Manchester in Translation 2025

About the event

In partnership with the University of Manchester’s Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies and Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, Comma Press and Manchester City of Literature are delighted to present Manchester in Translation 2025. Aimed at anyone who is interested in or curious about literary translation, this event will comprise a series of short talks in English on literary translation, followed by two translation workshops to celebrate International Mother Language Day.

This year, the event will focus on Arabic. One workshop will involve participants translating an Arabic text into English or another language of their choice. This is open to Arabic speakers as well as non-Arabic speakers, and a transliteration will be provided. The other workshop will focus on translating an English poem into Arabic, best suited to those comfortable writing in Arabic. Based on their language skills and interests, participants can choose which workshop to attend.

Whether you speak Arabic or not, we invite you to join us in exploring and celebrating literary translation and the possibilities it creates.

About the Speakers and Workshop Leaders

Ali Al-Jamri is a poet, editor, translator, and educator in Manchester. He is one of Manchester's outgoing Multilingual City Poets (2022-2024). His work has been published in journals and websites including Modern Poetry in Translation, Rowayat, The Markaz, ArabLit, Poetry Birmingham, Harana and in anthologies. He has co-authored teacher texts with HarperCollins and is the editor of Between Two Islands: Poetry by Bahrainis in Britain (No Disclaimers, 2021) and ArabLit Quarterly: FOLK (ArabLit, 2021). His film, The Legend of the Looms, is currently exhibited at the Blackburn Art Gallery by the British Textile Biennial.

Peter Kalu is a poet, fiction writer and playwright. He cut his teeth as a member of Manchester’s Moss Side Write black writers workshop and has had nine novels, two film scripts and three theatre plays produced to date. He gained his PhD in Creative Writing at Lancaster University in 2019. He has a first degree in Law from Leeds University, studied software engineering at Salford University and Languages at Heriot Watt University. In 2018, he was writer in residence at the University of West Indies (Trinidad campus). For many years he ran a carnival band called Moko Jumbi (Ghosts of the Gods) which took to the streets at Manchester Caribbean Carnival on three-feet-high stilts.

Ruth Abou Rached is a lecturer un Arabic Cultural Studies at the Department of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) at The University of Manchester. Her work on Iraqi women’s literature was inspired by community work in the United Kingdom and living in the Middle East. Her research interests include Iraqi and Arab women’s writing, Palestinian and other exilic literatures, postcolonial literary studies and intersectional feminist translation theories. She is editor for New Voices in Translation Studies, International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS).

Studying Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/modern-languages/research/postgraduate-research/arabic-studies/

People at AMES: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/modern-languages/about/people/arabic-studies/
 

Anna Strowe is a lecturer in translation and interpreting studies at the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies (CTIS) at the University of Manchester. She has written for journals including The Translator, Journal des Traducteurs, Translation Review, Renaissance Quarterly and others.

Studying Translation and Intercultural Communication at Manchester: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/translation-and-intercultural-studies/

The Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, our research group: https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/ctis/