The PTC is excited to be presenting a series of translation workshops exploring some of the best poetry from Kazakhstan. Through December and January there will be sessions taking a close look at six contemporary Kazakh poets, in partnersip with the Embassy of Kazakhstan in the UK.
The second workshop of this series focusses on Gulnar Salykbay. She is a Kazakh poet and literary translator whose poems are considered a meticulous reflection of the depths of the human condition and her passion and linguistic experimentation mark her as a strikingly distinctive voice in contemporary Kazakh poetry. The session will be led by UK poet Liz Berry and guest translator Assiya Issemberdiyeva.
Our online poetry translation workshops can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Join in to meet poetry lovers, translators and poets from across the globe, then get to know each other as you share insights and language skills, working together to open up a poem in its original language and reassemble it into an English translation.
We have had participants from the UK, Canada, Nigeria, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The workshops are the perfect way to keep you feeling creative, engaged and connected to the world at large. A rough and ready guild translation is provided by the guest translator so there is no need to know the language being translated, simply sign up and bring your love of language.
This online workshop will take place over Zoom in one two-hour session.
‘Pay What You Want’ Pricing
We want to keep our workshop experience as accessible as possible so we are operating this activity on a ‘Pay-What-You-Can’ donation basis.
The Poet
Gulnar Salykbay has worked for various mass media and is editor-in-chief of the national TV Channel Qazaqstan. Her first poetry collection was published to great acclaim and two more followed. Her verses feature in national and international anthologies and two volumes have been published in China. She has translated poetry into Kazakh and her own poems have been translated into several languages. Salykbay has won the State Prize of Kazakhstan, the Serper Prize of the Union of Youth of Kazakhstan, the International Alash Literature Prize, the Aibergenov Literary Prize, the Poetry Prize of the nationwide contest dedicated to the 150th Anniversary of Abai and the international Shyghys Shynary poetry competition.
The Facilitator
Liz Berry was born in the Black Country and now lives in Birmingham. Her first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014), described as a ‘sooty, soaring hymn to her native West Midlands’ (Guardian) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2014. Liz’s pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018. A new book of her collaboration with photographer Tom Hicks will be published by Hercules Editions in 2021. Liz is a patron of Writing West Midlands and works as a tutor for organizations including the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School.
The Translator
Assiya Issemberdiyeva has worked for more than 10 years in various media specialising in film, theatre and literature reviews. She has translated films, cartoons and academic books from English and Russian into Kazakh. She is currently writing my MA dissertation on contemporary Kazakh cinema at Queen Mary University London.
Full Details
To try and make the online experience as enjoyable and manageable as possible, places will be restricted – if you book please do make sure you can attend.
Workshop materials and the log-in details to join the sessions with easy to follow instructions will be sent out by email after you book your place.
• The PTC will deliver these workshops online via Zoom.
• This online series will follow our usual workshop format, working as a group to translate the poem line by line.
• Working from a guide translation of the original poem, guided by a translator and poet to facilitate the sessions.
• One session lasting two hours.
• We will share the original poem and the guide translation in advance that the group will be working from.
• On Tuesday 8 December, 18:30-20:30 BST.
• Pay-What-You-Can donation when reserving your ticket.
EMBASSY OF KAZAKHSTAN
