Samar Shahdad is an exiled Iranian Poet and Translator whose work addresses the themes of exile, language, identity, home, and belonging. Influenced by other exiled poets and writers, Samar resides in Transnational poetry which knows no borders.

This event features an international line up of poets including:

Mohsen Emadi, Mexico,

Maram Al-Masri, France

Roxana Crisologo, Finland

Ana Mirel, Cuba

Mike Baynham, UK

Antonio Martinez-Arboleda, UK

Tom Bolton, UK

Rosie Baynham, UK

Samah Moustafa, Egypt

Samar Shahdad, Born in the city of Shiraz in Iran, Samar Shahdad is an exiled Iranian poet and translator whose work addresses the themes of exile, language, identity, home, and belonging. Influenced by other exiled poets and writers, Samar resides in transnational poetry which knows no borders.

Maram al-Masri is from Lattakia in Syria, now settled in Paris. she studied english literature at Damascus University before starting publishing her poetry in arab magazines in the 1970s. today she is considered one of the most acknowledged, influential and captivating feminine voices of her generation and to date her work has been translated into eleven languages, including french, German, english, Italian , spanish, serbian, Corsican and turkish. In addition to numerous poems published in literary journals, several arab anthologies and various international anthologies, she has published three collections of poems, the first of which, I Threaten You with a White Dove, appeared in 1987. Her second collection, A Red Cherry on a White-tiled Floor, followed ten years later in 1997 and was published in french translation by Éditions PHa in 2003. It was also translated into english by Khaled Mattawa and published in a bilingual edition in 2004 by Bloodaxe Books. In 2007, the publishing house al Manar released her third collection, I Look at You, a book that was initially published in Beirut and which was awarded the Prix de la Poésie de la sGDl. Maram al-Masri has participated in many international festivals of poetry in france and abroad, including the first-ever Arab author event at the Dublin Writers festival, 2004. she is the recipient of a number of prestigious literary prizes, including the adonis Prize of the lebanese Cultural forum for the best creative work in Arabic in 1998, the Premio Citta di Calopezzati for the section Poesie de la Mediterranée, the Prix d’automne 2007 of the Société des gens de letters, Il Fiore d’argento 2015 for cultural excellence and the Premio laurentum per la Poesia 2015, Dante alighieri award

Mike Baynham is a poet and translator based in Otley West Yorkshire. Committed to transnational poetry (poetry sans frontières/ sin fronteras/ بدون حدود) he translates from Spanish and increasingly from Arabic. His translations of the renowned Moroccan poet Abdallah Zrika will be published in the Transference journal this Autumn.

Mohsen Emadi, Mexico : Mohsen Emadi was born in Sari, in northern Iran province of Mazandaran. He began writing poems during childhood and appeared in numerous magazines as a young adult. In 1995, he moved to Tehran to study computer engineering at Sharif University of Technology, where he co-founded multiple student magazines and co-organized two conferences on cinema and philosophy, all confronted by university authorities. Being influenced by Federico García Lorca and the folklore of Mazandaran, he got to know Ahmad Shamlou as his mentor, and was introduced to Generation of ’27 of Spain by him. He was an active member of Iranian Student Protests of July 1999, and again 10 years later, 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, the latter forcing him to leave the country. He landed in Finland in 2009 to study digital culture at University of Jyväskylä. Later he lived in Czech Republic and Spain, before moving to Mexico in August 2012, working as a lecturer and researcher in poetry and comparative literature. Author of 7 collections of poetry, Emadi’s work have been translated into many languages, including Spanish, English, French, Portugués, Arabic, Finnish, etc

Rosie Baynham London, UK : My name is Rosie, I’m a linguist. That’s what I like to call myself because I studied languages (obsessively) through school and university. I love to look at poetry in translation. It’s a puzzle and a way to enjoy expressing words in the target language with the guidance and backbone of what you are translating from. It is a way I can be creative without feeling that I must create something out of nowhere. Sometimes I do create things out of no where (in this case poetry) but I am still finding my voice, and it is a process of small increments. I’m pleased to be part of a community that rejoices in words and being enveloped in and challenged by them.

Roxana Crisólogo (Peru / Finland) Poet and cultural producer. She has published 5 poetry books. In 2013, Roxana established Sivuvalo Platform and currently works as its coordinator.Roxana is the coordinator of Nordic Exchange in Literature, an organization dedicated to the translation, discussion, and research of multilingual literature in the Nordic countries. She lives and works in Helsinki.

Tony Martin-Woods, Leeds (England)Tony runs Transforming with Poetry in Leeds. He is also known for his work as an educator under his real-life name, Antonio Martínez Arboleda. His projects of digitisation of poetry under artemispoesia.com, bring together videos of Spanish poets, translations and Open Educational Resources. He is the delegate in the UK of Crátera, where he publishes poetry translations. His second book, Goddess Summons The Nation, is a critique of the ideas of nation and capitalism, mainly in the British-Brexit context. He produces poetry on the future, video poems, contributes to Poetry Life and Times and plays bass in The Blacksocks.

Tom Bolton, from Dublin, Ireland. (Currently living in Milton Keynes, England) Born and reared in Ireland, the city of Dublin is my birthplace and my cultural and spiritual home. For 57 of my 77 years i have been living in England and my Irishness has interacted with my English cultural surroundings and the product of that interaction is also part of who I feel I am. I have involved myself in small ways in social, political and other activities always with the aim of bringing people together to reduce social inequality, to oppose unjust wars and to promote cultural diversity. In those and other endeavours I have always found poetry to be a great help and inspiration. I do not myself write poetry but am an enthusiastic admirer and grateful beneficiary of those who do. I am a member of a small group trying to improve on our limited command of the Irish language, Gaeilge, and that is where I came across the work of Nuala Ní Dhómhnaill whose short verse on the vulnerability of Gaeilge, I intend to read. She writes only in Gaeilge and this verse has been translated to English by Paul Muldoon.

Ana Mirielle Hernàndez Capote.Cuba, Havana, January 1, 1992.Poet, narrator and declaimer.Has taught summer poetry courses at the Mirta Aguirre culture house in Havana City.Member of the Letra de kmbio project, winner of the Coral del Aire Prize in poetry and several literary workshop meetings.Director of the Cambialibrando Literary Ecological Project, and of the Librotherapy Section at the hospital where she studies as a volunteer nurse.She has written several poems: Devuelta, Pan y Circus, Good bye November , In this part of the world, From the bottom. And a book of stories for adults: Tales at random, a children's story book: The blog of Caimàn Popino and is currently working on a new collection of poems. A creator who puts the heart , like ink for each of his verses

Samah Moustafa: The poet, Samah Moustafa. Poet from Egypt. She has published 3 books from the Ministry of Culture. One of the institutions of the Tanta International Poetry Festival