Mediating Modern Poetry
Mediating Modern Poetry: reception and dialogue
MEDIATING MODERN POETRY: RECEPTION AND DIALOGUE
Professor Karen Leeder will be working with the Southbank Centre, London to curate a series of events exploring aspects of modern European poetry and its transmission. A first focus is a specially curated evening exploring the reception of Rainer Maria Rilke for the biannual festival ‘Poetry International’ (July 2014). Rilke’s influence on modern culture is inescapable and has inspired poets from Auden to Zwetayava along with filmmakers, thinkers, composers and artists. An evening will be given over to events ‘After Rilke’ featuring major English-language and German poets and their wide-ranging responses to the poet and his life (translations, versions, new poems). This will feed into Leeder’s own project on ‘An English Rilke’, which teases out what makes an author travel like this and what happens to them en route (tackling a wide range of issues along the way). Thereafter a series of further events in Autumn 2014 will explore aspects of contemporary poetry in dialogue with major English and European poets.
Contact:
Karen Leeder
POETRY READING by Michael Krüger and Paul Muldoon,Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 6:00pm
Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 6:00pm
The Queens College
Shulman Auditorium
A very special opportunity to meet two masters of the craft for a poetry reading and discussion of poetry, politics and translation
Michael Krüger and Paul Muldoon
Saturday January 27th (Sat. 2nd week), 6pm.
Shulman Auditorium, The Queen’s College, Oxford, OX1 4AW
Entrance is free but places are limited so those interested should reserve a place by emailing karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
MICHAEL KRÜGER AND PAUL MULDOON POETRY READING Supported by Mediating Modern Poetry. Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 6:00pm
Saturday, January 27, 2018 - 6:00pm
The Queen's College, Oxford, OX1 4AW
Shulman Auditorium
A very special opportunity to meet two masters of the craft for a poetry reading and discussion of poetry, politics and translation with Michael Krüger and Paul Muldoon.
Entrance is free but places are limited so those interested should reserve a place by emailing karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk
Supported by Mediating Modern Poetry; Faculty of English and Faculty of Modern Languages.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
DEAD AS A DODO? FOUR TALES OF WHY AND HOW LITERATURE SAVES LIVES Ulrike Draesner gives the first Eugene Ludwig Lecture Friday, February 24, 2017 - 5:00pm
Friday, February 24, 2017 - 5:00pm
New College, Oxford
McGregor-Matthews Room
Ulrike Draesner will present the first Eugene Ludwig Lecture associated with her time as Writer in Residence and Visiting Fellow in New College and TORCH.
Tickets are free, but please sign up by contacting karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk
In association with Fractured Stories? Narratives of Migration. Roundtable at Ertegun House, University of Oxford, 10am, Saturday 25 February 2017 with Ulrike Draesner (writer; Visiting Fellow, TORCH) Andreas Kossert (Fellow at the Foundation for Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, Berlin); Katie Brown (Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies, Bristol); Mette Louise Berg (Senior Lecturer, Social Sciences, UCL); Geetha Reddy (Psychology, LSE).
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
THE POETRY SOCIETY ANNUAL LECTURE WITH JAN WAGNER Lecture on the exchange of poetic ideas across borders by the German poet and translator Monday, February 20, 2017 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Monday, February 20, 2017 -
7:00pm to 8:30pm
The Queen's College, High Street, Oxford
Shulman Auditorium
The next Annual Poetry Society Lecture will be presented in Oxford in partnership with New College Oxford, and will be given by the German poet and translator, Jan Wagner.
The Shedding of Skins and Schemes: a voice of one’s own and the voices of others
Jan Wagner is the outstanding German poet of his generation. His lecture, delivered in English, is on influence and the exchange of poetic ideas across borders; of the teachers poets must find for themselves (and then distance themselves from again). Interspersed with readings of some of his own poems, Wagner’s lecture draws on poets such as Rimbaud, Heym and Brecht, Popa, Pound and Hughes, and the poet-translators who have carried their work between cultures. Wagner’s collection Self-Portrait with a Swarm of Bees (Arc), translated by Iain Galbraith, won the Popescu European Poetry Translation Prize 2015. He has translated into German poets including Armitage, MacNeice, Shapcott, Simic and Sweeney.
Tickets are free. However to be sure of a place please book at poetrysociety.org.uk/lecture or tel. 020 7420 9880.
