Phrases: New Poets in Translation supported eight emerging poets, age 18-35, based in Scotland and Ukraine to explore cultural exchange and collaboration through a hybrid digital/in-person translation residency. Phrases was organised with the financial support of the UK/UA Creative Partnerships programme, designed by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
Four emerging Scottish poets and four emerging Ukrainian poets worked together on creative adaptation of each others work through two digital workshops, working with mentors Ryan Van Winkle, poet and artistic director of StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, and Ostap Slyvynsky, poet and creative director of Propysy Literary Workshop Festival for Novice Writers, PEN Ukraine’s festival for emerging writers. The writers shared translated work and discussed the translation process at a live joint event with StAnza and Propysy on Saturday 9th March.
Four of these eight writers went on to focus on developing new work and translations through a digital and physical residency space, facilitated by Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre.
Phrases: Stage 1 Digital Writers-in-Residence
About the Programme
There were two stages to the Phrases residency programme. The first brought together four emerging Scottish poets, and four emerging Ukrainian poets to explore the process of co-translation. Writers worked in pairs to complete versions of their poems, from English and Gaelic into Ukrainian and Ukrainian into English and Gaelic.
The second stage saw two of the Stage 1 Scottish poets, Rebecca Ferrier and Robbie MacLeòid, and two of the Stage 1 Ukrainian poets, Ilya Rudiyko and Iryna Kupchynska, continue working together to develop new work and translations, through a hybrid residency programme comprising of a digital sharing space followed by a two-week residency in September 2024 at Moniack Mhor in the Scottish Highlands.
