Centre for Poetry and Poetics: Baker, Watts, József

Alan Baker, Chris Gutkind, Stephen Watts and Attila József come together at The University of Sheffield on Thursday 19 November, for a session on contemporary experimental translation and ekphrasis. It's presented by the Centre for Poetry and Poetics, which is run by Agnes Lehoczky, a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the university.

Baker and Watts bring their own poetry into the mix. Alan Baker was born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and has lived in Nottingham since 1985; he runs the poetry publisher Leafe Press and its magazine Litter, and his latest collection is A Book of Psalms (Shearsman). Stephen Watts has lived in Whitechapel for nearly 50 years and has published Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds (2020) and Journeys Across Breath: Poems 1975-2005 (2022), as well as co-translating poetry by Golan Haji, Adnan l-Sayegh and Ziba Karbassi.

Then there's Attila József, one of Hungary's most renowned 20th-century poets. He came from working-class origins, studied at the University of Szeged, and was active in anarchist and Communist circles before he died in 1937. His final collection, Nagyon fáj, appeared in 1936, and he's the subject of The Song of the Cosmos: Selected Poems of Attila József (Shearsman, 2026), co-translated by Adam Piette and Agnes Lehoczky.

It's a free entry session, running from 6:15 to 8:15pm at the Diamond, LT2, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN.