Poetry In The City

The Centenary Edition of Poetry Review | Liverpool Art and Culture Blog.

Now “One hundred years and counting…” – Poetry Review celebrates a century

Poetry Review celebrates its hundredth birthday with a special centenary edition. As editor Fiona Sampson says, it is “older than votes for women, or passenger flight”, in an era “before world wars, before antibiotics, before we split the atom or went to the moon.”

The Review is Britain’s oldest and most widely-read poetry publication. The Guardian calls it the national ‘magazine of record’. With new work from the country’s most important poets showcased alongside debutants, this issue continues and celebrates the Review’s central role in poetry over the past century, an era stretching from Rupert Brooke to Carol Ann Duffy.

‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue’ runs through this issue.

The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for Poetry Translation – shortlist announced!

A chance to travel beyond British poetry

A shortlist of eight titles has just been announced for the Popescu Prize for Poetry Translation 2009. Selecting the shortlist was not an easy task. Elaine Feinstein, who judged this year’s prize alongside Stephen Romer, explains:
“The quality of submissions was remarkably high: a guided tour of classic poetry from many languages, countries and periods alongside poets altogether unknown to us. We decided our main criterion had to be bringing a new experience to an English reader.”
Fellow judge Stephen Romer was particularly excited by the translations of two strong women poets from Latin America: Gabriela Mistral and Dulce María Loynaz, who he said were “… unjustly neglected, even unknown in English, and now brought to us in all their passionate and classical austerity”.
This year’s submissions have exceeded past years with a total of 85 books entered from 24 countries. The shortlisted books are:
• Mad Women by Gabriela Mistral, translated by Randall Couch.
Spanish / Chile. (University of Chicago Press).
• Unfinished Ode to Mud by Francis Ponge, translated by Beverley Bie Brahic.
French / France. (CB Editions).
• Against Heaven by Dulce María Loynaz, translated by James O’Connor.
Spanish / Cuba. (Carcanet).

• Poems by Oktay Rifat, translated by Ruth Christie and Richard McKane.
Turkish / Turkey. (Anvil).
• Courts of Air and Earth, various, translated by Trevor Joyce. Middle and Early-Modern Irish / Ireland. (Shearsman Books).
• Birdsong on the Seabed by Elena Shvarts, translated by Sasha Dugdale. Russian / Russia. (Bloodaxe).
• Rime by Dante Alighieri, translated by JG Nichols and Anthony Mortimer. Italian / Italy. (OneWorld Classics).
• Selected Poems by CP Cavafy, translated by Avi Sharon. Greek / Greece. (Penguin Classics).
Organised by the Poetry Society and sponsored by the Ratiu Family Foundation, the prize is given biennially to a collection of poetry translated into English from another European language.
The strong shortlist shows the rude health of the British translation scene and provides the opportunity for the curious reader to take a journey beyond their own poetic horizons. “The shortlist is a chance to journey both inwards and outwards, both in the present moment and in those great poets from the past who can still quicken something in us today,” says Stephen Romer.
You can read the shortlist at http://tiny.cc/kDraR
The winner will be announced on the 19 November 2009 at the Ratiu Foundation, Manchester Square, 18 Fitzhardinge Street,
London W1H 6EQ.

Liverpool Reads… The Savage

20,000 books to give-away!

The Savage, written David Almond and illustrated by Dave McKean has been chosen as the Liverpool Reads book for 2009. Liverpool Reads is a book bonanza! – a city-wide initiative, coordinated by The Reader Organisation at the University of Liverpool, encouraging the reading and sharing of one book each year.

The Savage is a uniquely presented, touching tale of grief, solace and hope from a master of contemporary storytelling and a visionary artist. David Almond, acclaimed author of Skellig – a children’s novel recently adapted into a major drama for Sky television – is a Whitbread Children’s award winner and was short-listed for the Carnegie Medal for The Fire-Eaters.

This year there are 20,000 copies of The Savage (published by Walker Books) to give away across the whole of Greater Merseyside. The Savage will be available for you to collect from 15th September from: all Merseyside libraries (across Halton, Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, St. Helens, Warrington and Wirral), Merseytravel bus stations and M2Go rail station shops, Waterstone’s (Bold Street and Liverpool ONE), News from Nowhere (Bold Street), Amorous Cat (Lark Lane), Starbucks (Bold Street) and all Liverpool Football Club Stores. Get there quick to get yours!

Director of The Reader Organisation, Jane Davis, says:

“The Savage may be the boldest choice of book we’ve made for Liverpool Reads. It’s a graphic novel, it’s a children’s book, but also a book for adults. It’s a book to share with your family – read it aloud, or to take it to work and talk it over with your workmates. We’re very excited about bringing 20,000 free copies of The Savage to Merseyside. Make sure one copy has your name on it.”

David Almond, author, says:

“I was really thrilled when I heard that The Savage had been chosen for Liverpool Reads. It’s a groundbreaking project – imaginative, creative, optimistic and wonderfully democratic – and it’s a great honour to be part of it. The Savage is in many ways my favourite of all my books, not least because it is my first collaboration with the visionary artist Dave McKean. I hope that the people of Liverpool enjoy it!”

Dave McKean, illustrator, says:

“It’s a wonderful initiative, encouraging people to read is always welcome, but getting everyone to read the same book so they can talk to each other about it and share their own thoughts on the story is particularly inspired.”

Throughout the Liverpool Reads project, we’ll be reading the book aloud in Get Into Reading groups, where people across Merseyside communities will be able to share their thoughts and feelings on The Savage together.

We’ll be reading it with older people, asking how the book makes us feel about young people. We’ll be reading it with young people, asking what the book makes us feel about fear, love and creativity.

There are plenty of ways you can get involved and find out more, please visit the website for more details: www.thereader.org.uk/liverpoolreads. An exhibition of Dave McKean’s original artwork from The Savage will be on show at the Bluecoat from 15th September – 31st October 2009. Books will be available until they’re all snapped up!

www.thereader.org.uk

via Liverpool Reads 2009 – 20,000 Books to Giveaway | Liverpool Art and Culture Blog.