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Sufiyaan Salam in a green and white football top, driving a white toy car with a large gold bow on it, across the roof of an actual car, at night.
Cover of "Wimmy Road Boyz" by Sufiyaan Salam. The title is in large gothic red lettering, with a collage-style image of three young men riding in a white convertible at the bottom
Monika Radojevic in a green satin dress, sitting in front of a window in a darkened room containing large houseplants
Cover of "Stranger Land" by Monika Radojevic. Red top and lilac bottom, with a section torn through the middle containing a stylised close-up of a man kissing a woman on the foreheadhead

Sufiyaan Salam & Monika Radojevic

Manchester Museum

5:00 PM

Fiction

Tickets

Free but booking recommended

This event is now on sale to MLF Get Closer Members. Tickets go on general sale 10am Thursday 13 August. Memberships start at £25 per year - for full details click HERE.

Discover two fresh and uncompromising voices from Stormzy’s #Merky Books as Sufiyaan Salam and Monika Radojevic come together to discuss their acclaimed debut novels and the stories shaping a new generation of writers. Though radically different in style and setting, Wimmy Road Boyz and Strangerland are united by powerful themes of identity, belonging and connection in a rapidly changing world.

Set over one unforgettable night in Manchester, Sufiyaan’s exhilarating debut Wimmy Road Boyz follows three friends chasing freedom, adventure and escape, while grappling with masculinity, friendship and the pressures of expectation. Monika’s sweeping and emotionally rich novel Strangerland spans continents and decades, exploring migration, displacement and a love that transcends borders, languages and time.

Hosted by Ciaron Wilkinson, this special event brings together two winners of the #Merky Books New Writers’ prize and celebrates the power of inventive storytelling.

Co-presented with #Merky Books, Manchester Museum, Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.

Sufiyaan Salam is a writer, screenwriter and former animator from Blackburn. He was selected as one of the Observer’s Best Debut Novelists for 2026.

Monika Radojevic is a Brazilian-Montenegrin writer whose work includes the short story collection A Beautiful Lack of Consequences and the poetry collection Teeth in the Back of My Neck.

Venue Info

Manchester Museum
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL

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