In partnership with Maryhill Integration Network.

As part of my PhD research I facilitated a series of six creative writing workshops with a group of women, many of whom had experience of the asylum system. I used creative writing as a way to trial and discuss potential research themes with the group, producing a series of collective poems in the process.

You can read more about the writing process, and the ways the poems and the experience of collaborating with the Oasis women’s group have informed my academic research here. I further expand on poetry and refugee history here, and my forthcoming entry on Collective Refugee Poetry will be published in Nov 2025 in the SAGE Encyclopaedia of Refugee Studies.

I edited and introduced the collection of group poems, alongside submissions by individual writers, in the book In Our Shoes, published in March 2022 to celebrate International Women’s Day.

In Our Shoes is a booklet of poetry featuring the voices of diverse women writers, as they explore the delights, frustrations and dreams of their everyday lives. These writers come from a range of backgrounds: most have experienced the pain of leaving their homelands, some contributed as an act of solidarity; reaching out to one another through bonds of sisterhood, despite their differences in language and culture.

This publication would not have been possible without the huge amount of time and energy put in by the creative team: Rose Filippi and Anastasia Maria Tariq of Maryhill Integration Network, illustrator Sara Abdelnasser and designer Garry Mac. Above all, I owe an immense debt of gratitude to all the women involved for their generosity, creativity and friendship. Thank you to Bisilda, Mary, Minaxi, Remzije, Rosa, Syeda, Gloria, Kidist and all the writers who preferred to remain anonymous.

Purchase the collection here, with all proceeds going to support Maryhill Integration Network’s ongoing activities.

Press coverage: ‘In Our Shoes’: Poetry collection showcases writing from refugee women, Anita Bhadani in The National, 24th March 2022. This article was runner up in the Features category of the Refugee Festival Scotland Media Awards 2022!