BookFest Writer in Residence Samira Ahmed

Over the course of her residency, Samira led creative writing workshops at Ashcroft, Southfields, and Melrose schools. During these sessions, she advised students on how to integrate tension and conflict into their writing, providing praise and feedback on their work.

Samira is author of Internment and Love, Hate & Other Filters and was formerly an English teacher from in the United States before becoming a writer.

Samira’s time with the festival culminated on stage at the New Wimbledon Theatre with a Q&A delivered by author and journalist Sarah Shaffi, after which Samira awarded the certificates for this year’s Senior Young Writers Competition alongside publisher and children’s author, Eve Wersocki Morris, who was chair of the 2024 judging panel.

Samira discussed her new publication, This Book Won’t Burn, which centres on a character who pushes back against the threat of book banning. She stressed to the young audience how important it was that they uphold the freedom to read: “I’m really inspired by young people’s activism. […] Art is political. There’s no neutral in art. Libraries should be open to all sorts of patrons.”

She spoke about the dangers of book banning and the experience of having her own books challenged by school authorities, explaining that “[banned books] are an unfortunate export of the United States.”

Speaking about the benefits of the Writer in Residence project, festival director Fiona Razvi explained: “This is the first time that we have had a writer in residence and it has been a great success. We chose Samira because of the breadth of her work, both in terms of the topics that she covers and the fact that she has written novels as well as contributions to the Ms. Marvel series.”

“It’s incredible to be able to bring a person like Samira into the classroom. Many children have never met an author let alone had the chance to share their work with one. The sense of accomplishment they get from having their own stories read and valued by someone who writes books for a living is immensely important. That’s what Wimbledon BookFest strives to create. We hope to inspire young people to believe that they too can be authors, artists, or filmmakers.”

“As part of this project, we partnered with the organisation Book Clubs in Schools who facilitate peer-to-peer book clubs that pair year 7 pupils with a year 10 mentor. It’s vitally important that we get books like Samira’s into the hands of young people.”

Following the Young Writers event, Samira held a book signing as every attendee went home with a copy of This Book Won’t Burn.

Samira shared her thoughts on the benefits of hosting children’s literature events in spaces like the New Wimbledon Theatre: “I just love that we can invite young people into beautiful places like this. It feels so very democratic to allow everyone to use a gorgeous space like this and to make everyone, especially young people, feel they have a place here.”

Indeed, there was palpable excitement amongst the young crowd upon seeing the elaborate decoration within the theatre.

Describing how she hoped the Young Writer’s competition would inspire a new generation of writers, Samira added: “We hear all the time that the children are the future but I believe that the children are today. They are the present. They can meet the moment and they can lead the moment.”