It is with great regret that Spread The Word has taken the decision to cancel this event along with the rest of the Deptford Literature Festival programme following the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Bringing the world to Deptford through poetry: Poetry Translation Centre presents dual-language readings by award-winning poets at Villages Brewery, Deptford. Celebrating the publication of Akin to Stone by leading Kurdish poet Bejan Matur with readings in Turkish and English.

Kurdish author Bejan Matur is the most illustrious poet among a bold new women’s poetry emerging from the Middle East. Her work engages directly and concretely with the struggles of her people, and yet there is also a mysticism in her writing, a closeness to nature, an embracing of mythology – a dialogue with God. Bejan will read in the original Turkish.

Jen Hadfield is a TS Eliot award-winning poet with three published collections currently to her name. She lives on Shetland, whose landscape and natural life persistently informs her work. Jen will read her own brilliant poetry, as well as her electrifying translations of Bejan’s poems in English.

Presented as part of the Deptford Literature Festival by Poetry Translation Centre with Villages Brewery.