Fill 2018: London As A Second Language

(This is a past event and is no longer running)

Three authors born outside of the UK, each with a different background, discuss what it means to become a Londoner. Being a foreigner, finding a home, embracing a different language along with the London state of mind – what does all this mean, especially if you’re a writer? The three authors are all included in Lucifer over London / London as a second language, a collection of short stories devised by Babel (Festival of Translation in Bellinzona, Switzerland) and published by Milan-based Humboldt Books.

Speakers:
Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese-born author. Her novel A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers was translated into 26 languages. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Costa Book Award, and has won the National Books Critics Circle Award.

Saleh Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian writer. He grew up in a refugee camp in Sudan, where he lost his hearing at the age of twelve. He migrated to Saudi Arabia and then to London some 20 years ago. His first collection of short stories, still unpublished in English, has been published in Italian translation under the title Lei è un altro paese (Edizioni Casagrande, 2018).

Vanni Bianconi is a Swiss-Italian author, poet and translator. He was awarded the Schiller Prize, the Marazza Prize for translation, and was shortlisted for the European Poet of Freedom Prize 2016. He is the founder and artistic director of Babel festival.
Chair: Olga Campofreda is a researcher in Italian Studies at University College London.