About us
The Trustees
On this page you’ll find details of our distinguished Patron, the Iraqi poet, Saadi Yousef, and members of our Board of Trustees. The effective functioning of the PTC would be impossible without their support, expertise and advice.
Read more about the staff…
Saadi Yousef, Patron
Saadi Yousef is one of the most important poets and translators alive today. Born in Basra, Iraq in 1934, he has published more than forty volumes of poetry and prose. His precise, understated, lyrical poetry has had a profound impact on the development of contemporary poetry in Arabic. He is also a leading translator of literature into Arabic, introducing writers such as Ngugi wa Thiongo, Wole Soyinka, Walt Whitman, Vasco Popa and Constantine Cavafy to Arabic readers. Forced to leave Iraq in 1979, he has since lived in exile in Europe and the Middle East, settling in west London in 1999. A selection of his poems, Without an Alphabet, Without a Face, translated by Khaled Mattawa, was published by Graywolf in 2002.
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Lord Victor Adebowale, CBE, Board Member
Lord Adebowale has been the CEO of Turning Point, the UK's leading social care organisation, since September 2001.
He's involved in a number of taskforce groups, advising the government on mental health, learning disability and the role of the voluntary sector. He is co-chair of the Black and Minority Ethnic Mental Health National Steering Group and is a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Lord Adebowale is a patron of the Rich Mix Centre Celebrating Cultural Diversity, a patron of Tomorrow's Project, and of the National College for School Leadership. He is also a patron of the Nursing Council on Alcohol and CARE International Foundation. He is a member of the National Employment Panel, the New Economics Foundation Board and the Institute for Fiscal Studies Council. He is on the policy advisory board of the Social Market Foundation, and on the board of the National School of Government.
Lord Adebowale has an honorary PhD from the University of Central England in Birmingham, an honorary doctor of letters from Lincoln University, and an honorary PhD from the University of East London. He is an honorary fellow of South Bank University and honorary senior fellow in the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham.
In 2000, Lord Adebowale was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honour List for services to the New Deal, the unemployed, and homeless young people. In 2001, he became one of the first group of people to be appointed as People's Peers.
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Fiona Sampson, Board Member
The poet and translator, Fiona Sampson, is currently editor of Poetry Review, the leading poetry journal published by the Poetry Society.
The most recent of her fourteen publications are her latest poetry collection, Common Prayer (Carcanet; 2007), which was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Prize; Writing: Self and Reflexivity (with Celia Hunt; Macmillan; 2005); and a selection of essays, On Listening (Salt; 2007). Eight of her books have been translated into various languages, including Patuvachki Dnevnik (Travel Diary), which was awarded the 2003 Zlaten Prsten (Macedonia). Other prizes include writers' awards from the Arts Councils of England and Wales and the Society of Authors; and, in the US, the Literary Review's annual Charles Angoff Award.
Educated at Oxford and Nijmegen, she has a PhD in the philosophy of language and was AHRC Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University in 2002-5. She consults internationally on writing in health care and contributes to The Guardian, The Irish Times and other publications.
Her many translations include the leading Estonian poet, Jaan Kaplinski; an anthology of younger Central European poets; and Orient Express: The Best of Contemporary Writing from Enlargement Europe, of which she is the founding editor.
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Gary McKeone, Chair
Gary McKeone is a native of Derry, Northern Ireland. He began his career working in literature at the South Bank Centre and in theatre with the Field Day Theatre Company. He joined Arts Council England in 1993 and served as Literature Director for ten years until 2006. Currently working in a freelance capacity, he is involved with a number of literature organisations and is Chair of the Poetry Archive.
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In this section you can read about what we do as an organisation, and who we are on the staff page, and see who is involved as trustees.
Find out more about the translations process or the World Poets’ Tour here.
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