Durre Shahwar is a writer and the Editor of Gathering, an essay anthology on nature, climate, the landscape featuring women of colour (forthcoming February 2024 with 404 Ink). She is currently working on her debut narrative non-fiction book, a sample of which was shortlisted and highly commended for the Morley Lit Prize 2022. Durre is repped by Nelle Andrew at Rachel Mills Literary Agency.
Durre was a Wasafiri Magazine Writer-in-Residence 2022-23 for which she delivered workshops on autofiction that were attended by writers from all over the world. In 20232-23 she was also Future Wales Fellowship Artist in, and undertook a year of creative research around climate change with Arts Council Wales and Natural Resources Wales. Durre is an AHRC-funded PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Cardiff University where she teaches and is an Associate Fellow of Higher Education.
Established in 2017, Durre is the co-founder of ‘Where I’m Coming From’, the first open mic collective for writers of colour in Wales. In the past, she has been a part of Literature Wales’ Writer Development Scheme, Hay Festival Writers at Work, BBC Writersroom Wales Development Programme, an Artist in Residence at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, and a Located Residency Artist with National Theatre Wales.
Durre’s work overlaps the boundaries between non-fiction, essay, autofiction, short story, and has been published widely, most prominently: Wasafiri, Know Your Place: Essays on the Working Class (Dead Ink Books), We Shall Fight Until We Win (404 Ink), Welsh (Plural) (Repeater Books), Homes for Heroes 100: Council Estate Memories (Bristol Festival of Ideas), Artes Mundi, Visual Verse. Her short play ‘On My Terms’ was performed at Edinburgh Fringe.
Durre is a regular panelist, performer, and speaker. Some past events have included: Ledbury Poetry Critics Scheme, Queen Mary University, Bradford Literature Festival, Liverpool Literary Festival, Hay Festival, Gentle Radical IMAGINATION FORUM, Bristol Festival of Future City, That’s What She Said (For Books’ Sake), International Women’s Day at Wales Millennium Centre, BBC Asian Network at Hay Festival, Green Man Festival (digital film screening), Migration Matters Festival (digital performance), CILIP Cymru Conference Keynote Speech, Redah.de Gallery, Berlin.