**Please note the venue for this event has changed to The Queen's College, Oxford to accomodate high demand.**
Comparative Criticism and Translation
Contact name:
Oliver Fox
Contact email:
marketing@poetrysociety.org.uk
Audience:
Open to all
THE DREAMED ONES PREVIEW AND Q&A With Director Ruth Beckermann Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Tuesday, November 22, 2016 -
6:30pm to 8:30pm
King’s College London, Strand Campus, London, WC2R 2LS
Preview Screenings of The Dreamed Ones and Q&As with Director Ruth Beckermann, Oxford and London
21 Nov (4.00-6.30pm), University of Oxford, Taylor Institution Main Hall
22 Nov (6.30-8.30pm), King’s College London, Strand Campus (room TBC)
The Dreamed Ones (Die Geträumten, Ruth Beckermann 2016: 89') centres on two actors, their emotions and conversations while recording the dramatic correspondence of the poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. Following the preview screening, renowned Austrian filmmaker, Ruth Beckermann, will discuss her award-winning film (Best Austrian Feature Film, Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film; Prix international de la Scam, Cinéma du Réel; Best Film of the International Competition, Bildrausch Filmfest Basel).
The discussion in Oxford, chaired by Professor Karen Leeder, will be held in German, the discussion at King’s College London, chaired by Dr Áine McMurtry, will be in English.
Places in Oxford are on a first come, first served basis (no booking required).
Eventbrite booking information for the screening at King's College London is available here.
The events are free to attend, and are generously supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum, King's College London, New College Oxford, the German Screen Studies Network, the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research, the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture, and Contemporary Films.
Further information about the events can be found here: http://germanscreenstudies.eu/events/
Contact for Oxford: Dr Tobias Heinrich (tobias.heinrich@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk)
Contact for London: Dr Eleanor Halsall (GSSN coordinator, eleanor.halsall@kcl.ac.uk)/ Dr Katya Krylova (katya.krylova@cantab.net)
Contact name:
Eleanor Halsall
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
THE DREAMED ONES PREVIEW AND Q&A With Director Ruth Beckermann Monday, November 21, 2016 - 4:00pm to 6:30pm
4:00pm to 6:30pm
Taylor Institute, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3NA
Main Hall
Preview Screenings of The Dreamed Ones and Q&As with Director Ruth Beckermann, Oxford and London
21 Nov (4.00-6.30pm), University of Oxford, Taylor Institution Main Hall
22 Nov (6.30-8.30pm), King’s College London, Strand Campus (room TBC)
The Dreamed Ones (Die Geträumten, Ruth Beckermann 2016: 89') centres on two actors, their emotions and conversations while recording the dramatic correspondence of the poets Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan. Following the preview screening, renowned Austrian filmmaker, Ruth Beckermann, will discuss her award-winning film (Best Austrian Feature Film, Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film; Prix international de la Scam, Cinéma du Réel; Best Film of the International Competition, Bildrausch Filmfest Basel).
The discussion in Oxford, chaired by Professor Karen Leeder, will be held in German, the discussion at King’s College London, chaired by Dr Áine McMurtry, will be in English.
Places in Oxford are on a first come, first served basis (no booking required).
Eventbrite booking information for the screening at King's College London is available here.
The events are free to attend, and are generously supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum, King's College London, New College Oxford, the German Screen Studies Network, the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research, the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture, and Contemporary Films.
Further information about the events can be found here: http://germanscreenstudies.eu/events/
Contact for Oxford: Dr Tobias Heinrich (tobias.heinrich@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk)
Contact for London: Dr Eleanor Halsall (GSSN coordinator, eleanor.halsall@kcl.ac.uk)/ Dr Katya Krylova (katya.krylova@cantab.net)
Contact name:
Tobias Heinrich
Contact email:
tobias.heinrich@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
Audience:
Open to all
ULRIKE DRAESNER Join us for the launch of her re-writing of the Nibelungenlied Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 5:30pm
Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 5:30pm
New College, Holywell St, Oxford, OX1 3BN
Lecture Room 6
Mediating Modern Poetry is pleased to host the launch of Ulrike Draesner's new version of the Nibelungenlied: Nibelungen. Heimsuchung (Reclam 2016).
Ulrike Draesner will discuss her inspirations for the new work, the extraordinary illustrations by Karl Otto Czeschka (this is Reclam as you've never seen it before!) and read from the work. She will then be joined by Professor Almut Suerbaum (Somerville) to discuss the use of the medieval materials and the importance of the Middle High German epic.
https://www.reclam.de/special/draesner_nibelungen
Wine and snacks will be served. Open to non-German speakers
Please RSVP to karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk for catering.
Mediaiting Modern Poetry: mmp.mml.ox.ac.uk
TRANSLATIONS OF ULRIKE ALMUT SANDIG POETRY SHORTLISTED FOR PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE Six books by contemporary European writers which have not yet been translated into English will be pitched live Thursday, June 9, 2016 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm
Thursday, June 9, 2016 -
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Free Word Centre,60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA
Karen leeder's translations of Ulrike Almut Sandig have been shortlisted for the PEN Translation Pitch on June 9th 2016 at the Free Word Centre.
