This session brings together two leading figures in publishing and curatorial practice to revisit the first two editions of Middle Ground. Departing from the forthcoming  publications Middle Ground: PREE. Caribbean Writing and Middle Ground: Hargeysa International Book Fair, the conversation reflects on the processes, collaborations, and ideas that shaped these editions, drawing on newly commissioned work as well as highlights from the festivals themselves.

In 2023, Middle Ground: PREE. Caribbean Writing explored Caribbean literatures through creole languages, oral traditions, and the politics of publishing. In 2024, Middle Ground: Hargeysa International Book Fair turned toward the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean as geographies of exchange shaped by trade, migration, and poetry as social philosophy. In both contexts, colonial legacies surface as a shared condition, pressing literature to remember and reimagine the past and its repercussions in the present.

Together, these reflections show how Middle Ground draws connections between different sites of literary production, considering how the persistence of colonial histories, the vitality of oral and creole traditions, and the movement of ideas across seas and borders continue to shape literary practice today. The discussion highlights Middle Ground as a living archive—constantly rewritten through the voices of its participants and the communities it engages with, and challenging literary hegemony in favour of a relational and situated understanding of literatures.