Freedom to Read, Freedom to Write, Freedom to Move – In partnership with English PEN
Tareq Baconi, Rémy Ngamije, Khaled Alesmael

Saturday 13 June 2026, 4.00pm – 5.00pm
Lakeside Theatre, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ

Join English PEN, in partnership with Essex Book Festival, for a conversation between writers on the relationships between literature, place, and movement.

Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist Tareq Baconi, Namibian author, editor, and publisher Rémy Ngamije, and Syria-born author and journalist Khaled Alesmael will appear in conversation with Turkish Cypriot writer and multidisciplinary artist from North London Tice Cin.

They will ask: how do experiences of home, migration, diaspora, and safety inform their writing? How do relationships to place – to land, to sea, to borders, to movement across them, to departures, to arrivals – shape creative identity and the literary landscape? And how do the freedoms to write and to read relate to the freedom to move – and to its restriction?

The event will include an audience Q&A. The speakers’ books will be available to buy and have signed.

Tickets: £8 / £5 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
Box Office: Eventbrite.co.uk

This event is part of The Writers Room

Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex are hosting an exciting 1-day programme of writers’ and writing events. Events include author talks and workshops, multi-genre panel discussions, and The Pitch (a 10-minute speed-date with an industry professional). Plus, an opportunity to engage with and explore the J.A. Baker Archive.

The Writers Room Day Pass

Five events for £25 / £15 concessions

1. What it takes to Make a Book – Eva Verde in conversation with Sabah Khan
2. Nature Memoir: What Next? – James Canton
3. Breaking the Mould – Holly Pester, Ben Pester and Rebecca Perry
4. Freedom to Write, Freedom to Read – English PEN
5. How to Become a Peregrine – The Cabinet of Living Cinema

Book a Writers Room Day Pass here

Khaled Alesmael

Khaled Alesmael was born in Syria and lives and writes in London. He began his career as a radio journalist and writer of children’s poetry for major Arabic broadcasters, before working as a journalist across the Arab world and Europe. His debut novel Selamlik (translated from the Arabic by Leri Price) is in development as an art house film; his second book, which queers the Arab Spring, bears witness to the lives of nine queer Arabs. An English translation is forthcoming from World Editions in 2027. khaledalesmael.com

Rémy Ngamije

Image credit: photo of Rémy Ngamije by Abantu Book Festival

Rémy Ngamije is a Rwandan-born Namibian author, editor, publisher, photographer, and literary educator. He is the author of The Eternal Audience Of One, his award-winning debut novel, and Only Stars Know The Meaning Of Space, his collection of award-winning fiction. In 2021, he won the Africa Regional Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Rémy is the founder and chairperson of Doek, an independent arts organisation in Namibia supporting the literary arts and the editor-in-chief of Doek! Literary Magazine, the country’s first and only literary magazine. remythequill.com

Tareq Baconi

Tareq Baconi is a Palestinian writer, scholar, and activist. He is the grandson of refugees from Jerusalem and Haifa and grew up between Amman and Beirut. His work has appeared in, among others, The New York Times and The Baffler, and he contributes essays to The New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books. He has also written for film; his award-winning BFI short One Like Him, a queer love story set in Jordan, screened in over thirty festivals. He is the author of What Now, Hamas Contained, and Fire in Every Direction. tareqbaconi.com

Tice Cin

Tice Cin is a Turkish Cypriot writer and interdisciplinary artist from North London. Her debut novel Keeping the House (2021) received a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for a British Book Award and the Desmond Elliot Prize among other accolades, with its mixtape having her named as one of Notion Magazine’s Ones to Watch. Her BBC Radio 4 documentary How Much Can You Say? (2024) won an Audio Production Award. Her practice currently traces outsiderness, cold roads and loss.