CAVERSHAM’S award-winning bilingual Australian-Sudanese playwright and poet Afeif Ismail has been invited by the Write Local Play Global (WLPG) network to attend the Bright Generations Performing Arts Festival for Children and Young People in France later this month.

Drawing on his African-Arabic heritage, Mr Ismail will explore how refugee settlers in Australia can contribute to the art scene.

He moved to Caversham in 2012 seeking a place where both solitude and inspiration could coexist after growing up in Ehasahisa in central Sudan on the banks of the Nile River.

“From the moment I arrived, the natural beauty of Caversham and the City of Swan captivated me,” Mr Ismail said.

“The vast open spaces, the quiet rustling of eucalyptus trees, and the occasional symphony of birds at dawn formed a sanctuary that nurtured both my creativity and my longing for stillness.

“Yet, it was not just nature that drew me in - it was the seamless balance between peaceful retreat and easy access to the vibrant artistic and professional spaces that fuel my work and passions.”

He said living in Caversham had granted him the space to delve deeply into his creative writing, to lose himself in the worlds he shapes with words.

“I am a nocturnal creature, and here, the night is nothing short of enchanting. Under a sky heavy with stars, the air hums with an unseen energy, a quiet magic that stirs the imagination,” he said.

“In those hushed hours, when the world slows to a whisper, I find my muse waiting in the shadows, inviting me to listen, to dream, to contemplate to write.”

His work has been translated into multiple languages and widely published, including in Westerly and the Fremantle Press Anthology of Western Australian Poetry and Unlimited Future, with extracts of his works translated into German, French, Spanish and Swedish.

At the festival which will be held in Marseille, France, from March 23 - 29 Mr Ismail will participate in a working discussion on cultural translation and share his two decades of experience in ‘transcreation’, a collaborative process he developed with Dr Vivienne Glance to adapt his works for English-speaking audiences.

This approach preserves the cultural richness of the original language by artistically reworking literal translations in close collaboration with the text’s creator.

Bringing his extensive international festival, workshop, and forum experience, he said he looked forward to engaging in cross-cultural dialogue at this global gathering.

Mr Ismail hopes to forge new connections with directors and producers, aiming to increase productions of his work for young audiences, especially the children’s play Sun of the Nile, translated into French by Gisèle Joly.

ASSITEJ International president Sue Giles said the translation marked an incredible step in broadening the play's reach and its ability to connect with French-speaking audiences worldwide, with the festival being a brilliant way to launch the project.

Dr David Moody, co-director of the first production of Sun of the Nile in 2012 at Nexus Theatre WA, said the work was a magical, hilarious and moving play set on the banks of the great River Nile in Sudan.

The story is told by the river itself, and what follows is a thrilling, roaring story of a Chief's broken promise with the beautiful and just crocodile Queen of The Nile and the attempts to put this crime right.

Following the festival, Mr Ismail will launch his new poetry collection, The River is Another Name for Her, published in Arabic by Barcode Publishing House in Vienna, Berlin, Doha.

His accolades include the 2022 Ballina Region for Refugees Seeking Asylum Poetry Prize and the 2015 Naji Naaman’s Literary Prize (Lebanon).

He was also a recipient of the inaugural WA Theatre Development Initiative (WATDI) for his play Shrouds or the Dead, while his children’s play The African Magician was nominated for the 2011 Australian Writer’s Guild Award for Best Children’s Play.

His productions have been staged at The Blue Room Theatre, World Fringe Festival WA, and Barking Gecko Theatre WA, and he won the 2008 Australian National Playwrights’ Conference (ANPC) Bursary.