was forced to flee the country aged 12, with her grandmother. Seeking refuge in a damp basement, Yeva documented her ordeal. Yeva's journey from Kharkiv to Dublin is detailed with photos, messages, headlines, and maps, offering a profound glimpse into her harrowing experiences. Her story was featured on Channel 4 News.

The novelist Peace Adzo Medie is an award-winning scholar, longlisted for the Women’s Prize.

Her latest work, Nightbloom (OneWorld Publications, 2024) offers an exploration of childhood trauma and troubled friendship. This second novel from the author of His Only Wife exposes contemporary cultural conflicts. Her novel intertwines the lives of two women from the same shared history but set on divergent paths. Medie expertly portrays the transactional dynamics within extended families unsentimentally, highlighting the theme of gendered assault that marks the otherwise ordinary lives of the two women, who bury their traumas in the everyday.

Ibtisam Azem, Palestinian journalist, novelist, and senior correspondent for the Arabic Daily will discuss The Book of Disappearance (And Other Stories, 2024).

This evocative work, translated by Sinan Antoon, asks the profound question: What if all Palestinians vanished from their homeland overnight? The narrative follows Alaa, a young Palestinian, haunted by his grandmother’s displacement from Jaffa, and his friend Ariel, a liberal Zionist critical of the military occupation yet loyal to Israel. When Palestinians vanish overnight, Ariel's search for answers exposes the deep divides of the Palestinian issue.

This event is chaired by Professor Hannah Brown, from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Durham.

Writing From Conflict is at Durham’s Gala Theatre Studio, Saturday 12 October, 3:30-4:30pm, tickets £5 (or £4 livestream). To book CLICK HERE

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Header image: Ibitisam Azem