Two of Africa’s leading poets – Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi from Sudan and Corsino Fortes from Cape Verde – return to the UK for the first time since 2008 to take part in a series of readings and events this summer.
Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi is widely regarded as the leading African poet writing in Arabic today. Famous in his native Sudan for the delicate complexity of his lyrical poems, his many visits to the UK for the Poetry Translation Centre have been greeted with enormous enthusiasm. He comes to the UK after taking part in the prestigious Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam.
Corsino Fortes pioneering use of Cape Verdean Creole in his poetry is a powerful statement of his country’s African identity. His remarkable poems of exile and homecoming reformulate Cape Verde’s postcolonial renaissance.
The poets will be joined by their translators, Sarah Maguire and Sean O’Brien.