Write Leicester

Join Leicester's own Manish Chauhan, author of Belgrave Road: A Love Story, and the city's first poet laureate Mr Shay in conversation with writer and publisher Farhana Shaikh as they explore place, identity, and what it means to write the city of Leicester.

Farhana Shaikh is a writer and publisher. She founded The Asian Writer in 2007 and later established Dahlia Books to publish regional and diverse voices. She is the project lead of the ACE-funded Middle Way Mentoring project with regional and national partners. In 2023, Farhana was longlisted for the Women’s Prize Discoveries award for her novel-in-progress which was supported through a DYCP grant. She is a recipient of the 2025 Writing East Midlands Mentorship. She teaches marketing at De Montfort University.

Originally from Leicester, Manish Chauhan works as a finance lawyer and currently lives in East London. His short story, 'Pieces', was shortlisted for the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award. His work has been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize and the Exeter Short Story Competition. Early excerpts of Belgrave Road were longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Award and shortlisted for the Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize. Published by Faber, Belgrave Road is his debut novel

Akshay Sharma, better known as Mr Shay, is a Leicester based Poet & Rapper. In September 2025, he was titled Leicester’s first Poet Laureate. Shay is influenced by social topics such as cultural heritage, immigration and identity. His poetry is a melting pot of intricate rap flows fused with Indian classical roots. Shay also works as a community arts practitioner, leading poetry, rap and music workshops with young people across the UK. Some of his poetry commissions include, Future Pathways (Thames Water), From Ratae to Leicester (Jewry Wall Museum) and Golden Mile (BBC Radio Leicester), which was nominated for an Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry 2022. He has performed on stages across the UK including, Soul Revolution Festival (West Midlands), The National Justice Museum (Nottingham), Brighton Fringe and Shambala Festival’s iconic Phantom Laundry Stage (Northamptonshire). Shay’s solo poetry show titled, Brown Paper, featured a collection of original poems narrating his family’s journey through immigration, his up-bringing and his relationship with his home city. He was the lead writer & poet for The Cosmopolitan Spectacular Band (part of Cosmopolitan Arts Festival) from 2016 – 2024.

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