These translations were done as part of the KE Fellowship Mediating Modern Poetry at TORCH which went on tour to London, Lancaster, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Oxford in 2014
See details of the event here.
See the shortlist and read extracts of PEN presents translation pitches here.
Connect to the European Literature Festival 2016 for news of the programme 27 April- 9 June 2016
http://www.europeanliteraturefestival.org.uk/
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
ULRIKE ALMUT SANDIG & ULRIKE DRAESNER A Reading in German from recent work and discussion Friday, May 13, 2016 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Friday, May 13, 2016 -
5:00pm to 6:30pm
The Taylor Institute
Room 2
Ulrike Draesner and Ulrike Almut Sandig will read from new and recent work.
There will be a wine reception with readings in German. All welcome!
This will be followed by the next day (Saturday 14th May) Ulrike Almut Sandig and Karen Leeder will be part of the line up for MPT's study day at Queen's College, Oxford to mark its fiftieth anniversary.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
biskupdraesner Portait LEAPING FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD An international symposium on the work of Ulrike Draesner Monday, April 11, 2016 - 6:00pm to 7:15pm
6:00pm to 7:15pm
New College
Long Room
Please join us for a bilingual public reading and champagne reception with German writer Ulrike Draesner(http://www.draesner.de/) and prize-winning translators Iain Galbraith and Lyn Marven.
This is part of the British Academy-sponsored symposium on Draesner and her work to be held in New College 11-12 April, and emerging writers' translation workshop on 13 April. This is also part of Draesner's year in Oxford as Visiting Fellow at New College and writer in residence in New College and TORCH
Further details of this event can be found here: http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/draesner-symposium/
Audience:
Open to all
PAUL CELAN: SOUNDS AND VISIONS A unique evening of poetry, music and art in celebration of the life and work Paul Celan. Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 8:00pm
Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 8:00pm
Kings Place, 90 York Way, London
Hall One
Poet in the City, in collaboration with Aurora Orchestra, present a unique evening of poetry, music and art, in celebration of the life and work of Paul Celan. Widely recognised as one of the most important European poets after 1945, Celan’s work touches powerfully on the personal and collective human experience of trauma and loss. He remains an important inspiration for artists across disciplines. Members of Aurora present music illuminating both the artistic background to and wider impact of Celan's writing, including Psalm, a new work by Martin Suckling. Presenting live music including Webern, Berg and Birtwistle, art, poetry and discussion, we explore a fascinating range of perspectives on one of the world’s great poetic voices, the ‘pure poet of the intoxicating line’.
Booking free - register here.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
PAUL CELAN: THE ROMANIAN CONTEXT A special event with Edmund de Waal and Grete Tartler. Part of the Celan: Sounds and Visions series. Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 6:30pm
Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 6:30pm
90 York Way, London
St Pancras Room
A special event with Edmund de Waal and Grete Tartler. Part of Celan: sounds and visions.
Supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute
Taking place from 6.30pm in the St Pancras Room at Kings Place, this event features Edmund de Waal in conversation with acclaimed Romanian poet Grete Tartler, exploring the story of Celan's Romanian roots and his enduring international influence.
Edmund de Waal will be signing copies of his highly acclaimed new publication The White Road, followed by a wine reception. This free event is a wonderful start to an evening in celebration of Paul Celan, and will provide a unique opportunity to discover more about this fascinating poet.
Presented by Poet in the City and Aurora Orchestra
Register at Eventbrite. Join us after the event for Celan: sounds and visions at 8pm in Hall One; a performance in collaboration with Aurora Orchestra which celebrates the influence of Celan through art and music.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
POETIC BATTLEFIELDS: THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN POETRY The two-part performance Poetic Battlefields brings together historical and contemporary perspectives on the poetry of the First World War Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 5:30pm
Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 5:30pm
St Hilda’s College, Oxford, Cowley Pl, Oxford OX4 1DY
Jacqueline du Pré Music Building
The two-part performance Poetic Battlefields brings together historical and contemporary perspectives on the poetry of the First World War.
In Catastrophe/Forms four speakers enact over 30 poems (1911-1919) from 14 different countries, depicting the turn from preliminary war fever to the shock at the effects of industrialised mass war. The multimedia performance is directed by Johann Reißer and spoken by Iwona Mickiewicz, Carolin Bohn, Julia Trompeter, and Xaver Römer.
The duo-performance Kling Sichten, arranged and realised by Trompeter and Römer, illuminates poems by the German poet Thomas Kling (1957-2005) that concern the aftermath and the remembrance of WWI.
