A event on Friday 16th May. The event starts at 19:00.
Translated By, Bristol is proud to present the launch of Nineteen Ways of Looking at Awono, a unique anthology centring around 19 different translations of Jean-Claude Awono's poems "Le Poème de Yambacongo". The evening will feature a discussion and readings by translators Rohan Ayinde, Sarah Ardizzone, Dr Georgina Collins in conversation with Dzekashu MacViban.
This event will take place at Gloucester Road Books, BS7 8NU. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start on Friday 16th of May.
ABOUT NINETEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT AWONO
This unique anthology centres around a poem by award-winning Cameroonian writer, Jean-Claude Awono––Le Poème de Yambacongo––and nineteen very distinct translations of that poem from across the globe. Inspired by 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger, this collection highlights the diversity of Englishes in existence worldwide, with each translator rendering Awono’s poem in their own form of English including Nigerian Pidgin, Jamaican Creole, Shetlandic, and “Sesotho-fied” English. Others show the diversity in so-called standard English, with every translator speaking in their own idiolect, taking a personal approach to rewriting the poem; some more literal, others adaptive, proving that no translators work in the same way, always influenced by their background and life experiences.
Translations by Aileen Ruane, Alyssa Salzberg, Bonnie Chau, Christine De Luca, Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson, Georgina Collins, JK Anowe, Jean Anderson, John T. Gilmore, Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Khadijah Sanusi Gumbi, Maneo Mohale, Mary Noonan, N. Kamala, Nfor E. Njinyoh, Prudence Lucha, Rohan Ayinde,Sarah Ardizzone, Sophie Herxheimer and Stephanie Smee.
“In translation you meet the music of different languages. In Nineteen Ways of Looking at Awono the poetry meets the music and beauty. And we get to hear translators talking about their imaginations." Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ
“This collection of English translations demands that the reader think of their own Englishes and how many they use without necessarily being aware of it." Kadija Sesay
“Inspired in equal measure, in different ways, by 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei and by the literal as well as literary topography of present-day Cameroon, this collection of nineteen translations from French to different Englishes offers not just a snapshot but a moving image of African poetic life. Animated here by influences reaching from Central Africa to the West Indies, and from Shetlandic to Sesotho, Jean-Claude Awono’s work now partakes in and advances a dazzling array of local conversations." Jeanne-Marie Jackson
ABOUT DR GEORGINA COLLINS
Dr Georgina Collins is a Freelance Literary Translator, Writer, and Literary Translation Consultant. She has worked, primarily, for the Universities of Glasgow, Bristol and Warwick, and has an MA and PhD in Translation Studies from Warwick University. She is also a ceramicist and pottery teacher and runs her own ceramics studio, Iremía Pottery in Leamington, Warwickshire.
Georgina is passionate about poetry and in 2007, she produced the first ever French-English bilingual collection of Francophone African women’s poetry, entitled The Other Half of History. The foreword was written by Khadija Sesay. Collins has also translated the poetry of Jean-Claude Awono and Senegalese author Mame Seck Mbacké for Modern Poetry in Translation (2021; 2016), as well as the activist poetry of French writer Laura Boullic for Active Art (Paraguay Press, 2019). In 2021, Collins took third place in the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation with another text by Awono.
Georgina has published a number of academic and professional articles on the translation of Francophone African texts and in 2022, she judged the Scott Moncrieff Prize (from the Society of Authors and Translators Association) for literary translation from French. She has translated the literary works of West African writers such as Sokhna Benga and Felwine Sarr (both from Senegal) as well as translated books by French writers such as Monica Sabolo and Lauren Bastide for Macmillan and Penguin respectively. In 2013, Georgina won a joint English Pen Award for Writing in Translation for her contribution to Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus (I.B. Tauris).
ABOUT SARAH ARDIZZONE
Sarah Ardizzone is an award-winning translator of voices from across the French-speaking world. Her work spans literary fiction for all ages, as well as memoir, hip-hop lyrics, graphic novels and picture books. Her time in Marseille led to a special interest in sharp dialogue and multi-heritage slang. Authors include Faïza Guène, Gaël Faye, Alain Mabanckou, Daniel Pennac, Yasmina Reza, Bessora, Timothée de Fombelle and Alexandre Dumas. Sarah also develops live multilingual ‘out of the book’ performances with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Co-founder of Translation Nation and Translators in Schools with the Stephen Spender Trust, Sarah is an Hon. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Royal Literary Fund Bridge Fellow, a regular mentor for emerging translators with the National Centre for Writing and a former co-chair (with Ros Schwartz) for English PEN Translates. In 2022 she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
ABOUT ROHAN AYINDE
Rohan Ayinde is an interdisciplinary artist and poet based between London and Chicago. Ayinde’s work traverses audio, visual and literary forms and often embraces installation and performance. Ayinde is one half of the wayward/motile collaborative duo i.as.in.we, with friend/producer/dancer Yewande YoYo Odunubi. He received his MA in Visual and Critical Studies from SAIC (2019) and is currently the Lead Curator at Blanc gallery (Chicago). Ayinde is part of the inaugural cohort of the Rose Choreographic School and a 2024 CIRCA Prize finalist.
ABOUT DZEKASHU MACVIBAN
Dzekashu MacViban is a Berlin-based writer, editor, curator, and founder of Bakwa, an organization that empowers African creatives through multimedia publishing, audio, and translation projects through Bakwa Books and Bakwa Magazine. He is the editor of Of Passion and Ink: New Voices from Cameroon and co-editor of Limbe to Lagos: Nonfiction from Cameroon and Nigeria, and Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is. His essays and nonfiction have appeared in The Ann Arbor Review of Books, The Africa Report, OkayAfrica, and IDG Connect and his short stories have appeared in Wasafiri, Kwani?, and Jungle Jim among others. His work has been translated into German, French, Japanese, and Spanish.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
This event will take place at Gloucester Road Books, BS7 8NU. Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start on Friday 16th of May.
