Writing Workshop: with the87press - Camden Art Centre

Writing Workshop: Voice, Poetry and Really Being Alive with the87press

You are invited to join the87press editors Azad Ashim Sharma and Kashif Sharma-Patel for a writing workshop, tailored to encourage experiments in form and language, with an opportunity to be published by the87press through their online journal the Hythe and also to be published through a DIY produce zine in time for the87press’ Summer Poetry Festival at Camden Art Centre in June.

Participants will engage in a lively discussion about poetry, stimulated by the preparatory readings. Discussion will be followed by a collective writing exercise in response to Jesse Darling’s exhibition. Participants will receive feedback following a presentation of their drafts written during the workshop and then receive an opportunity to be published on the Hythe, the87press’ interdisciplinary e-journal. Following the submissions of your final pieces of work, the87press will produce a handmade Zine of this work with Camden Art Centre.

The participants should have an interest in writing but not necessarily be experienced, published authors. This workshop caters to all levels of experience and interest, aiming to provide an entry-point into thinking about the intersections between radical politics and experimental forms of writing.

We encourage writers from underrepresented and marginalised backgrounds (BAME, LGBTQ+, Neurodiverse, Low-Income) to register.

Please note that prior to the workshop, all participants will be required to read Keston Sutherland’s Essay Revolution and Really Being Alive, Kamau Braithwaite’sHistory of the Voice, and Notes Towards a Manifesto (Episode 1) by the87press

The Organisers Images

The Organisers

the87press is a South Asian, non-binary, and neurodiverse-led small press based in South London. Over the last three years, they’ve published 22 books, hosted over 30 poetry events, and published new writing online through their interdisciplinary e-journal theHythe. the87press publishes poetry, non-fiction, and fiction at the intersections of class, gender, sexuality, race, and neurodiversity.

Azad Ashim Sharma is based in South London. He is the director of the87press. His work includes Against the Frame (Barque Press, 2017), the recent collection of poetry and prose Ergastulum (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) and forthcoming Boiled Owls (forthcoming). A 5th anniversary edition of Against the Frame is planned for 2022 release by Broken Sleep Books and will feature new poems. Azad’s poetry has been published by Stand Magazine, the Asian American Writers Workshop, Gutter Magazine and Small Press Traffic. His prose has been published by SPAMzine, M.I.R. Online, Magma Magazine and is forthcoming in the Bloomsbury Companion to Contemporary Poetry in Ireland and the UK. Azad is currently a PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London and is producing a novel and a book of critical theory.

Kashif Sharma-Patel is a writer, poet and editor at the87press. They work at the interface of sonic, visual, and written cultures with particular reference to queer and racialised experimental work. Pamphlets include relief I willed it (Gong Farm, 2021), fragments on mutability (Earthbound Press, 2020), and Suburban Finesse co-authored with Ashwani Sharma and Azad Ashim Sharma (Sad Press, 2021). Kashif has also written music, art and literary criticism for Artforum, Wire Magazine, The Quietus, AQNB, and more.

Image: Jesse Darling, We tried, 2018. Installation view from Running Room, at Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlin, 2018. Photo: Frank Sperling. Image courtesy the Artist and Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlin.