A WEEK OF POETRY IN WELLINGTON

The International Institute of Modern Letters (with Te Papa and the New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation) presents three events in the run-up to Montana National Poetry Day on 24 July.
Admission to all events is free, all welcome.

Monday 20 July, 12.15 – 1.15 pm:
Writers on Mondays
Best New Zealand Poems 08
Te Papa, Soundings Theatre (please note the venue change)
As a curtain-raiser for Montana Poetry Day, we present readings by writers whose poems appear in the 2008 anthology of Best New Zealand Poems (edited by James Brown), including 2009 Best First Book of Poetry shortlistee Amy Brown, along with Johanna Aitchison, Emma Barnes, David Beach, Cliff Fell, Chris Orsman, Lynn Jenner and Tim Upperton. Chaired by Chris Price.*

Wednesday 22 July, 6-7.30 pm
Poetry in Translation
St Andrews on the Terrace
An evening of poetry and poetry translation featuring Bill Manhire, who will read from his latest collection, the award-winning Lifted, and Marco Sonzogni, Senior Lecturer in Italian at Victoria and executive member of Te Tumu Whakawhiti Tuhinga/New Zealand Centre for Literary Translation, will read the Italian translations.
The reading will provide an ideal platform to experience and discuss the many challenges involved in literary translation, which become even more complex in the case of poetry translation.

*Friday 24 July, 2-3.30 pm
Editing Ted: Christopher Reid on Ted Hughes’ final poems and Selected Letters
Stout Research Centre, 12 Waiteata Road, Kelburn
British poet Christopher Reid was Poetry Editor at Faber & Faber for eight years.
He will discuss his experience of editing Ted Hughes’ final poetry collection (Birthday Letters, 1998), which explored his complex relationship with Sylvia Plath, and Hughes’ Selected Letters, published posthumously in 2007.
Please note: Admission is free, but numbers are limited; please RSVP to modernletters@vuw.ac.nz by 22 July if you plan to attend the Christopher Reid seminar. Put ‘Ted Hughes seminar’ in the subject line.