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VIRTUAL: 'Leaving' by Anar

09 December 2021, 5:00 pm–6:00 pm

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Join Sri Lankan poet Anar, and translator-poets Hari Rajaledchumy and Fran Lock for readings in the original Tamil, the English translation of the poems, and discussions about the themes of Anar’s work, Tamil literature and the process of translating her poetry. Event chaired by Edward Doegar.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All | UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

Institute of Advanced Studies / Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World / Poetry Translation Centre

This event is co-hosted by UCL’s Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World, and the Poetry Translation Centre

Anar is one of Sri Lanka's most celebrated poets. Urgent, embodied and shockingly direct, her work presses into service classical Tamil landscapes, contemporary feminist thought and Koranic imagery to explore the aftermath of the civil war and the subtle terrors of living as a woman in Sri Lanka today. Leaving draws from Anar's five award-winning collections to present a devastating poetic voice for our times. The collection is translated by Hari Rajaledchumy with Fran Lock.

From the harrowing aftermath of the civil war to the subtle terrors of societal expectation, the Anar chronicles female experiences in Sri Lanka today. Her poems avoid neat classifications such as narrative, allegory or lyric, instead, she combines genre and traditions as she sees fit to say whatever needs saying. Her poems draw on a diverse field of reference from classical Tamil mythic landscapes to contemporary feminist thought, from Koranic imagery to personal history.

Join Anar, Hari and Fran for readings in the original Tamil, the English translation of the poems, and discussions about the themes of Anar’s work, Tamil literature and the process of translating her poetry. This event will be chaired by Edward Doegar.

Link to the book: https://dev.poetrytranslation.org/shop/leaving

All welcome. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need assistance on the day, and follow this FAQ link for more information and to read our virtual events code of conduct. All of our events are free, but you can support the IAS here.

If you missed this event, you can watch the recording here:

MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/Jh7iDeef

 

About the Speakers

Anar (Issath Rehana Mohammed Azeem)

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Anar (Issath Rehana Mohammed Azeem) is a distinguished voice in the Sri Lankan Tamil poetry scene with five critically acclaimed collections to her name. She has been contributing her poems and articles to literary magazines and national media since the early 90s. Several of her poems have been translated into English and have appeared in anthologies and journals.

Her books have won several awards, most notably the Government of Sri Lanka’s National Literature Award, the Tamil Literary Garden’s Poetry Award (Canada), the Aaathmanam Award (India), the SPARROW Award (India), and the Vijay Award for Excellence in the Field of Literature (India).

Hari Rajaledchumy 

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Hari Rajaledchumy is an artist/writer currently based in London. Her recent writings have appeared in Manalveedu (India) and Aaakkaddi (France). She worked as a translator on Kim Longinotto’s 2013 documentary film Salma , based on the life and works of the Indian Tamil poet. In 2021, she cocurated the inaugural edition of the QCSL study programme that strengthens queer cultural production within Sri Lanka.

 

Fran Lock 

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Fran Lock is the author of several poetry collections, including Contains Mild Peril (Outspoken, 2019), Raptures and Captures (Culture Matters, 2019), and The Mystic and the Pig Thief (Salt, 2014). She earned her Ph.D. from Birkbeck College, University of London, focusing on ‘Impossible Telling and the Epistolary Form: Contemporary Poetry, Mourning and Trauma’.

 

Edward Doegar

Edward Doegar
Edward Doegar is the commissioning editor of the Poetry Translation Centre and a consulting editor at The Rialto. He is a fellow of the Complete Works. His recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Poetry Review, The White Review and Tentacular. A pamphlet, made in collaboration with the artist Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, will be published by KELDER PRESS in 2022.