Reel Iraq
Following a poetry translation workshop at the Erbil Literature Festival in Northern Iraq in January of this year, Reel festival returns to the UK for its fifth edition. The Iraqi poets who first met their Scottish colleagues in January will come to the UK to continue their translation work and join film-makers and musicians at events in Edinburgh, London, Bristol, Glasgow, Derry, Newcastle, Dumfries and Leeds.
Reel is a traveling festival and has so far featured poetry, music and film from Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and now Iraq. LAF is delighted to be co-operating on this edition which commemorates the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. For blogs from the workshop, photos and event details visit the Reel Festival website: http://reelfestivals.org
The Iraq based poets taking part include: Ghareeb Iskander (author of the 2009 collection Chariot of Illusion), Kurdish poet and women’s rights activist Awezan Nouri, Baghdad based poet and journalist Sabreen Khadhim and emerging poet Zahir Mousa.
The Scottish poets taking part include: Shetland-based Jen Hadfield (winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize); John Glenday, shortlisted for the international Griffin Prize; William Letford, roofer by day and poet by night, whose debut collection Bevel has been widely acclaimed; Ryan Van Winkle, Edinburgh City Libraries Poet in Residence and Krystelle Bamford, winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award 2010.
Here’s a trailer for the festival…
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