Poetry by Salome Benidze, Diana Anphimiadi coming to readers in English

Works by two of the most celebrated women poets from Georgia will soon become available to readers in English, with poetry by Salome Benidze and Diana Anphimiadi selected for publishing in the United Kingdom.

Benidze and Anphimiadi’s literary work will be brought to a new audience after two British poets translate it within the London-based Poetry Translation Centre (PTC)’s project.

Award-winning poets Jean Sprackland and Helen Mort will work on the literary creations, making use of bridge translations by Natalia Bukia-Peters, which will replicate the original meaning of the poems.

Thanks to the highly skilled work of Natalia Bukia-Peters, I can already see how brilliantly [Anphimiadi’s] poems shine with colour and feeling”, said Jean Sprackland in her comments on the project.

I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work on my first translation project with the PTC. It will be so exciting to engage with Salome [Benidze]’s work and respond to it”, Helen Mort noted.

The two British poets will also work closely with the Georgian authors to make their works authentic for readers in English.

The PTC will publish the translations in May, within their long-standing effort to print poetry by women from around the world for new audiences.

Diana Anphimiadi and Salome Benidze are top poets in Georgia and we are delighted to be sharing their work with readers of English [...] We really look forward to seeing these fine poets get to know one another in the months ahead”, said Erica Jarnes, CEO of the PTC.

The translations will mark 2018 as the centre’s "Year of Publishing Women”, celebrated along with publishing houses And Other Stories and Tilted Axis Press.

Founded in 2004, the PTC’s work was aimed at making some of the best work in poetry from Africa, Asia and Latin America available in English by publishing bilingual chapbooks and full-length collections.

Diana Anphimiadi, a doctoral student at the Tbilisi State University, has published poetry and prose collections including Resume of Mythology and Personal Cuisine.

She received the 2009 Debut of the Year Award from Georgia’s major literary prize Saba and was among award-winners of the 2008 Tsero Literary Competition.

Salome Benidze is a graduate of Tbilisi State University, Vilnius University and Alexander Technological Institution of Thessaloniki.

Benidze has worked in prose and poetry, including on the 2015 novel The City on the Water, awarded the 2016 Tsinandali Award for Prose Collection of the Year.

She has also co-authored the documentary project (S)hero(es) — an upcoming collection of women’s stories from the armed conflict between Russia and Georgia ten years ago — with photographer Dina Oganova.