March 21st 7.30
Reel Festival: A reception and readings at The Bakehouse for poets from Iraq and around Scotland.
This very special event features Iraqi poetry from Ghareeb Iskander, Sabreen Khadhim, Zahir Mousa, Awezan Nouri with new translations from John Glenday, Jen Hadfield, William Letford and Krystelle Bamford. Reel Festival will also present short readings for Iraq by your favourite poets from around Scotland including Liz Niven, Tom Pow, Chrys Salt, Hugh McMillan, Elspeth Brown, Donald Adamson, John Hudson, Alan McClure and Angus Macmillan. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear Iraqi poets, to engage, to ask questions and to enjoy the riches harvested from translation.
This event is the culmination of the Reel Iraq translation project, began in January 2013 when four Scotland-based poets met their Iraqi counterparts in Erbil, Kurdistan for the first time. They had been invited to present new work at the Erbil Literature Festival but, first, had to create new translations of each other’s work. So, before the festival, our Reel Festivals cohort retreated to the tranquility of the Safeen mountains and rolled up their sleeves. As none of the poets were fluent in the other language, it might be more fair to call these poems ‘versions’ – as each poet brought their own sensibilities to the work while maintaining a loyalty to the original poem as detailed by the poets themselves, live and in person. As such, the work we are presenting reveals not just the original poetic intention but the intimacy of understanding and empathy between poets with different cultures and traditions but surprisingly similar concerns.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity.
This is a free event. Places are very limited.
