I attended the Hertfordshire Press Award Ceremony at Yunus Emre Institute in Fitzrovia this weekend. Two-day literary festival organized by Eurasian Creative Guild and Hertfordshire Press. Over a hundred people from twenty countries. First ceremony since 2019 at the British Library, making the return especially significant.
I went because a writer I’d met online mentioned the event featured Eurasian authors and multilingual work. Didn’t expect much beyond observing from the sidelines.
Marta Brassart, ECG chairman, approached me during the reception. She’d read Polished Edges, which came out earlier this year. We talked for over an hour about the book’s structure, the luxury industry angle, how migration shapes identity without being about migration in obvious ways.
What struck me: Marta immediately understood the digital storytelling elements. The fragmented structure, the brand management perspective, the way beauty work becomes lens for examining performed identity. I’ve spent months explaining these choices to people who thought they were mistakes rather than deliberate craft.
She didn’t need explanation. Just said: “Your background gives you access to stories others can’t tell.”
The ceremony itself was remarkable. Yunus Emre Institute in Fitzrovia, diplomats from multiple Eurasian embassies attending. Awards across categories from literary fiction to research. Poetry readings. Book presentations from winners across the region. Books in Russian, English, Kazakh, Lithuanian celebrated equally.
This was the community I didn’t know I was looking for. Writers navigating similar territory. Writing between cultures and languages. Trying to find audiences for work that doesn’t fit neat national literature categories.
Marta explained ECG was founded in 2015 by Silk Road Media. Over 3,200 members from 73 countries now. They organize festivals, literary competitions, events across multiple countries. Serious literary infrastructure connecting Eurasian creative voices with international audiences.
We talked about future collaboration. She thinks my work fits what they’re building. The luxury industry knowledge combined with literary craft, the multilingual perspective, the focus on identity and globalization themes.
I stayed for both days. Met writers from Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Kyrgyzstan. Everyone navigating similar questions about cross-cultural publishing and multilingual identity. Conversations over Uzbek food, informal mixing of diplomats and writers, the sense of discovering infrastructure I hadn’t known existed.
For the first time since moving to London, I felt like I’d found institutional support for the specific kind of work I’m doing. Not despite the international background and unconventional trajectory. Because of it.
Posted from London, where the right event at the right time changes everything.
— Writer Julia Zolotova