ABOUT NINETEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT AWONO
This unique anthology centres around a poem by award-winning Cameroonian writer, Jean-Claude Awono––Le Poème de Yambacongo––and nineteen very distinct translations of that poem from across the globe. Inspired by 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei by Eliot Weinberger, this collection highlights the diversity of Englishes in existence worldwide, with each translator rendering Awono’s poem in their own form of English including Nigerian Pidgin, Jamaican Creole, Shetlandic, and “Sesotho-fied” English. Others show the diversity in so-called standard English, with every translator speaking in their own idiolect, taking a personal approach to rewriting the poem; some more literal, others adaptive, proving that no translators work in the same way, always influenced by their background and life experiences.
Translations by Aileen Ruane, Alyssa Salzberg, Bonnie Chau, Christine De Luca, Elizabeth (Betty) Wilson, Georgina Collins, JK Anowe, Jean Anderson, John T. Gilmore, Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Khadijah Sanusi Gumbi, Maneo Mohale, Mary Noonan, N. Kamala, Nfor E. Njinyoh, Prudence Lucha, Rohan Ayinde,Sarah Ardizzone, Sophie Herxheimer and Stephanie Smee.
“In translation you meet the music of different languages. In Nineteen Ways of Looking at Awono the poetry meets the music and beauty. And we get to hear translators talking about their imaginations." Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ
“This collection of English translations demands that the reader think of their own Englishes and how many they use without necessarily being aware of it." Kadija Sesay
“Inspired in equal measure, in different ways, by 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei and by the literal as well as literary topography of present-day Cameroon, this collection of nineteen translations from French to different Englishes offers not just a snapshot but a moving image of African poetic life. Animated here by influences reaching from Central Africa to the West Indies, and from Shetlandic to Sesotho, Jean-Claude Awono’s work now partakes in and advances a dazzling array of local conversations." Jeanne-Marie Jackson
ABOUT DR GEORGINA COLLINS
Dr Georgina Collins is a Freelance Literary Translator, Writer, and Literary Translation Consultant. She has worked, primarily, for the Universities of Glasgow, Bristol and Warwick, and has an MA and PhD in Translation Studies from Warwick University. She is also a ceramicist and pottery teacher and runs her own ceramics studio, Iremía Pottery in Leamington, Warwickshire.
Georgina is passionate about poetry and in 2007, she produced the first ever French-English bilingual collection of Francophone African women’s poetry, entitled The Other Half of History. The foreword was written by Khadija Sesay. Collins has also translated the poetry of Jean-Claude Awono and Senegalese author Mame Seck Mbacké for Modern Poetry in Translation (2021; 2016), as well as the activist poetry of French writer Laura Boullic for Active Art (Paraguay Press, 2019). In 2021, Collins took third place in the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry translation with another text by Awono.
Georgina has published a number of academic and professional articles on the translation of Francophone African texts and in 2022, she judged the Scott Moncrieff Prize (from the Society of Authors and Translators Association) for literary translation from French. She has translated the literary works of West African writers such as Sokhna Benga and Felwine Sarr (both from Senegal) as well as translated books by French writers such as Monica Sabolo and Lauren Bastide for Macmillan and Penguin respectively. In 2013, Georgina won a joint English Pen Award for Writing in Translation for her contribution to Writing Revolution: The Voices from Tunis to Damascus (I.B. Tauris).
ABOUT SARAH ARDIZZONE
Sarah Ardizzone is an award-winning translator of voices from across the French-speaking world. Her work spans literary fiction for all ages, as well as memoir, hip-hop lyrics, graphic novels and picture books. Her time in Marseille led to a special interest in sharp dialogue and multi-heritage slang. Authors include Faïza Guène, Gaël Faye, Alain Mabanckou, Daniel Pennac, Yasmina Reza, Bessora, Timothée de Fombelle and Alexandre Dumas. Sarah also develops live multilingual ‘out of the book’ performances with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Co-founder of Translation Nation and Translators in Schools with the Stephen Spender Trust, Sarah is an Hon. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Royal Literary Fund Bridge Fellow, a regular mentor for emerging translators with the National Centre for Writing and a former co-chair (with Ros Schwartz) for English PEN Translates. In 2022 she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
ABOUT ROHAN AYINDE
Rohan Ayinde is an interdisciplinary artist and poet based between London and Chicago. Ayinde’s work traverses audio, visual and literary forms and often embraces installation and performance. Ayinde is one half of the wayward/motile collaborative duo i.as.in.we, with friend/producer/dancer Yewande YoYo Odunubi. He received his MA in Visual and Critical Studies from SAIC (2019) and is currently the Lead Curator at Blanc gallery (Chicago). Ayinde is part of the inaugural cohort of the Rose Choreographic School and a 2024 CIRCA Prize finalist.
ABOUT DZEKASHU MACVIBAN
Dzekashu MacViban is a Berlin-based writer, editor, curator, and founder of Bakwa, an organization that empowers African creatives through multimedia publishing, audio, and translation projects through Bakwa Books and Bakwa Magazine. He is the editor of Of Passion and Ink: New Voices from Cameroon and co-editor of Limbe to Lagos: Nonfiction from Cameroon and Nigeria, and Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is. His essays and nonfiction have appeared in The Ann Arbor Review of Books, The Africa Report, OkayAfrica, and IDG Connect and his short stories have appeared in Wasafiri, Kwani?, and Jungle Jim among others. His work has been translated into German, French, Japanese, and Spanish.
Entry requirements: no age restrictions
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