Workshop 3: Translation, Publication, Diaspora, Marketplaces
18 March, 2025, Cartwright Hall, Bradford, UK
World Making Words: Connecting women’s literary agency, activism and enterprise in South Asia: Workshop 3 on Translation, Publication, Diaspora, Marketplaces.
Coinciding with Bradford’s term as UK City of Culture (2025), this third workshop considered the significance of acts of translation in effecting shifts in the perception of South Asian women, their agency and enterprise, in both local and global literary marketplaces. Additionally, it sought to situate such conversations in a wider, international, feminist context specific to translation, and address the challenge of working inclusively across sectors including publishing, theatre, and the visual arts.
The workshop included a reading group discussion inspired by the pioneering anthology We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (The Women’s Press, 1991), selected andtranslated by Ahmad, and a walking tour of the Cartwright Gallery’s current displays, providing insight into its approaches to inclusivity and community curation. It concluded with a range of poetry and prose readings by local women writers of South Asian heritage.
About the event
This event took place at the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. Contributors included Rukhsana Ahmad (writer, translator; Co-founder, Kali Theatre); Rehana Ahmed (Queen Mary, University of London); Arpita Das (Ashoka University, Founder, Yoda Press); Luise von Flotow (Ottawa University); Jill Iredale (Community Curator, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery).
Participants were invited to read the title poem from the collection We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (trans. Rukhsana Ahmad, The Women’s Press, 1991) in advance of the event. This is available at: https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-23748_WE-SINFUL-WOMEN.
Programme
World Making Words 