‘Sanctuary: Places of Refuge, Sites of Memory, Grounds of Home’

In this lecture, taking a cue from Alfred Korzybski’s axiom, ‘The map is not the territory’, Marina will explore the interrelations between telling and dwelling in the making of home and consider the principles that establish such places of refuge and explore their potential today.

The ancient law of sanctuary granted fugitives the right to protection from the law; certain sites were sacred, and a sanctuary seeker would be safe there, able to seek asylum (from Greek, meaning not-to-be-seized/plundered). In antiquity such sites were temples or groves; in the Middle Ages, cathedrals, churches, and shrines offered shelter. No armed defence was needed, no walls, no ditches, no borders in a physical sense, no barbed wire. By common consensus the special, hallowed character of the place and the inviolability of the suppliant was recognised. Henry VIII abolished the law across his kingdom, but it had lasted over a thousand years, and vestiges remain. The practice and theory of sanctuary lives on especially in times of conflict (civil rights activists, Vietnam protestors and draft dodgers were protected by churches in the 60s); today, when millions are fleeing wars and the effects of climate change, Cities and Universities of Sanctuary have been established to support refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

The meanings of sanctuary range broadly – from the most sacred spot in a church where the high altar is placed – to an enclave such as a nature reserve (a wildlife sanctuary) or even a health spa, to a quiet safe retreat such as a library. Sanctuaries were physical sites hallowed by associations with the divine and heroic, sometimes guaranteed by a relic, by a myth or legend, or by a memory of a historic event that took place there. Stories shape relations to territory and place. The stories hallow the site and change its meaning and function: the effect is analogous to a children’s game, with a designated safe area, the ‘den’ or ‘home’. Can this form of magical thinking be reconfigured, in today’s hostile climate, to create broader, inclusive ideas about home and security? Can the underlying principles of sanctuary be retrieved and applied to the circumstances of contemporary asylum seekers? Can stories be told and retold in the new places of arrival to overcome a sense of alienation or at least confront home-sickness and exile and foster a sense of belonging?

Tickets (FREE) available here!

21 November, Finding the Words – Fundraiser for Freedom from Torture

Finding the Words celebrates the strength and resilience so often required when we try to express ourselves. For torture survivors and refugees in the UK, it is often a struggle to find the words to explain their journey and the trauma they have experienced. The readings will highlight life changes, hope, grief and new beginnings.

Enjoy the opportunity to mingle with leading lights from the literary world at our drinks reception with stars from the literary world. Fine wines from Farr Vintners will flow throughout the evening alongside light refreshments.

There will be signed copies of The Redstone Diary 2025, which includes an introduction by Marina. The theme is Moments of Happiness!

All funds raised on the night go directly to supporting survivors of torture in the UK.

Buy your tickets here

Torrents of Magpies, Spheres of Hope, essay for The New York Review of Books on Rikki Ducornet, September 19 2024 Issue

Marina has written a piece on Rikki Ducornet for The New York Review of Books most recent issue. Torrents of Magpies, Spheres of Hope looks over Ducornet’s vast body of writing over the decades, where she has adhered to a Surrealist commitment to dream knowledge as well as a belief in literature’s ability to confront all of experience. Read it online here.

Foreword, Granada: The Complete Trilogy, by Radwa Ashour (trans. Kay Heikkinen) (Cairo: Hoopoe Press, 2024)

Marina has written the foreword to the trilogy of novels, Granada: The Complete Trilogy, available in English in its entirety for the first time. All three novels—Granada, Maryama and The Departure—are brilliantly retranslated in this outstanding new paperback edition. The book is available here.