Lia Liqokeli has been described as a ‘young poetess with an absolutely novel vision and style … suggesting a new trend, not framed in any well-established clichés.’ After her first verses were published on her Facebook page they were hailed as an instant literary breakthrough. This workshop will kick off the PTC’s Georgian Poets Tour.

Introducing Lia’s work will be guest translator Natalia Bukia-Peters, a longtime friend of the Poetry Translation Centre. Natalia was the key figure in organising the Georgian Poets Tour, discovering exciting young women poets writing in Georgian and providing bridge translations of poems by Salome Benidze and Diana Anphimiadi.

Help us kick off the Georgian Poets Tour. Come and collaborate with poets, translators and poetry lovers to translate the work of this unique poetic voice into English for the first time.

There is no need to know the language being translated, just come along!

Poet

Lia Liqokeli started writing at the age of twenty-five and her first verses published in the journal Literaturuli Palitra. In 2013 Publishing house Saunje brought together all her poems and published her debut book under the title Laughter of Devi’s Wife(Devi is a Georgian mythological character similar to European Giant). In 2014, Liqokeli won the TSERO literary contest. He work has been published in Sweden and Germany.

Bridge Translator

Natalia Bukia-Peters is a translator, interpreter and teacher of Russian and Georgian. She has translated literary works from English into Russian for the British Council. Her translation of the short story, ‘Sex for Fridge' by Zurab Lezhava, from Georgian into English, in collaboration with Victoria Field, features in Best European Fiction 2011 from Dalkey Archive Press.

Workshop Facilitator

Edward Doegar is a poet, editor and critic based in London and the commissioning editor at the Poetry Translation Centre. His poems have appeared in various anthologies and journals, including Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe) and Granta. He is a consulting editor at The Rialto, a fellow of The Complete Worksand was general manager of the Poetry Society between 2013 and 2017. His pamphlet, For Now, was published by clinic in 2017.