In the final workshop of this online season, we will be translating the work of Zaim Allal a famous Saharawi poet who is living in a refugee camp in Algeria. The guest translator for these sessions will be Hamza Lakhal. Allal’s poetry is composed in Hassaniya, a variety of Arabic found in many African countries that is not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Arabic but is recognised as a language of national identity in Mauritania. The Saharawi people have a highly mixed heritage, combining Arab, Berber and other North African tribal elements.
Workshop Facilitator
Kostya Tsolakis is a London-based poet and journalist, born and raised in Athens, Greece. A Warwick Writing Programme graduate, he is founding editor of harana poetry, the online magazine for poets writing in English as a second or parallel language, and in 2020-21 was co-poetry editor at Ambit. His debut poetry pamphlet Ephebos is out with ignitionpress. In 2019, he won the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, ESL category, judged by Jackie Kay. His poems have appeared, among others, in Stand, Magma, The Tangerine, perverse and Wasafiri. He is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. His first full-length collection of poetry, Greekling, will be published in October 2023 by Nine Arches Press.
This workshop will be two hours long. You can find out more about what is it like to translate with the PTC here.
