Month: May 2022

Romanian Poetry In Transition

Belfast Book Festival 2022: Maria Stadnicka and Eiléan Ni Chuilleanáin in conversation with Shannon Kuta Kelly

Romanian Poetry in Transition

Date: Saturday 11 June 2022

Time: 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Price: Pay What You Want – recommended price £7

Age Range: 16+ years

Venue: The Crescent

Romanian culture experienced dramatic changes in the transition from the Ceaușescu era to post-revolution, and the ensuing Romanian diaspora has transported these changes across Europe, including to cities across the UK and Ireland. 

Join poets Maria Stadnicka and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin for an afternoon of poetry readings and conversation with Shannon Kuta Kelly to traverse the many ways that continued contact with Romania and its poetries inflects poetic production. 

Maria Stadnicka is a writer, editor and freelance journalist who is currently a PhD researcher and associate lecturer at the University of the West of England. Her writing explores social identity, transgenerational trauma transmission, cultural theory and the ethics of memory. She is the author of five poetry collections and her poetry was highly commended for the Forward Poetry Prize 2021. Her latest collection Buried Gods Metal Prophets (2021) was included among the best poetry books of 2021 by The Telegraph and the collection, Somnia (2020), was named one of the best poetry books to read in 2020. Her latest collection, Uranium Bullets is forthcoming in 2022. She recently performed her work at Edinburgh Festival, StAnza International Poetry Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival. She is a contributor to International Times (UK) and Dissident Voice (US). 

Born in Cork, Irish poet, translator, and editor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is the author of numerous poetry collections, including The Mother House (2020), The Boys of Bluehill (2015), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and The Sun-fish (2010), which won the International Griffin Poetry Prize. She has translated numerous books including The Legend of the Walled-Up Wife (2012) by the Romanian poet Ileana Malancioiu and co-translated Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s The Water Horse (2001) with Medbh McGuckian. 

Shannon Kuta Kelly is a writer, translator, and musician based in Belfast. Her work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, the Irish Times, Body Prague, the London Magazine, and in Poetry Jukebox installations across Europe. She has collaborated with the Romanian ConTempo String Quartet for events such as the Dublin Enescu Festival and performances in conjunction with the Embassy of Romania in Ireland. She is a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast researching poetry and censorship in Romania and Northern Ireland.

Across Language: Translation & Opportunity

Belfast Book Festival Vahni Capildeo, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Maria Stadnicka, Brian Holton & Paddy Bushe 

Across Language: Translation & Opportunity

Date: Saturday 11 June 2022

Time: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Price: Pay What You Want – recommended price £7

Age Range: 16+ years

Venue: The Crescent

Is writing in another language an opportunity for creative freedom?

How is poetry affected by poets working across more than one language?

Join us for an afternoon of discussion and readings that will explore not only acts of literary translation but also the many modes of translation available across disciplines.  

Vahni (Anthony Ezekiel) Capildeo FRSL is a Trinidadian Scottish writer of poetry and non-fiction. Capildeo’s eight books and eight pamphlets include Like a Tree, Walking (Carcanet, November 2021) and The Dusty Angel (Oystercatcher, 2021). Their interests include plurilingualism, traditional masquerade, and multidisciplinary collaboration. They are Writer in Residence and Professor at the University of York, a Visiting Scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford.

Maria Stadnicka is a writer, editor and freelance journalist who is currently a PhD researcher and associate lecturer at the University of the West of England. Her writing explores social identity, transgenerational trauma transmission, cultural theory and the ethics of memory. She is the author of five poetry collections and her poetry was highly commended for the Forward Poetry Prize 2021. Her latest collection Buried Gods Metal Prophets (2021) was included among the best poetry books of 2021 by The Telegraph and the collection, Somnia (2020), was named one of the best poetry books to read in 2020. Her latest collection, Uranium Bullets is forthcoming in 2022. She recently performed her work at Edinburgh Festival, StAnza International Poetry Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival. She is a contributor to International Times (UK) and Dissident Voice (US). 

Paddy Bushe is a poet and translator in both Irish and English. He has published thirteen collections of poetry, and has translated the work of Somhairle MacGill-Eain, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Gabriel Rosenstock, Zhang Ye and Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin. The recipient of the Oireachtas Prize for Poetry in 2006, he also received the 2006 Michael Hartnett Poetry Award and the 2017 Irish Times Poetry Now Award. His most recent books are Peripheral Vision, a collection in English, and Second Sight, a selection of his poems in Irish with his own translations into English, both from Dedalus Press in 2020. 

Born in Cork, Irish poet, translator, and editor Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin is the author of numerous poetry collections, including The Mother House (2020), The Boys of Bluehill (2015), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection and The Sun-fish (2010), which won the International Griffin Poetry Prize. She has translated numerous books including The Legend of the Walled-Up Wife (2012) by the Romanian poet Ileana Malancioiu and co-translated Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s The Water Horse (2001) with Medbh McGuckian. 

Brian Holton is a translator of modern and classical Chinese poetry and fiction, into both English and Scots. He has been a university teacher and broadcaster. Brian is also a poet, singer, and songwriter, and regularly performs on stage and has appeared at literary festivals in many countries, giving talks or readings in the USA, Canada, Europe, the Far East, and New Zealand.