Mixed-language performance (with translations). Entrance free. Booking essential at www.eventbrite.com
Register for your free ticket at
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetic-battlefields-the-first-world-war-in-p...
Click here to view the event poster.
Supported by the Goethe-Institut London; the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford; St Hilda’s College, Oxford; New College, Oxford; the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
MICHAEL KRÜGER IN CONVERSATION WITH ROBYN MARSACK Michael Krüger reads from his book of poetry 'Last day of the year' and discusses his work with Robyn Marsack Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - 6:30pm
Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - 6:30pm
Goethe Institut Glasgow Goethe-Institut, 3 Park Circus, Glasgow, G3 6AX
The Goethe Institut are hosting a poetry reading with Michael Krüger. Michael Krüger, one of the most prestigious German-language authors and President of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, reads from his book of poetry 'Last Day of the Year' and discusses his work with Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library.
The event is part of Luminate, Scotland's Creative Aging Festival and is presented in association with the Scottish Poetry Library and Luminate.(Free but booking essential)
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
POETRY READING: MICHAEL KRÜGER 'Last Day of the Year' Selected Poems Monday, October 26, 2015 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Goethe Institut, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, SW7 2PH
Bibliothek
The Goethe Institut are hosting a poetry reading with Michael Krüger. Michael Krüger, one of the most prestigious German-language authors and President of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, reads from his book of poetry Last Day of the Year and discusses his work with his translator, Karen Leeder.
Free but booking essential.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
READING POETRY FESTIVAL Karen Leeder takes part in panel discussion Saturday, October 24, 2015 - 12:15pm to 12:45pm
Saturday, October 24, 2015 -
12:15pm to 12:45pm
Building 22, London Road Campus, University of Reading
Lecture Theatre
Karen Leeder will be reading and taking part in a panel on translation and poetry with David Colmer and James Womack at Reading Poetry Festival. Tickets available at
http://readingpoetryfestival.org/
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
VOLKER BRAUN READING The German poet will give a special reading of old and new work and answer questions with David Constantine and Karen Leeder Monday, May 18, 2015 - 6:00pm
Monday, May 18, 2015 - 6:00pm
Holywell Music Room, Holywell Street, OX1 3BN
Twenty-five years since the fall of the Berlin Wall the poet Volker Braun will give a special reading of old and new work and answer questions with David Constantine and Karen Leeder. He will introduce Rubble Flora: Selected Poems (2014), the first collection of his poetry in English and covering poems over 50 years. Introduced by Ian Wallace.
What I never owned, they’ve taken even this.
What I never lived, I know I’ll always miss.
It was hope that came before this fall,
My property, you flog from stall to stall.
When will I say mine again and mean of all.
From ‘Property’ (1990)
Everyone welcome; contact Karen.Leeder@new.ox.ac.uk.
Photograph © Peter Peitsch
Audience:
Open to all
Media:
DON'T MIND THE GAP An evening of British and German literature Saturday, May 16, 2015 - 7:30pm
Saturday, May 16, 2015 - 7:30pm
King's Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG
A vibrant mixture of poetry and prose: The German Academy for Language and Literature, visiting London this year, is delighted to invite you to an evening with some of the best poets and novelists from the UK and from Germany, each a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature or of the German Academy. Join us for what promises to be an entertaining evening of lyric(s) and words with Simon Armitage, Marcel Beyer, Alfred Brendel, Durs Grünbein, A. L. Kennedy, Terézia Mora, Don Paterson and others.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
PERSPECTIVES ON POETRY In a meeting of minds across the English/German linguistic divide, celebrated poets Don Paterson and Durs Grünbein draw on a common understanding of poetry, joined by translator Karen Leeder Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - 7:00pm
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 - 7:00pm
Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London NW3 2RR
Poet in the City presents the second event in the Contemporary German Voices series, bringing together two leading poets from Germany and the UK.
Don Paterson and Durs Grünbein draw on a common understanding of poetry: its classical forms and traditions, its larger ambitions. Here, they are joined by translator Karen Leeder, in a meeting of minds across the English/German linguistic divide - a unique opportunity to experience live poetry in conversation.
This event is free to attend, but places should be booked in advance via: perspectivesonpoetry2.eventbrite.co.uk
Durs Grünbein is an award winning German poet. He has published numerous collections of poetry and essays in German, and has translated a variety of authors, including John Ashbery, Samuel Beckett, Henri Michaux, and classic texts from Aeschylus. His poems have been translated into English by Michael Hofmann and published in Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems (2005).
