Events
Sebald Lecture 2012
Making The Crossing: the Poet as Translator
given by Sean O'Brien
Photo: © Caroline Forbes
Preceded by presentation and readings from the annual Translation Prizes
Monday 6 February 2012 at 7pm
Kings Place, London
Sean O’Brien is a poet, critic, broadcaster, anthologist and editor. He grew up in Hull and lives in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and 2007 recipient of the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award. His selected poems, Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976-2001 was published in 2002 and his new verse version of Dante’s Inferno in 2006. His first six individual poetry collections have all won awards, most recently The Drowned Book, which won both the 2007 Forward and T S Eliot Prizes, the first time a book has won both awards. A book of short stories, The Silence Room, was published in 2008; Afterlife, his first novel, and Night Train, a collaborative work of poetry and drawings with Northumberland artist Birtley Aris, were published in 2009. His new poetry collection, November, was a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the 2011 T S Eliot Prize and for the Forward Prize.
The Sebald Lecture is given annually on an aspect of literature in translation. Previously known as the St Jerome Lecture, the lecture was renamed in honour of the founder of BCLT, the late W G Sebald (1944–2001) who died ten years ago this year, just as his remarkable voice was beginning to reach a wider public. 'Max' was a German writer who opted to live in the UK and continue writing in German. His novels and essays include The Rings of Saturn, The Emigrants, Austerlitz, and On the Natural History of Destruction and established him as a leading writer of the 20th century. Previous speakers have included Ali Smith, Will Self, Seamus Heaney, Marina Warner, Susan Sontag, Carlos Fuentes, Louis de Bernières, David Constantine and Hans Magnus Enzensberger.
The Sebald Lecture also celebrates the best in contemporary translation, with readings and presentation of the annual Translation Prizes (administered by the Society of Authors). Prizes presented by Sir Peter Stothard, Editor of the Times Literary Supplement.
Translation Prizes 2011
The Premio Valle Inclán for translation from Spanish
The Saif-Ghobash Banipal Prize for translation from Arabic
The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from German
The Scott-Moncrieff Prize for translation from French
The Vondel Prize for translation from Dutch/Flemish
The German Embassy Award for Translators
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Sean O'Brien will give the 2012 Sebald Lecture at Kings Place on Monday 6 February.
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