The Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University welcomes distinguished translator of nine languages Peter Constantine, and award-winning Modern Greek poet Eleni Kefala, to the Manchester Poetry Library for the second annual Manchester Translation Series.

The event will include a poetry reading, along with a discussion on topics related to translation, visual art, multilingualism and the roles of literature in our current geopolitical moment.

A Guggenheim fellow, Peter Constantine was awarded the PEN Translation Prize for Six Early Stories by Thomas Mann, the National Translation Award for The Undiscovered Chekhov, and other awards. As a recent article in LitHub described: “The vastness of Peter Constantine’s personal linguistic range is almost unimaginable to most of us. He moves with ease between German, Modern Greek, Italian, Russian, Afrikaans, French, Ancient Greek, Japanese—and those are just the languages I happen to know about.” Constantine directs the Program in Literary Translation at the University of Connecticut.

Eleni Kefala is a senior lecturer at the University of St. Andrews whose research examines modernity across periods, disciplines and cultures. Her poetry collection Time Stitches received the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus; its English translation by Peter Constantine was selected as a New York Times “Globetrotting” pick, and was awarded the 2022 Elizabeth Constantinides Prize.

The event will be hosted by Dr Brian Sneeden.

There will be a catered reception in the lobby outside of the Poetry Library starting at 18:00. The event will begin at 18:30.