A poet who is frequently described as the best to emerge in Germany since the fall of the Berlin Wall, ‘Durs Grünbein's poems read as if the forces of history pressing in on the present drove them into this world.’ New York Times
Don Paterson is an award winning UK poet. His is author of several award winning poetry collections including Rain (Faber) which won the Forward Prize 2009. He has been awarded T S Eliot Prize on two occasions. He received the OBE in 2008 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2010.
‘Dynamic, interrogative and unsettling; crafted yet open-ended; fiercely smart, savage and stirring – from the get-go, Don Paterson's poetry has been essential reading.’ The Guardian
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
ULRIKE ALMUT SANDIG READING The acclaimed German poet gives a bilingual performance of poetry and prose including specially commissioned new work Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - 5:00pm
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - 5:00pm
Radcliffe Humanities, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford
Lecture Theatre
This will be a bilingual performance of poetry and prose including specially commissioned new work and translations, sound art, film and a discussion of her new volume Buch gegen das Verschwinden (2015), followed by a reception. All welcome!
Born in Großenhain in the former East Germany in 1979, Ulrike Almut Sandig is one of the most acclaimed German writers of her generation and has received six major literature awards since the publication of her first poetry collection Zunder in 2005. Since her debut she has published two further collections including Dickicht (2011) and the prose volume Flamingos (2010) and Buch gegen das Verschwinden (2015), as well as a CD of ‘poetry for lovers of pop music’ (2012)
See a portrait of one of the most original and versatile of the new generation of German authors in her own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doi1ZoszyUo#sthash.8TuA34js.dpuf
Contact: karen.leeder@new.ox.ac.uk
For further information see: Mediating Modern Poetry: http://mmp.mml.ox.ac.uk/
Audience:
Open to all
PERSPECTIVES ON POETRY: ULRIKE ALMUT SANDIG PERFORMS IN LONDON Poet in the City and Mediating Modern Poetry presents an evening of new perspectives on poetry. Sunday, February 22, 2015 - 7:30pm
Sunday, February 22, 2015 - 7:30pm
Richmix, 35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road London, E1 6LA
Featuring acclaimed German poet Ulrike Sandig, this is poetry experienced through the senses. Sandig’s poems have inspired stunning artistic responses in both film and sound art, creating a new perspective on language and its possibilities. Here, she is joined in conversation by the artist Sebastian Reuter and her UK translator Karen Leeder.
Expect live poetry, film projections and the premiere of brand new sound art, created by Ulrike Sandig and Sebastian Reuter especially for this event. Thereafter Sandig will appear in venues across the UK: Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Lancaster and Oxford. Organised by Mediating Modern Poetry and Poet in the City. To see more about the event and books tickets click here.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
REQUIEM: THE GREAT WAR A launch of Agenda magazine's November issue Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - 5:30pm
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - 5:30pm
New College, University of Oxford
Ante-Chapel
The launch of poetry magazine Agenda's November issue Requiem: The Great War. Readings by poet Michael Longley and others. There will be a reception after the discussion in Lecture Room 6.
New College is where Agenda began, edited by William Cookson in 1959, and the Ante-Chapel is one of the few places where the German dead of the First World War are remembered alongside British soldiers.
Contact name:
Karen Leeder
Contact email:
Audience:
Open to all
VOLKER BRAUN: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - 5:00pm
Tuesday, November 11, 2014 - 5:00pm
Radcliffe Humanities, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Woodstock Road, Oxford
Seminar Room
Volker Braun will read and answer questions with David Constantine and Karen Leeder.
This will be followed by the launch of Volker Braun, Rubble Flora: Selected Poems (New York, London, Calcutta, Seagull Books, 2014), the first collection of his poetry in English and covering poems over 50 years.
Everyone welcome; seating is, however, limited and available on a first come first served basis. Contact Karen.Leeder@new.ox.ac.uk
Supported by New College, Oxford, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and TORCH
Audience:
Open to all
TRANSLATIONS OF MÜLLER Karen Leeder and Susan Gillespie present and discuss new translations of Heiner Müller Friday, October 24, 2014 (All day)
Friday, October 24, 2014 (All day)
Karen Leeder and Susan Gillespie present and discuss new translations of Heiner Müller at the "Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus".
Audience:
Open to all
TRANSLATION DUEL Part of the Cheltenham Literary festival 2014 Friday, October 3, 2014 (All day)
Friday, October 3, 2014 (All day)
Cheltenham Literary Festival
Two experienced translators go head to head to mark the fifth Harvill Secker Young Translators Prize as part of the Cheltenham Literary festival 2014: judges Shaun Whiteside, Sally-Ann Spenser and Karen Leeder discuss the minutiae of translating young German author Julia Franck to an audience of 70 keen festival goers.
