Is the Grass Greener? invites newcomers, long-term residents, and people of all backgrounds to craft original stories exploring migration, belonging, and identity. In this second series of the Here and There Creative Writing Workshop, you will learn new ways of exploring the complex space between ‘here’ (Northern Ireland) and ‘there’ (your place of origin), drawing on your own memories, experiences, and emotions as the foundation for reimagining the journey, from the familiar, to the unknown.

Dr Shahminee Selvakannu is a Malaysian writer based in Belfast. The Here and There workshop series is inspired by her doctoral thesis, Here and There & The Indian-Malaysian Diaspora in Contemporary Malaysian Fiction, which includes fourteen short stories about diasporic Indian-Malaysians navigating life between Northern Ireland (‘here’) and Malaysia (‘there’). Her short fiction have been featured in Northern Ireland’s literary journal The Honest Ulsterman, and anthologies such as the New Isles Press Anthology, Blackbird, and The Apiary. Her work has also appeared in print and online across Malaysia, the UK, Australia and Singapore.

Please note: Participants must be at least 18 years old.