Delaina Haslam will be the guest translator for this workshop looking at the work of Habib Tengour. We will be working on translating some of his work from French while considering the North African influence on his work. Tengour’s work is steeped in Algerian culture and tradition and formally he is said to unite tradition and modernity, being influenced by pre-Islamic poetry and western figures like James Joyce and the surrealists.
Habib Tengour’s writing focuses on the Algerian cultural identity and memory as they are being constructed and adapted in the modern conceptions of the Orient and Occident. He is considered one of the most forceful and poetic voices to emerge from Northwest Africa in the post-colonial era.
Delaina Haslam is a translator, editor, and writer. She translates from French and Spanish, specialising in sociological and literary texts. She’s interested in collaborative translation and has worked with Newcastle University’s Poettrios Experiment.
This workshop is part of the PTC’s Spring 2020 season of workshops. We work with translators to find and share the work of great poets from Asia, Africa and Latin America. At each workshop the guest-translator works with a poet-facilitator to walk the group through a collaborative translation of a poem from its original language into English. It’s a great way to flex your linguistic muscles and meet fellow poetry lovers.
There is no need to know the language been translated, just come along.