Audience:
Open to all
RILKE TRANSLATION WORKSHOPS Rilke Translation Masterclass: French with Patrick McGuinness 12.30pm Rilke translation Masterclass: German with Karen Leeder 3.30pm Monday, July 21, 2014 - 12:30pm
Monday, July 21, 2014 - 12:30pm
The Southbank Centre, London
Two wonderful hands-on translation workshops: SPACES LIMITED
See what poets have done in their efforts to translate and version Rilke and enjoy the chance to work with prize-winning translators and try your own hand.
Rilke Translation Masterclass: French with Patrick McGuinness 12.30pm
Rilke translation Masterclass: German with Karen Leeder 3.30pm
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
RESPONSES TO RILKE – POST SHOW DISCUSSION FREE EVENT following What if not Transformation...: Poetry After Rilke Sunday, July 20, 2014 - 2:00pm
Sunday, July 20, 2014 - 2:00pm
The Southbank Centre, London
Sujata Bhatt, Durs Grünbein, Patrick McGuinness and Don Paterson in conversation with Karen Leeder. FREE EVENT
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
WHAT IF NOT TRANSFORMATION…: POETRY AFTER RILKE A look at the afterlife of German poet Ranier Maria Rilke with today's poets. Sunday, July 20, 2014 - 12:00pm
Sunday, July 20, 2014 - 12:00pm
The Southbank Centre, London
Reading with Sujata Bhatt, Durs Grünbein, Patrick McGuinness and Don Paterson, introduced by Karen Leeder. One of a series of specially-curated events to look at the extraordinary afterlife of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in English. Includes newly commissioned poems by major poets.
Website:
Audience:
Open to all
TRANSLATION MASTERCLASS A masterclass with German poet Jan Wagner Friday, February 28, 2014 (All day)
Friday, February 28, 2014 (All day)
A Translation Masterclass with German poet Jan Wagner.
Audience:
Open to all
MEDIATING MODERN GERMAN POETRY
Professor Karen Leeder (Professor of Modern German Literature and Fellow and Tutor in German at New College, Oxford) has worked with individual poets, translators, musicians and artists to explore modern German poetry. She has reached out to new public audiences – across the country and further afield – through festivals, workshops, masterclasses, readings schools visits and even poetry duels.
You can watch a short film on her work here.
PROFESSOR KAREN LEEDER IS AWARDED A 2016 PEN/HEIM TRANSLATION FUND GRANT
PEN America has announced the recipients of the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants, and we are delighted that Professor Karen Leeder is one of them, for her translation of Thick of It by Ulrike Almut Sandig. Sandig’s work suffuses contemporary settings with classicism, drawing inspiration in part from Goethe and Annette von Droste Hülshoff, as well as Paul Celan. Thick of It explores German history and landscape, the broader world, natural and human, and language itself, and is stunningly rendered in Leeder’s translation, which pays close attention to meter, register, and recreates the magic of the original.
The Translation Fund, now celebrating its thirteenth year, received a large number of applications this year—171 total—spanning a wide array of languages of origin, genres, and eras. From this vast field of applicants, the Fund’s Advisory Board—Esther Allen, Peter Blackstock, Sara Khalili, Tynan Kogane, Allison Markin Powell, Antonio Romani, Chip Rossetti, and Alex Zucker—has selected fourteen projects, spanning 9 different languages, including Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Yiddish and more.
One of the poem's from Karen Leeder's translation of Thick of It, by Ulrike Almut Sandig
when the last song is done
the sine wave of the last chord
is moving off towards the horizon ∞
in small and smaller and almost
imperceptible waves, when the vinyl disc
has stopped turning, the diamond stylus
circles, when from the two blue speakers
an ocean almost vanished softly roars
when the heart chambers flicker and when
you are with me and hear all of this
then go on and tell the others too: we
have taken leave of our senses
but can still, still, just be heard.
KAREN LEEDER WINS TRANSLATION PITCH: NEW LITERARY VOICES
Professor Karen Leeder has won at the Translation Pitch: New Literary Voices with PEN Presents... at ELN 2016
Her pitch promoting translations of poetry by Ulrike Almut Sandig won the ‘PEN Presents’ translation pitch prizeas part of #ELNF2016. Sandig's Thick of It (Dickicht) was honoured by judges Max Porter, Meike Ziervogel and Stefan Tobler at this years's ceremony.
Six translators went head-to-head, pitching their ‘must-acquire’ European books to a live audience and a jury of top publishing experts: Porter (Granta/Portobello), Ziervogel (Peirene Press) and Tobler (And Other Stories). This whirlwind tour of contemporary European writing uncovered brilliant books from Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Turkey and France which have not yet been translated into English.
Translators: Antoinette Fawcett, Emma Mandley, James Womack, Sam Nagele, Paula Darwish and Karen Leeder.
