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Meet our Queer Digital Residency Translators

The Poetry Translation Centre (UK) and Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) have selected two emerging translators to take part in their first ever Queer Digital Residency. Paula Galindez from Argentina and Jon Herring from the UK, will both be taking part in a seven month development program to elevate and strengthen their translation practices and translate queer poets.

The Queer Digital Residency programme will support these two queer-identifying translators with a structured programme of seminars, workshops, live events and paid time for the resident translators to explore the work of a living poet of their choice as well as queer translation as a practice.

Starting in June the participating translators will take part in an online programme of seminars including sessions with leading queer poets, including Mary Jean Chan and Andrew McMillan, who co-edited 100 Queer Poems (Vintage),Latinx poet and translator Leo Boix, author of Ballad of a Happy Immigrant which was the Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice in 2021, and poet, transator and professor Jeffry Angels, first non-native poet writing in Japanese to win the Yomiuri Prize for Literature.

Each of the participants will produce a new body of translations, with Paula Galindez translating an English language poet into Spanish and Jon Herring translating a Spanish language Latinx poet into English. They will share the process via workshops, and multimedia presentations. The residency will culminate in autumn 2022 with public readings in the UK and Argentina.

Argentinian poet and translator Paula Galindez said:

"Being selected for the Queer Digital Residency is one of the most exciting things that has happened to me. To get the chance to translate and work alongside a UK poet I admire is already more than I could have hoped for, but to think I will be doing it while learning from experienced poets and translators and leading translation workshops open to people from all over the world and raising awareness on the importance of queer translation... It really doesn't get any better than this."

UK translator Jon Herring said:

“I am extremely excited to be working with the team at the PTC, my Argentinian counterpart Paula, and the poets whose work we will be translating in and out of Spanish. I’m also looking forward very much to the trainings with Leo Boix, Mary Jean Chan, Andrew McMillan, Jeffrey Angles and Diana Bellessi. It's a dream come true.”

Read more about Jon Herring here.

Read more about Paula Galindez here.