Mapping the City – European Writers in London

Ciara Broderick

This year’s UCL European Literary Map of London Writer in Residence. Ciara writes in Gaelic and English and is a poet and prose writer. Originally from east Co. Galway, but currently based in Dublin, her work explores the relationship between people and places and how landscape influences who we are and the actions we take. Her writing is defined by strong characterisation and evocative descriptions. She draws inspiration from rural communities and from the intersection of modernity and the traditional elements of Irish life. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and her first novel.

Nisrine Mbarki

Amsterdam-based multilingual versatile poet, feminist, writer, curator and literary translator. Her literary work covers different genres like poetry, short stories and theatre. As a literary translator she translates poetry from Arabic and English into Dutch. As a curator she works for different international literary festivals and is member of several literary juries and boards in the Netherlands. In January 2022 she published her poetry oeverloos (shoreless) debut for which she was nominated for the C.Buddingh price, a prize for the best Dutch debut of the year, and for the Herman De Konickprijs, a prize for the best Belgian and Dutch poetry collection of the year.

Domas Raibys

Writer, comedian and slam poet from Lithuania with a degree in train engineering. For the past ten years Domas has had many jobs while also pursuing his music, comedy and writing. He has self-published a short story collection, written five comedy specials, three plays and three radio shows. He is constantly experimenting with new mediums and ways to write his stories, and creative ways to promote them. In 2024 he wrote a one-man play and to promote it, ran a full marathon wearing wooden clogs. His dream is to find the right space for him in the world of literature and become a full-time writer.

Iryna Shuvalova

Poet, academic and translator from Kyiv, currently based in Oslo. Iryna has given a powerful voice to the experience of war in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, focusing on the point of view of the Ukrainians who find themselves lost in exile during this devastating period. As of early 2025, Shuvalova has authored five books of poetry in Ukrainian. Her latest book of poems, titled endsongs (кінечні пісні) and published in 2024, has been described as ‘a future classic’. In 2009, she co-edited the first anthology of queer writing in Ukraine. Her work has been translated into 25 languages and published internationally. She is currently working on her next book, I Don’t Speak This Language (Я не знаю цієї мови), conceived as a joint project with a China-based Ukrainian visual artist Julia Tveritina.

Rosie Goldsmith

Chair & Curator

Rosie was a BBC staff Senior Broadcast Journalist for twenty years. She travelled the world and presented several flagship BBC programmes. A passionate linguist, she has lived in Europe, Africa and the USA. Known also as a champion of international literature, translation and language learning, she promotes them whenever she can. Today she combines journalism with chairing and curating arts and literary events in the UK and across the world. Rosie collaborates with many major organisations, such as the British Academy, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Future Library Norway and ELITEuropean Literature Days Austria. She is Founder and Director of the European Literature Network, Editor-in-Chief of The Riveter magazine of European literature in translation, Artistic Director of the European Writers’ Festival and was Chair of the Judges of the EBRD International Literature Prize 2018-2020, a prize that she helped set up. Rosie is a regular interviewer at literature festivals across the UK and presenter of the Slightly Foxed podcast.