Actors: Lois Tucker and Max Berendt, Liars League.
English PEN’s ‘PEN Presents’ initiative seeks to help UK publishers to discover – and publish – the most exciting books from around the world, and to support literary translators in their development as advocates for international literature.
Read more and see some photos of the event.
Listen to the event podcast:
'RILKE'S SONNETS TO ORPHEUS' ON RADIO 4
Daljit Nagra - Radio 4 & 4Extra’s Poet in Residence - has selected a programme made by Professor Karen Leeder, Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus - Dancing the Orange, for Radio 4 Extra’s ‘Poetry Extra’ slot.
It will be broadcast on Sunday 24th April 2016 at 5.00pm, with a repeat the next morning. This is a chance to hear poets and colleagues - including Martyn Crucefix, Rüdiger Görner and Don Paterson -talking about the Sonnets and to follow Karen's trip to Muzot on the Rilke trail.
BBC RADIO 3 SERIES EXAMINES FRANZ KAFKA
In the Shadow of Kafka, a series of documentaries and drama on BBC Radio 3 from Sunday 10 May–Saturday 16 May, will examine one of the most elusive and intriguing figures in 20th century literature, Franz Kafka. TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellow Karen Leeder will participate in the series with her interpretation of the great writer. Listen out on Wednesday 13 May, 10.45-11pm.
Throughout the week, The Essay (Monday 11 May – Friday 15 May, 10.45-11pm) presents five writers’ interpretations of Kafka – comedian, messenger, body phobic and unique writer of imagination - examining the breadth of Kafka’s thinking, his world and how his writing still resonates for them as contemporary writers. Multi award-winning novelist, poet, essayist and environmental campaigner Margaret Atwood (Monday 11 May, 10.45-11pm) revisits an essay she wrote on Kafka when she was nineteen years old and discusses three trips she has made to Prague in her lifetime and the three different versions of him she found there. Playwright, film maker and novelist Hanif Kureishi (Tuesday 12 May, 10.45-11pm) explores Kafka’s personal and artistic fascination with the body and food, examining how Kafka, a lifelong vegetarian, created characters whose bodies are used as weapons to attack others and ultimately destroy themselves. Karen Leeder (Wednesday 13 May, 10.45-11pm), a prize-winning translator and Professor of Modern German Literature at New College, Oxford, explores Kafka’s modern use of messengers and messages and the significance and interpretation of communication in his work. Discussing how the process is often the point of the story in Kafka’s works, Leeder argues that it is not so much the meaning as the very act of purveying a message itself that is Kafka’s aim. Award-winning playwright for stage, radio, opera and film, April de Angelis (Thursday 14 May, 10.45-11pm), dissects the dark comedy ofThe Castle, arguing the case for Kafka as both humourist and feminist. Unpicking the comic tropes of the novel, de Angelis argues a case for Kafka the feminist, as she charts his skilful dismantling – at times comic, at times menacing - of the conventional power structures in the novel. In the final Essay of the series, playwright for radio, stage and screen, Jeff Young (Friday 15 May, 10.45-11pm), considers the unusually powerful impact of Kafka’s language. Jeff, who first encountered The Metamorphosis as a teenager in the 1970s, has collected and compared every new edition of the work. His essay looks at the nature of translation, how it sits between the writer and the words and how the space between the two allows the reader to discover his or her own version of the author and his intention.
‘QUINCE JELLY’ TRANSLATION
Iain Galbraith has been awarded the Stephen Spender translation prize 2014 for his version of ‘Quince Jelly’ by German poet Jan Wagner. The poem featured in a Translation Masterclass as part of the Knowledge Exchange project Mediating Modern Poetry that took place in Oxford earlier this year with Wagner and Galbraith, and which all participants had a go at. A Masterclass indeed!
Read what the judges said here: http://www.stephen-spender.org/spender_prize.html
VOLKER BRAUN - RUBBLE FLORA: SELECTED POEMS
The launch of Volker Braun, Rubble Flora: Selected Poems, translated by David Constantine and Karen Leeder (New York, London, Calcutta: Seagull, 2014) took place in Oxford, at the ROQ on 11 November 2014. Despite a rainy night and the unfortunate illness of Braun himself, a group of hardy souls gathered to hear David Constantine and Karen Leeder give a bilingual reading of the poems and talk about Volker Braun and the business of bringing his passionate and angular poetry into English. The volume is the first collection of Braun's poetry to be published in English and covers 50 years of poetry from one of his first poems, ‘Rubble Flora’, which gave the volume its title, to a poem written in response to the demonstrations on Taksim Square in Istanbul written in 2013 and not yet published in German. This is one of a series of projected events which will see the book presented in Aldeburgh at the International Poetry Festival 2014; London at the Goethe Institute, and in India and the USA.
