In January 2022, the Griffin Poetry Prize launched Translation Talks, a series of conversations about translation and poetry where past longlisted, shortlisted, and winning authors are invited to discuss their craft.
KAREN LEEDER AND BRIAN HENRY
📅 Tuesday, November 19
🕧 12:30 PM ET / 5:30 PM GMT
💻 Online event – free and open to all
Register here.
Join two of the most accomplished translators of contemporary poetry, Karen Leeder and Brian Henry, for an in-depth discussion on the creative, aesthetic, and ethical dimensions of literary translation.
Come discover why Brian Henry wishes he had begun translating earlier, and how Karen Leeder urges translators to resist “smoothing and flattening the original.” Together, they will explore how translation is not merely an act of linguistic transfer but an artistic practice that reshapes writer, reader, and the possibilities of a language.
“Translating poetry teaches you as much about your own aesthetic as writing does. It uses and develops the same skills — and then some.” — Brian Henry
“Dare to be as wild, spiky, and transgressive as the original. Sometimes one has to go far to come back home.” — Karen Leeder
About the translators
Karen Leeder is a writer, scholar, and translator of contemporary German literature. She has received many accolades for her translations, including the Griffin Poetry Prize for Psyche Running by Durs Grünbein, the Stephen Spender Prize for Grünbein’s Childhood in the Diorama, the John Frederick Nims Memorial Prize for Translation for Grünbein’s The Doctrine of Photography, and the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for Grünbein’s Porcelain: Poem on the Downfall of My City. Her work has also been recognized with an American PEN/Heim award for her translation of Ulrike Almut Sandig’s Thick of It and a second Schlegel-Tieck Prize for All Under One Roof by Evelyn Schlag, among other honours. Leeder is the Schwarz-Taylor Chair of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. In 2023, she began a three-year Einstein Fellowship at the Free University of Berlin for her project AfterWords.
Brian Henry is the translator of Tomaž Šalamun’s Kiss the Eyes of Peace and Woods and Chalices, as well as Aleš Debeljak’s Smugglers,and six books by Aleš Šteger, most recently Burning Tongues: New and Selected Poems. Henry is also the author of Permanent State, ten other books of poetry, and the collection of essays, Things Are Completely Simple: Poetry and Translation. His work has received numerous honours, including two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, a Howard Foundation fellowship, and the Best Translated Book Award. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
Translation Talks will run for approximately one hour on Zoom and will be hosted by Griffin Poetry Prize editorial director Adriana Oniță and social media editor Medgine Mathurin.
You will receive the Zoom link via Eventbrite after registering. Autocaptioning will be available. If you have any questions, please contact Adriana at editorialdirector@griffinpoetryprize.com
Check out our past Translation Talks on YouTube.
amelia m. glaser and yuliya ilchuk
Translation is often seen as a solitary act, but for Amelia M. Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk, it’s a conversation—a process of deep listening, humility, negotiation, and shared discovery. In this episode of Translation Talks, they take us inside their unique collaborative practice, where they translate contemporary Ukrainian poets together, workshop their interpretations, and rethink literary history in the process. Listen to their conversation, which was recorded live on Zoom on February 19, 2024, below.
George McWhirter and Emilie Moorhouse
Canadian poet-translators George McWhirter and Emilie Moorhouse took part in Translation Talks on November 13, 2024, at 12:30pm ET. Listen to a podcast of the live event below.
George McWhirter is an Irish-Canadian writer, translator, and Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate. His translation of Homero Aridjis’ Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence (New Directions) won the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize, and his debut poetry collection, Catalan Poems, was a joint winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. A professor emeritus of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, McWhirter continues to write and translate full-time in Vancouver.
Emilie Moorhouse holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia. Raised in a French-speaking household in Toronto, she now lives in Montreal, where she works as a teacher, writer, translator, and environmentalist. Her translation of Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems of Joyce Mansour (City Lights Books Publishers) was longlisted for the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize.
