This program presents an engaging and unique panel, comprised of the minds behind Poetry’s Geographies: A Transatlantic Anthology of Translations. This anthology, featuring some of the most prominent poet-translators from both sides of the Atlantic, radically foregrounds the role of translators as bridge-builders and activists, with a crucial role in revealing the structures through which poetry moves and circulates. Born amid the shutting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Poetry’s Geographies celebrates the community of translation. The anthology is organized around the translators (rather than the poets), with essays discussing the poetics and politics of their translations. Instead of adhering to a roadmap laid out by pre-existing works, this anthology forms unruly geographical lines of connection rather than underscoring existing national canons. As a result, Poetry’s Geographies is able to shape new understandings of contemporary poetry’s transnational commitments.

Purchase your own copy of Poetry’s Geographies: A Transatlantic Anthology of Translations at City of Asylum Bookstore.

Katherine M. Hedeen (she/her) is a prize-winning translator of poetry and an essayist. Her latest books include Almost Obscene by Raúl Gómez Jattin and Book of the Cold by Antonio Gamoneda. She is the co-editor, with Welsh poet Zoë Skoulding, of the groundbreaking transatlantic translation anthology, Poetry’s Geographies. Her co-translation of Venezuelan poet, Juan Calzadilla, was recently awarded the Wisconsin Poetry Series’ inaugural translation competition. She is Managing Editor of the transnational / translational indie press, Action Books. She resides in Ohio, where she is Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba. More information at: www.katherinemhedeen.com

Zoë Skoulding (she/her) is a poet and literary critic interested in translation, sound and ecology. She is Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing at Bangor University. Her latest collection of poems is A Marginal Sea (Carcanet Press, 2022). Her previous collections (published by Seren Books) include The Mirror Trade (2004), Remains of a Future City (2008), The Museum of Disappearing Sounds (2013), and Footnotes to Water (2019), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and won the Wales Book of the Year Poetry Award 2020. She received the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2018 for her body of work in poetry, and is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Her critical work includes two monographs, Contemporary Women’s Poetry and Urban Space: Experimental Cities (2013), and Poetry & Listening: The Noise of Lyric (2020). Her recent research project is Transatlantic Translation: Poetry in Circulation and Practice Across Languages (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2020-22), which led to the publication of Poetry's Geographies: A Transatlantic Anthology of Translations (Eulalia and Shearsman, 2022/23).

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (he/him) is one of Cuba’s most outstanding and celebrated contemporary writers, with over eighty collections of his poetry published throughout the world. He has been the recipient of major awards in the Spanish-speaking region and his selected poems have been translated into over a dozen languages. His latest book in English translation is rebel matter (Shearsman Books, 2022). He divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba. More info: www.victorrodrigueznunez.com

Michelle Gil-Montero (she/her) is an Argentine-American poet-translator. She has translated several books by contemporary Latin American poets, including Maria Negroni, Valerie Mejer Caso, and Andres Ajens. Her work has been published widely and supported by the NEA, Howard Foundation, and Fulbright. She is a professor at Saint Vincent College and publisher of Eulalia Books.

Exploring Poetry’s Geographies with Katherine Hedeen, Zoë Skoulding, Victor Rodriguez Núñez, & Michelle Gil-Montero