Mapping the City: European Writers in London

To mark UCL's 2025 European Literary Map of London Writer in Residence, this special event featured this year’s selected Writer in Residence, Ireland’s Ciara Broderick, alongside three of the shortlisted writers, Nisrine Mbarki from the Netherlands, Domas Raibys from Lithuania and Iryna Shuvalova from Ukraine.

These four exceptional writers, for whom sense of place is integral to their writing, read from their work, which included short stories, poems, and stand-up comedy in six languages, and discussed their relationship with London as a city of literature and cultural exchange. Throughout the event, the writers and audience were invited to reflect on which languages and literatures have had the greatest impact on London’s literary life, how contemporary writers view their European literary forebears and if London still has the draw it once had for Europe’s writers.

The event also featured the Lost & Found Exhibition, which brings the digital European Literary Map of London to life. The European Literary Map of London highlights the impact of past writers on London  and invites living writers to contribute and reflect on London as a destination and place where people, languages, literatures and cultures meet and are transformed. For centuries, writers have come to London from across Europe, to live or visit. Their encounters with the city leave a mark: on the writer, on their work and often on London itself. 

The event was hosted and curated by journalist and presenter Rosie Goldsmith.

Co-organised by UCL European Institute, the European Literature Network, EUNIC London and the European Parliament Liaison Office in the UK, with the support of UCL Grand Challenges, the Lithuanian Culture Institute London, the Ukrainian Institute London, the Goethe-Institut London, the Irish Embassy London and the Dutch Embassy London. The event was hosted at Europe House.