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Why I No Longer Write Poems | Bloodaxe Books
diana-anphimiadi-Why-I-No-Longer-Write-Poems

Diana Anphimiadi

Why I No Longer Write Poems

Diana Anphimiadi

TRANSLATED BY JEAN SPRACKLAND & NATALIA BUKIA-PETERS

Publication Date : 24 Feb 2022

ISBN: 9781780375472

Pages: 65
Size :216 x 138mm
Rights: World

Longlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2022

Diana Anphimiadi is one of the most widely revered Georgian poets of her generation. Her award-winning work reflects an exceptionally curious mind and glides between classical allusions and surreal imagery. She revivifies ancient myths and tests the reality of our senses against the limits of sense. Boldly inventive, prayers appear alongside recipes, dance lessons next to definitions. Her playful, witty lyricism offers a glimpse of the eternal in the everyday.

The poems in this selection have been collaboratively translated into English by the leading Georgian translator Natalia Bukia-Peters and award-winning British poet Jean Sprackland. A chapbook selection of their translations of Anphimiadi's work, Beginning to Speak, was published in 2018 and praised by Adham Smart in Modern Poetry in Translation for capturing the 'electricity of Anphimiadi’s language' which 'crackles from one poem to the next in Bukia-Peters and Sprackland’s fine translation'.  

'It is heartening to see Anphimiadi take her place alongside many other strong women poets from recent generations who are dramatically reshaping contemporary Georgian poetry. She gives abstract thought a body, a pulse.' -  Natalia Bukia-Peters, in her introduction to Why I No Longer Write Poems

‘Demonstrating formal range and subversiveness, Anphimiadi blends classical images and myths with contemporary techniques, dilating the boundaries of the poetic form. Prayers, recipes, dance lessons, definitions — this accumulation of the unspoken everyday comprises the collection of raw materials in Anphimiadi’s poetic bricolage.’ –  Matt Janney, The Calvert Journal (Books from Eastern Europe to look forward to in 2022), on Why I No Longer Write Poems

'This collection by a leading Georgian poet is part of the Poetry Translation Centre’s programme commissioning British poets – here, Jean Sprackland – to work with literary translators. In this case, that’s Natalia Bukia-Peters, who also provides a knowledgeable Introduction setting this work in the national context of epic poetry, and of a vocabulary of myth. For this is gorgeous, fabulising verse.... Bloodaxe is especially to be commended for publishing this important work in bilingual edition.' - Fiona Sampson, The Guardian, Best recent poetry, on Why I No Longer Write Poems

'This combination of Georgian poet, translator and Anglophone poet clearly worked extremely well.  Jean Sprackland's own poetry ... shares some characteristics with that of Anphimiadi.  The experiences of women, the power of memory and the ability to surprise, or even shock, the reader are prominent features of both.' - Michael Pursglove, East-West Review, on Why I No Longer Write Poems

 

Diana Anphimiadi on Georgian Poets tour in 2018

Diana Anphimiadi took part in a short tour organised by The Poetry Translation Centre in 2018 with fellow Georgian poet Salome Benidze and their translators. Both poets were reading from newly-published pamphlets. That led to Diana Anphimiadi publishing her book-length selection Why I No Longer Write Poems in 2022.  Diana Anphimiadi and her translators Natalia Bukia-Peters and Jean Sprackland (both featured in this video) will be on tour once again in March 2022.  Click on 'Related Audio' to hear more readings in Georgian and English.

The Poetry Translation Centre gives the best contemporary poems from Africa, Asia and Latin America a new life in the English language, working with diaspora communities for whom poetry is of great importance. By fostering creative collaborations between poets and translators, the PTC produces high-quality translations that extend the audience for international poetry.

 

Co-published with the Poetry Translation Centre

Georgian-English dual language edition

Ireland & EU: Click here to order from Books Upstairs in Dublin

USA: Click here to order from Indiebound or Bookshop.org

  

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Related News & Publicity

News & Publicity


Diana Anphimiadi interviews, reviews & poem features

Diana Anphimiadi interviews, reviews & poem features

Georgian poet Diana Anphimiadi reviewed in The Guardian; US poem features at On the Sea Wall & Poetry Daily plus Trafika Europe interview. Poems on the Underground...

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Poetry Events


Diana Anphimiadi Readings

Diana Anphimiadi Readings

Diana Anphimiadi's appearance on Trafika Europe Radio is available to hear online, along with videos & podcasts from her previous UK tours.

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