D. M. Bradford and Donald Nicholson-Smith
Montreal-based poet-translator D. M. Bradford and renowned New York-based translator Donald Nicholson-Smith joined us for our sixth Translation Talks on February 26, 2024.
Darby Minott Bradford is a poet, translator, and sometimes curator. They are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (2021), which was a finalist for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize, and Bottom Rail on Top (2023). Bradford’s first translation, House Within a House (2023) by Nicholas Dawson, received the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award and John Glassco Translation Prize, and was shortlisted for the Governor General Literary Awards for French-to-English translation.
Donald Nicholson-Smith is a translator and freelance editor. Born in Manchester, England, he is a long-time resident of New York City. His en-face translation of Abdellatif Laâbi’s In Praise of Defeat, including self-selected poems from the Moroccan author and dissident’s long career, was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. Nicholson-Smith has been dubbed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in recognition of his services to French literature in translation.
MANOLIS ALIGIZAKIS AND SHARON DOLIN
We were thrilled to host Manolis Aligizakis in conversation with Sharon Dolin for our fifth Translation Talks. Listen to a podcast of the live event below.
Manolis Aligizakis is a Greek-Canadian poet, author, and publisher. His translation Tasos Livaditis – Poems, Volume II was longlisted for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Prize, and his translation George Seferis – Collected Poems was shortlisted for the Greek National Literary Awards.
Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry and two poetry books in translation from Catalan, Gemma Gorga’s Late to the House of Words (2021), shortlisted for the 2022 International Griffin Poetry Prize, and Book of Minutes (2019).
Valzhyna Mort and Erín Moure
Listen to a recording of our fourth Translation Talks with renowned poet-translators Valzhyna Mort and Erín Moure.
Valzhyna Mort is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Music for the Dead and Resurrected (FSG, 2020), winner of the 2021 International Griffin Poetry Prize and the UNT Rilke Prize, and named one of the best poetry books of 2020 by the New York Times. Born in Minsk, Belarus, Mort writes in English and Belarusian, and translates between English, Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish.
Erín Moure is a poet and poetry translator based in Montreal. She has published 18 books of poetry, a coauthored book of poetry, essays, articles on translation, a biopoetics and two memoirs, and is translator or co-translator of 26 books, mostly poetry, from French, Galician, Portunhol, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian (with Roman Ivashkiv) into English.
Ali Kinsella, Dzvinia Orlowsky, and Mira Rosenthal
Listen to our third iteration of Translation Talks, featuring Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky in conversation with Mira Rosenthal.
Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky were finalists for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize for Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow, translated from the Ukrainian written by Natalka Bilotserkivets (Lost Horse Press). Mira Rosenthal was a 2014 Griffin finalist for Colonies (Zephyr Press), translated from the Polish written by Tomasz Rózycki.
Ani Gjika and Dunya Mikhail
On March 10, 2022, we hosted our second Translation Talks, featuring Ani Gjika in conversation with Dunya Mikhail.
Ani Gjika was a finalist for the 2019 International Griffin Poetry Prize for her translation of Luljeta Lleshanaku‘s Negative Space (Bloodaxe Books/New Directions, 2018).
Dunya MIkhail was a finalist for the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize for The War Works Hard (New Directions, 2005), translated by Elizabeth Winslow. Listen to a podcast of the live Zoom event below.
Khaled Mattawa and Sarah Riggs
Our inaugural Translation Talks, featuring Khaled Mattawa in conversation with Sarah Riggs, took place on Zoom on January 27, 2022. It was moderated by Griffin Poetry Prize editorial director Adriana Oniță and social media editor Mirene Arsanios.
Khaled Mattawa was a finalist for the 2017 International Griffin Poetry Prize for his translation of Adonis: Selected Poems (Yale University Press, 2016).
Sarah Riggs was the 2020 International Griffin Poetry Prize winner for her translation of Etel Adnan’s Time (Nightboat Books, 2019). Listen to a podcast of the live Zoom event below.
Relive the magic of their engaging dialogue by tuning in to this podcast of the live Zoom event!