10TAL, the Swedish leading magazine on literature and art and producer of the annual Stockholm International Poetry Festival collaborates with the Meridian Czernowitz Festival 2016 on poetry translations between Ukrainian and Swedish and vice versa. The project is supported by the Swedish Institute. Its goal is to connect Ukrainian and Swedish authors and to promote exchanges of knowledge and experience.
The workshop is focused on translations of poetry via English or other common languages. The project begun with a four days workshop in Stockholm in November 2015 at the Stockholm International Poetry Festival. The Ukrainian authors Kateryna Babkina, Oleh Kotsarev and Andriy Lyubka were invited to collaborate with the Swedish authors Aase Berg, Helena Boberg and Jonas Gren in order to translate their own Ukrainian poems into Swedish, assisted by the Ukrainian translator Lev Hrytsyuk with his expertise in both Ukrainian and Swedish literature. The workshop results were presented in readings and talks at the main stage at the festival on the 26th of November at the The Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm.
In September 2016 the project continues and will be completed by its second part in Chernivtsi at the Meridian Festival as well as at the BookForum in Lviv. The Swedish authors Anna Axfors, Aase Berg and Helena Boberg are invited to collaborate on poetry translations with Andriy Lyubka, Iryna Tsilyk and Chrystya Venhrynyuk into Ukrainian, again assisted by Lev Hrytsyuk. The results will be presented at the Chernivtsi University on the 12th of September and at the Book Forum in Lviv at the 15th.
The Poetry Translation Workshop 2015–2016 is a part of a long-time cooperation between 10TAL Magazine and the Ukrainian authors and literature festivals. Ukrainian authors such as Serhiy Zhadan, Yuri Andruchovych, Liubov Iakymchuk and Halyna Kruk have visited the Stockholm International Poetry Festival. In 2014 10TAL published a special issue on Ukrainian literature presenting more than 20 authors and artists to its Swedish audience.
Anna Axfors is a Swedish poet and writer, born in 1990. By many critics considered to be one of the most influential poets of her generation. In her writing she often draws on our digital time, thematically and aesthetically. She also runs a blog on literature and contemporary culture for the national monthly magazine Nöjesguiden. Her novel debut Kärleksbrevet (”A Love Letter”) will be published fall 2016.
Aase Berg is a Swedish poet and critic, born in Stockholm in 1967. She has published seven collections of poetry and is considered to be one of the most influential, unique and innovative poets in Sweden, translated into English and various European languages. She has four books in English, among them With Deer and Dark Matter, translated by Johannes Göransson. Her latest book, Hackers, is soon to be published in the USA. She is also active as a critic in the largest Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, and in 10TAL Magazine since more than 20 years.
Helena Boberg is a Swedish poet and translator, born in 1974 in Stockholm. Member of the former Stockholm Surrealist Group. She debuted in 2011 with the celebrated collection of poems Repuls, which was later published in Arabic with the title Sodood translated by Ibrahim Abdulmalik. Her second collection of poems, Sinnesvåld, was released 2013, and is being translated into English by Johannes Göransson. Her writing is aesthetically driven, feminist, playful in its tendency to uncover patriarchal violence hidden in language and romantic symbols.
