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Footnote Press has launched with its first title, Map of Hope and Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece.
Released to mark World Refugee Day on 20th June and Refugee Week UK, the stories in the title have been collected by Helen Benedict, award-winning British-American professor of journalism at Columbia University, and Syrian writer and refugee Eyad Awwadawnan.
The book presents the stories, in their own words, of five refugees from the Middle East and Africa who fled violence or persecution, enduring long and dangerous journeys only to find themselves trapped in Europe’s most brutal refugee camps in Greece.
In partnership with Counterpoints Arts, a leading national organisation that supports and produces art by and about migrants and refugees, the campaign will see the authors take part in a series of curated discussions and activity, kicking off with an event with York Festival of Ideas on 17th June.
On 21st June, Benedict will appear alongside politician Rory Stewart at a Tortoise Media ThinkIn on the theme of global order, then on 23rd June at an event at Daunt Books in Hampstead chaired by international journalist and TV anchor Hala Gorani.
On 24th June, there will be a panel event at the Southbank Centre to showcase writers and artists whose work focuses on migration, displacement and driving social change through storytelling. Joining Benedict on the panel will be artist and novelist Ania Bas and Christy Lefteri, author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo (Zaffre).
Eyad, who is currently living as an asylum-seeker in Reykjavik, Iceland, will be joining some of the events via Zoom.
During Refugee Week, Footnote Press will also be showcasing a different refugee story from the book each day via its social media channels.
Footnote Press was announced last year in a “pioneering partnership” between Bonnier Books UK and founders Vidisha Biswas and Sujoy Roy.
Committed to spotlighting previously excluded or overlooked ways of thinking, being and organising, the press will use gamification and the latest digital marketing techniques to drive discoverability, drawing upon marketing director Roy’s background in video games.