Forgetting Chatwin

Forgetting Chatwin

13 August 2013

At the end of August four poets from Wales will travel to Buenos Aires and then on to Trelew before travelling across land in the company of Argentinian and Chilean writers. They will be driven by anthropologist Hans Schulz from the east coast of Argentinian Patagonia to the west coast of Chilean Patagonia.

The journey will begin with a workshop and event hosted by the Club de Traductores Literarios de Buenos Aires, supported by the city government and Argentinian Ministry of Culture. The poets will be joined by local writers and will explore each other's work through translations into their respective languages. The project - the South American edition of Writers' Chain - will work towards creating a Welsh poetry anthology in Spanish translation edited by poet, translator and general cultural impresario, Jorge Fondebrider. It will also contribute to translations in Welsh and English of Argentinian and Chilean poetry. We look forward to seeing the translations published in the lead-up to the 150 year celebration of the establishment of Y Wladfa, the Welsh Colony in Patagonia in 2015. In 1865, over 150 people from various parts of Wales sailed on the Mimosa to settle in the Chubut Valley, in Southern Argentina.

Readings and lectures – mostly on Welsh history and culture - will take place as the writers stop off during their journey, at universities, secondary schools and cultural centers.

The writers taking part from Wales are Tiffany Atkinson, Richard Gwyn, Mererid Hopwood and Karen Owen. From Chile and Argentina, Verónica Zondek, Jorge Aulicino, Silvia Camerotto, Inés Garland and Marina Kohon will be joining Jorge Fondebrider and working with the Welsh poets.

We are particularly grateful to Jorge Fondebrider, Luned Gonzalez, Richard Gwyn, Hans Schulz and Verónica Zondek for all their work on developing and implementing Forgetting Chatwin.

Writers' Chain is a Wales Arts International/British Council project developed in collaboration with Wales Literature Exchange.

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