Joining them on the road will be translator Natalia Bukia-Peters, a long time PTC collaborator who introduced us to these Georgian poets and provided bridge-translations for the project.

The tour will give English speaking audiences the chance to discover these exciting new writers for the first time and offer the UK’s Georgian communities the chance to enjoy contemporary poetry in their own language. Our poet-pairings will be touring the whole island, going to Glasgow, Norwich, Bristol, Manchester, London and Edinburgh. We will be holding hold readings and workshops in libraries, universities, bookshops, city halls and arts centres.

Salome Benidze is a respected poet, novelist and translator. She has rendered the work David Beckham and Salman Rushdie into Georgian. Her poetry is direct yet deeply felt, dealing with love and it’s many shadows. The PTC has paired her with multi-award winning poet Helen Mort, host of BBC Radio 4’s Mother Tongue show.

Diana Anphimiadi’s poetry upends the world, the vistas of eternity can be glimpsed in daily activities and the women of Greek Mythology are called up to give their frank testimony from beyond the grave. Her poems have been translated into English by the award-winning British poet and Forward Poetry Prize winner Jean Sprackland.

Natalia Bukia-Peters has worked with the Poetry Translation Centre for many years. She introduced the PTC to the work of both Diana Anphimiadi and Salome Benidze and provided the Bridge translations for both poet-pairings. Bukia-Peters will be attending several events during the tour to discuss the project and open up the translation process.

The PTC will also be publishing two dual-language chapbooks to accompany this tour: Beginning to speak by Diana Anphimiadi, translated by Jean Sprackland & Natalia Bukia-Peters and I wanted to ask you by Salome Benidze, translated by Helen Mort & Natalia Bukia-Peters.