Writers Lola Olufemi and Yara Rodriguez Fowler in conversation

Description

An event by the Ambivalent Archives research network.

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Authors

• Lola Olufemi author of ‘A FLY Girl’s Guide to University’ (Verve Poetry Press, 2019), ‘Feminism Interrupted’ (Pluto Press, 2020) and ‘Experiments in Imagining Otherwise’ (Hajar Press, 2021) 
• Yara Rodriguez Fowler, author of ‘Stubborn Archivist’ (Hatchette, 2019) and ‘there are more things’ (Hatchette, 2022)

Lola and Yara will be in conversation with Ambivalent Archives co-convenor Lauryn Anderson.

About the authors

Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and researcher from London. She is co-author of ‘A FLY Girl’s Guide to University’ (Verve Poetry Press, 2019), author of ‘Feminism Interrupted’ (Pluto Press, 2020) and ‘Experiments in Imagining Otherwise’ (Hajar Press, 2021). She is a member of ‘bare minimum’, an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective and the recipient of the 2020 Techne AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership between The Stuart Hall Foundation, CREAM and Westminster School of Arts. Her work focuses on the uses of the imagination in revolutionary cultural production; its relationship to futurity, political demands and ‘imaginative-revolutionary potential’. Her short story, ‘Red’ was shortlisted for the 2020 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing prize. She tweets at @lolaolufemi_ and is represented by Emma Paterson at Aitken Alexander Associates. Alongside writing, she facilitates reading groups and workshops, occasionally curates and is volunteer co-ordinator at the Feminist Library.

Yara Rodriguez Fowler grew up in South London. Her first novel, ‘Stubborn Archivist’, was published in 2019. It was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2020 and the Desmond Elliot Prize 2019. Yara was named one of The Observer’s ‘hottest-tipped’ debut novelists of 2019 and was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 2019. Yara’s second novel, ‘there are more things’, was published in April 2022 and nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022 and Goldsmiths Prize 2022. As a work in progress, ‘there are more things’ received the John C Lawrence Award from the Society of Authors and was shortlisted for the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award 2019. It was one of the Sunday Times, BBC Culture and New Statesman’s books of the Year. In 2023 Yara was named on Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in their once-a-decade list. Yara is also a part-time climate justice organiser.

For enquiries please contact the Research Networks Programme Manager.