Because of this, I describe Gilgamesh Retold as my response to its original source, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. “Stories evolve to suit contemporary tastes and each retelling must create its own unity in the mind of the storyteller before it can achieve coherence for the reader. The resulting book, Gilgamesh Retold, won the Warden’s Prize at Goldsmiths as part of Jenny’s “Writing Mesopotamia” project and was shortlisted for a Gladstone’s Library Residency. In 2013 she embarked on a PhD at Goldsmiths, London University, writing a new, more “woman-friendly” version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Poet interview HERE Meet Jenny in person: Thursday 8 November She teaches poetry at Oxford University and has had three poetry collections published and seven plays. In the air there also – I knew beyond doubt Powdered with peonies scattered like stars.īut more than their loveliness to the eye, Pink gillyflower, ginger and purple gromwell

When corn is cut down with curving scythes.Īnd I saw that the little hill where she fell Where a pearl is planted deep in the dark Which fire in the full light, facing the sun. “In a place where such riches lie rotting Pearl (extract) translated by Jane Draycott Jane Draycott’s superb modern translation catches all the moving power and lyrical beauty of the original, and its spiritual power and consolation. He writes of his grief at the death of his two-year old daughter, Pearl, and how he dreams of seeing and speaking with her in a garden, where he learns that she is now living in heaven as a Bride of Christ. Pearl is a beautiful and moving medieval poem by the anonymous poet who also wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Her translation of the 14th-century Pearl is a PBS Recommendation and winner of a Stephen Spender Prize for Translation.

Poet interview HERE Meet Jane in person: Thursday 8 November A tutor on postgraduate writing programmes at Oxford University and the University of Lancaster, her published works include Prince Rupert’s Drop and The Night Tree. 8 November at 6.30 p.m., Michael Schmidt, a founder-director will chair the discussion with poets Jane Draycott and Jenny Lewis talk theme: Claiming the Great Tradition: Women Recalibrate the Classics. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year. Carcanet Press primarily publishes poetry. The tenth and last talk of this year’s inaugural BookBlast® 10×10 tour, a nationwide celebration of independent publishing is featuring Carcanet Press which was conceived at Pin Farm, South Hinksey, Oxford, in 1969 by Peter Jones, Gareth Reeves and Michael Schmidt.

Michael schmidt gilgamesh