Voices in Exile

Join us for a bilingual evening of poetry with Azita Ghahreman, one of Iran’s leading poets, with her translators Elhum Shakerifar and Maura Dooley, hosted by George Szirtes.

Born in Iran, Azita Ghahreman has lived in Sweden since 2006 and is a cherished voice in contemporary Persian literature. Her deeply personal poems cover a vast emotional territory, ranging from the delicately restrained to the shockingly direct. Her PEN Award-winning collection Negative of a Group Photograph runs the gamut of Azita’s experience: from her childhood in the Khorasan region of south-eastern Iran to her exile to Sweden, from Iran’s book-burning years and the war in Iraq to her unexpected encounters with love.

Azita, Elhum and Maura will give a poetry reading in Farsi and English, and then discuss poetry and translation across borders with fellow exiled poet, George Szirtes, using Azita’s essay ‘A City Called Exile’ as a jumping-off point. Translated by Alireza Abiz, this piece explores historical and contemporary writing in exile, and is published in Living in Language, the Poetry Translation Centre’s groundbreaking anthology of international reflections on poetry.

At this unique event, Elhum, Maura and George will join us virtually from Norwich, UK, where they will perform to a live audience at the National Centre for Writing. You’ll be able to watch Azita in person at the Dawit Izaak Library or join this Eurovision-esque showcase online. This exciting new format has been developed by the Poetry Translation Centre to bring audiences and artists together across borders, and to reduce poetry’s impact on the climate.

Where and when

• Friday 22 March, 19.30
• Dawit Isaak Library, Bergsgatan 20

This event is supported by Arts Council England.