Performance: Explosion of Words – An Evening of Poetry, Music, and Translation

Immerse yourself in an evening of words and music as we celebrate Stephen Watts’ Bibliography of Modern Poetry in English Translation and its arrival at its new home in the National Poetry Library.
With a captivating line-up curated by and featuring Watts himself, hear readings from critically acclaimed poets Ziba Karbassi and Adnan al-Sayegh, as well as musical storyteller Bird Radio in this powerful climax to Explosion of Words.
Watts’ Bibliography opens up perspectives on the rich wealth of past and current poetry written out of many different histories and environments, which is made available through English translation.
An artists’ limited edition of the Bibliography in four volumes has been printed by Hannes Schüpbach for Explosion of Words and will be walked across London from the Nunnery Gallery to the National Poetry Library preceding this event.
Tickets for this event will be released shortly.
 

Ziba Karbassi Is a poet from Tabriz, north western Iran and now lives in the UK. She has authored more than twelve books, both in her mother tongue and internationally and is widely regarded as the leading Iranian poet living in exile. Her poetry has been translated into more than fifteen languages. She was chairperson of the Iranian Writers Association (in exile) from 2002–04, chair of Exiled Writers Ink, UK between 2012–14 and director of international relations for Pen International Iran (in exile) from 2019–21. In 2009 she won the Golden Apple poetry prize in Azerbaijan. In 2012, she was chosen by Contemporary Poetics Research Center, Birkbeck, University of London, as one of the fifteen revolutionary poets in the world.
Stephen Watts was born in London in 1952 (of partly Swiss-Italian heritage), where he still lives and works in Whitechapel. He has published seven books of poetry – The Lava’s Curl (Grimaldi Press, 1990), Gramsci & Caruso (Periplum, 2004, with Czech translation by Petr Mikeš, reissued by Mille Gru, 2014, with Italian translation by Cristina Viti), The Blue Bag (Aark Arts, 2004), Mountain Language / Lingua di montagna (2008) and Journey Across Breath / Tragitto nel respiro (2011, both: Hearing Eye, with Italian translations by Cristina Viti), Ancient Sunlight (Enitharmon, 2014, repr. ‘20), and Republic of Dogs / Republic of Birds (Test Centre, 2016; new edition, Prototype 2020) – and edited several anthologies – Houses & Fish. A book of drawings with writing by 4 & 5 year olds (Parrot Press, 1991), Voices of Conscience (an international anthology of censored poets, Iron Press, 1995), Mother Tongues (a special issue of Modern Poetry in Translation, 2001), and Music While Drowning (an anthology of German Expressionist poems that accompanied an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, Tate Publishing, 2003). His numerous translations and co-translations include books of modern Kurdish, Georgian and British Bangladeshi Poetry as well as volumes by A.N. Stencl, Meta Kušar, Amarjit Chandan, Adnan al-Sayegh, Golan Haji and Ziba Karbassi (from Yiddish, Slovenian, Punjabi, Arabic, Persian). He has also curated bilingual readings at several exhibitions (including Emil Nolde, Joan Miró, Arshile Gorky, Renato Guttuso and Francisco Toledo). He has worked in schools and hospitals as a writer on issues of well-being and creativity. The Republics, a film directed by Huw Wahl and based on Stephen Watts’ book Republic Of Dogs / Republic Of Birds has been premiered in 2020.  Since 1980 Stephen Watts has compiled an ongoing Bibliography of Modern Poetry in English Translation