Project Partners Feedback

Mediating Modern Poetry ahs been proud to work with a large numebr of partners, but especially Modern Poetry in Translation (MPT); Poet in the City and the Southbank Centre, London.

Project partners offer feedback:

1. Southbank Centre

The Southbank was delighted to collaborate with Karen Leeder on Poetry International as part of her Knowledge Exchange Fellowship (2014). The Rilke programmes she curated were a great success, drawing audiences of 150 for a lunchtime reading (20th July 21014) and c.70 for a subsequent discussion. Karen brought us the idea, curated the events and helped throughout with organisation. She was energetic and helpful throughout the process. Through her we were able to access some wonderful poets; several of whom (Durs Grünbein, Sujata Bhat and Don Paterson) also went on to appear in other events at the Festival. The events were intellectually stimulating but friendly and accessible and the new work read by several of the poets was a great bonus. Informal feedback was very positive and highlighted especially the excitement of approaching a canonical author though a contemporary perspective. The introduction of the Rilke-themed translation masterclasses was a particularly successful aspect. These could have been sold out several times over and were a popular addition to the festival. The KE fellowship allowed the events to expand from what we could have presented on our own to include international writers, newly commissioned work and further events. We were very pleased in the event that Karen was able to fulfil the second part of her project by taking some of her events on the road with regional and international arts institutions.

Anna Selby Poetry International, Southbank Centre, London (2015)

 
2. Poet in the City

Over the last two years, we have worked with Karen Leeder across a number of high profile events seeking to create a wider audience for poetry in translation. The events have included sold-out performances at Keats House and RichMix to showcase contemporary German poetry, events on Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Shakespeare as part of a new cultural festival in Luton, and a large scale celebration of Paul Celan with the artist Edmund de Waal and Aurora Orchestra with an audience of 400 people. As an academic who can distill complex knowledge into engaging and dynamic communication for a public audience, Karen is a rare and invaluable asset to the public poetry world, and someone we want to continue to work with as much as possible. Poetry often suffers from a lack of accessible context, and working with speakers such as Karen, who deliver inspiring contextual talks is a real opportunity to challenge barriers to poetry and create new audiences for the art form.

Isobel Colchester, CEO of Poet in the City (2016)

 
 
3. Modern Poetry in Translation
 
A selection of poems in Karen’s translation by the contemporary German poet Ulrike Almut Sandig were first published in MPT in 2014 and then later republished in our fiftieth anniversary ‘best of MPT’ anthology Centres of Cataclysm (Bloodaxe, 2016). Karen and Ulrike participated in a study day to celebrate fifty years of the magazine, both writing and performing on the subject of Cold War Europe, and the writers in the original issue in 1965 and also carrying out a poetry workshop. Feedback from the workshop was extremely positive.
I am currently working with Karen on a translation duel, in which she and a fellow German translator will discuss their translations of the same poem. This duel will take place at the Winchester Poetry Festival, an important small poetry festival in the UK in October 2016, and the aim is to demonstrate to a wide non-linguist audience the power and importance of translators in bringing world poetry to English. We will produce an education pack for this event which will be distributed on National Poetry Day 2016 to schools and colleges in the UK. 
Karen is a brilliant and positive voice for the power of translation. Her enthusiasm for contemporary poetry is matched only by her expertise and understanding of the field. She speaks and writes in such a clear, open and accessible way and her openness and her warmth make her a compelling speaker. The readings she has done in partnership with MPT have been thrilling and memorable occasions. She is a real joy to work with. 
However most importantly the quality of Karen’s translations is extraordinary. Her translations are sensitive, resonant and alive to the potential of English-language poetry. Her versions of Sandig’s work are radical, living poems in their own right. I was particularly proud to publish this ‘collaboration’ between Karen and Ulrike as the translations seemed to have been made absolutely in the spirit of dialogue. It is not by chance that Sandig has been ‘accepted’ by the UK poetry scene and has done a number of tours and gigs in the UK. Karen’s inspired advocacy has allowed her to bridge the languages and cultures in a way that few contemporary poets can do.
 
Sasha Dugdale, poet, Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation (2016)