MODERN TRANSLATIONS OF RILKE
Poets Sujata Bhatt, Durs Grünbein, Patrick McGuinness and Don Paterson have offered new ‘translations’ of Rilke for Poetry International 2014. Our Knowledge Exchange fellow, Karen Leeder, explores these poems in a blog for Modern Poetry in Translation Magazine, arguing that they are "translations in the widest and most energetic sense".
PODCAST ON "TORSO OF POLYPHEMUS"
Knowledge Exchange Fellow Karen Leeder reads and discusses her translation of the poem by Durs Grünbein, as part of a series of events on poetry and translation at the Southbank Centre.
She explores the poem's relationship to Rilke, the classical past and the challenges of translating German poetry into English.
Please follow this link to listen to the 9 minute podcast on the Modern Poetry in Translation website: http://www.mptmagazine.com/poem/torso-of-polyphemus-694/
Image: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/53/61/6f/53616f51cb70c7604f3abe03...
KE FELLOW SPOTLIGHT ON RILKE AT THE SOUTHBANK POETRY INTERNATIONAL 2014
During her Knowledge Exchange Fellowship, Professor Karen Leeder has helped organize with her external partner,The Southbank Centre, a host of wonderful performances and workshops with writers from all over the world for Poetry International 2014 (17-21 July). Alongside a reading of Brecht and Margarete Steffin featuring Tom Kuhn and David Constantine, 2 performances by Durs Grünbein and a special event for David Constantine there is a specially curated series on the extrordinary poetic afterlife of Rainer Maria Rilke.
Sunday 20th July 12 noon
What if not Transformation…: Poetry After Rilke
Reading with Sujata Bhatt, Durs Grünbein, Patrick McGuinness and Don Paterson, introduced by Karen Leeder. One of a series of specially-curated events to look at the extraordinary afterlife of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in English. Includes newly commissioned poems by major poets.
Sunday 20th July 2pm
Responses to Rilke – Post show discussion
Sujata Bhatt, Durs Grünbein, Patrick McGuinness and Don Paterson in conversation with Karen Leeder. FREE EVENT
Monday 21st July
Two wonderful hands-on translation workshops: SPACES LIMITED
See what poets have done in their efforts to translate and version Rilke and enjoy the chance to work with prize-winning translators and try your own hand.
Rilke Translation Masterclass: French with Patrick McGuinness 12.30pm
Rilke translation Masterclass: German with Karen Leeder 3.30pm
Monday 21st July 6pm
Poetry International Finale including new poems by Durs Grünbein
Book your tickets now:
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/poetry-international
POETRY IN TRANSLATION: TRILINGUAL SYMPOSIUM IN ROME
KE Fellow Professor Karen Leeder invited by the Goethe Institute, DAAD(German Academic Exchange Service) and Sapienza University (Rome) to participate in a trilingual sympsium and translation workshop entitled, ‘Durs Grünbein in traduzione. Due casi di studio: inglese e italiano’ in Rome. There was a gala reading about the possibilities of poetry and translation with the German poet Durs Grünbein and Italian poet Anna Maria Carpi.
Professor Leeder had the opportunity to work with the poet on some of the poems for the forthcoming Poetry International events in July as part of her Knowledge Exchange Fellowship project.
PROFESSOR KAREN LEEDER READS HER POETRY AT ACADEMY OF ARTS, BERLIN EVENT
Professor Karen Leeder was invited to perform with Ingo Schulze, Kerstin Hensel, F.C. Delius, Thomas Rosenlöcher, Elke Erb, Ann Cotten at the Academy of Arts, Berlin to honour the 75th birthday of Volker Braun and the launch of his Werktage II and Festschrift "Was immer wird, wühlt im Hier und Jetzt. Professor Leeder performed her own new work of poetry as well as the work of other poets.
KE FELLOW AWARDED LITERARISCHES COLLOQUIUM RESIDENCY
Knowledge Exchange Fellow, Professor Karen Leeder was chosen for the Vice Versa Translation Project in Berlin. She was awarded a residency at the prestigious Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin (LCB) to work with poet Ulrike Almut Sandig. Suppported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the LCB hosts German and English language translators who work together intensively with chosen writers for a week. Professor Leeder will welcome Ms Sandig and other European poets to the Southbank Centre this Summer and Oxford this Autumn for a poetry reading evening and other events associated with her Knowledge Exchange project: Mediating Modern Poetry
Photo: Poet Ulrike Almut Sandig and Professor Karen Leeder.
Two Poems by Ulrike Almut Sandig, translated by Karen Leeder, in Modern Poetry in Translation.