Can a piece of text ever be accurately translated? And what are the socio-political implications of this?

Poets of Protest A number of films for Al Jazeera are made by the (now Edinburgh-based) young Iranian filmmaker, Roxana Vilk. On Wednesday 20 November, she will be presenting and discussing her work at a meeting of the Scottish Poetry Association, that will take place at the Scottish Poetry Library, Canongate, Edinburgh. Dr Mario Relich introduces her work and […]

Blog post from Linda Cracknell about PENning magazine from 22 Sept 2013.

Hame-comin Gerda Stevenson’s entry – Hame-comin – to the YES Arts Festival Poetry Challenge was selected as the winning poem by judges Allan Massie, Rosemary Goring and Tom Murray. The challenge was to respond to the words The Flooers of the Forest, in Jean Elliot’s great song of that title, which is about the Battle […]

Simona Grazia Dima is Secretary of Romanian PEN, a poet, essayist, literary critic and translator. In her introduction to her latest volume of poetry she presents the background to her writing – the political and cultural milieu, her ideas, ideals and in particular the extraordinary experience which led her to become the writer that she […]

Times Stephen Spender Translation Prize for Brian Holton Many congratulations to Scottish PEN member Brian Holton whose translation of Du Fu’s poem has been commended in the 2012 Times Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. As far as we know it is the first time a major UK translation prize has given an award […]