Centres of Cataclysm

Poet, playwright, and translator Sasha Dugdale took over the editorship of Modern Poetry in Translation in 2013, and is editor of the anthology Centres of Cataclysm: Celebrating Fifty Years of Modern Poetry in Translation (Bloodaxe Books/MPT, 2016). She has translated many works of Russian poetry, prose and drama, including Elena Shvarts's Birdsong on the Seabed (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, and the short story collection Moscow Tales (2013), and has published three poetry collections with Oxford/Carcanet, The Estate (2007), Notebook (2003) and Red House (2011). She has also worked as a consultant for the Royal Court Theatre and other companies in addition to writing her own plays, and from 1995 to 2000 worked for the British Council in Russia. She lives in Sussex. David Constantine has published ten books of poetry, five translations and a novel with Bloodaxe. His poetry titles include Something for the Ghosts (2002), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award; Collected Poems (2004), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Nine Fathom Deep (2009); and Elder (2014). His Bloodaxe translations include editions of Henri Michaux and Philippe Jaccottet; his Selected Poems of Holderlin, winner of the European Poetry Translation Prize; his version of Holderlin's Sophocles; and his translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Lighter Than Air, winner of the Corneliu M. Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation. He won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award in 2013 for his collection Tea at the Midland (Comma Press), and is the first English writer to win this prestigious international award. He was co-editor of Modern Poetry in Translation from 2004 to 2012. Helen Constantine read French and Latin at Oxford. She was Head of Languages at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, until 2000, when she gave up teaching and became a full-time translator. She has published volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, and French Tales and edits a series of City Tales for Oxford University Press. Paris Metro Tales will be published in March 2011. She has translated Mademoiselle de Maupin by Theophile Gautier and Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos for Penguin and is currently translating Balzac's La Peau de Chagrin for OUP. She was co-editor of Modern Poetry in Translation from 2004 to 2012.

‘MPT seeks a real diversity of voices: women and men equally, different centuries, countries, races, creeds, languages, cultures, ideas. The very essence of the founding principle was: Your view is not the only one.' - David & Helen Constantine‘The burning heart of cataclysm at the centre of the anthology is drawn out; through translation, migration and exile, it is transplanted into another soil. The word spoken under duress becomes a word of affirmation: a protection and a stating of our own humanity.' - Sasha Dugdale‘MPT is the Fifth International, anyone who wants to change the world and see it changed should join.’ - John Berger'Always informative, tactfully surprising, the new impressive MPT continues, undaunted, to advance through formidable language barriers.' - Dannie Abse'MPT forms a unique and invaluable service.' - Andrew Motion