Poetry and audiences: Wales, UK and Worldwide
Submitting Institution
Bangor UniversityUnit of Assessment
English Language and LiteratureSummary Impact Type
CulturalResearch Subject Area(s)
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
History and Archaeology: Historical Studies
Summary of the impact
An internationally-profiled practising poet from Bangor University, Dr
Zoë Skoulding, has since 2008 impacted significantly on cultural life of
audiences worldwide, by creating, presenting and interpreting poetry in
ways that have reframed its local, national and international reception.
Examples include worldwide readings as well as a project on women's
poetry, urban space and innovative translation practice that has been
presented to non-academic audiences throughout Europe and led to a local
poetry festival focused on translation and locale. Editorship of Poetry
Wales has developed new understandings of Welsh poetry in English.
Underpinning research
A part-time AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts 2007-2012
(value: £161, 633.75 FEC of which £129, 307.00 from AHRC) provided the
frame for Dr Skoulding's practice-based research in poetry and urban
space at Bangor University, including Remains of a Future City
(Seren, 2008, long-listed for Wales Book of the Year 2009) (3.1).
Since her full-time appointment as senior lecturer in 2012, the
relationships between poetry and the public space of cities that
emerge in this collection have been further amplified in her monograph
Women's Poetry and Urban Space: Experimental Cities (Palgrave MacMillan,
2013) (3.2). The practice-based nature of her research means
that outreach is often an intrinsic part of it. For example, the
connection between poetry and local urban contexts formed the basis of
Metropoetica, a collaborative practice-based research project Dr Skoulding
directed 2009-2011 in association with Literature Across Frontiers (an
internationally active EU-funded organization based at the Mercator
Institute at Aberystwyth University). This involved a group of leading
women poets and translators from smaller European countries meeting for a
series of workshop discussions to investigate relationships between
language and space through translation, collaborative writing and public
performance in city space. Metropoetica: Women Writing Cities
(Seren, 2013) (3.3) documents not only artistic practice and
theory, but also the responses of local audiences involved in the process.
The innovative nature of this research is its focus on women, who
have often, historically, been excluded from poetic discourses of the
city, and its use of artistic traditions in metropolitan centres like
Paris or New York to explore culturally marginalized aspects of European
identity.
As co-convenor of the ContemPo series, a video-linked poetry
seminar run jointly between Bangor and Aberystwyth Universities since
2006, Dr Skoulding, in collaboration with Professor Peter Barry at
Aberystwyth, has established a shared interest in experimental poetry
in a Welsh context. Public events such as the North Wales
International Poetry Festival, directed by Dr Skoulding, build further on
this research.
References to the research
3.1. Zoë Skoulding, Remains of a Future City (Seren,
2008). Submitted to REF 2014 (REF Identifier 2924).
3.2. Zoë Skoulding, Contemporary Women's Poetry and Urban Space:
Experimental Cities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) Submitted to REF 2014
(REF Identifier 2926).
3.3. Zoë Skoulding, Ingmara Balode, Julia Fiedorczuk, Sanna
Karlström, Ana Pepelnik, Elzbieta Wojcik-Leese and Sigurbjörg
Thrastardottir, Metropoetica: Women Writing Cities (Seren, 2013).
This output can be made available upon request.
Details of the impact
Creative and critical research in poetry has developed new audiences
and enriched existing ones through local, national and global engagement
with different communities.
Innovations in international contexts
Dr Zoë Skoulding's poetry from Remains of a Future City and The Museum of
Disappearing Sounds has been translated into eighteen languages,
contributing to the cultural life across the world via her participation
in numerous international literary festivals. Such readings in other
countries often have far greater cultural impact than they do in the UK
because they happen on a larger scale. In Nicaragua (2010) and Venezuela
(2011), for example, Dr Skoulding read at events with audiences of
thousands [5.8] as well as extensive coverage in the
national press [5.9]. Because of her wide international
experience she was a leading contributor to a programme for Radio 4,
Guns, Roses and Poetry Readings, aired in 2011, explaining to UK listeners
why poetry is seen as so important in other cultures. [5.7]
While the first workshops of Metropoetica in Krakow and Ljubljana
were planned with Literature Across Frontiers as part of Dr Skoulding's
AHRC project, subsequent events were commissioned by literary
festivals in Riga, Wroclaw and Athens, where the group (see website
[5.1]) was invited to create performances to reflect an
understanding of a particular city through poetry, film and photography
and present it to a local non-specialist audience. [5.1] These
invitations show that the project's impact in generating a new
approach to artistic practice and literary interaction between minority
languages. LAF's director writes that Metropoetica 'had a profound
impact on our practice with respect to the translation of poetry in the
context of gender-related inquiries on the one hand and community cultural
development on the other. The project engaged both the participants and
local communities in the cities where the project took place in thinking
about their environment and about life in urban environments in general.
'She adds that Dr Skoulding's approach to connecting writing and
translating poetry about cities from a gendered perspective has provided
useful insights for other projects.' [5.3] The Wroclaw event
received extensive coverage in the Polish media [5.2]. Work from
the project is publicized via a website at [5.1] and an
international co-publication in book form (3.3).
Dr Skoulding worked with UK, Indian, Swiss and French poets in December
2010 on a co-translation and performance project in Chennai, Pune and
Trivandrum, India, organized jointly by Literature Across Frontiers and
the British Council. Follow-up multilingual performances took place in
Bangor and at the high-profile Ledbury Poetry Festival in June 2011,
showing how the combination of translation and multimedia performance
in Dr Skoulding's previous work has informed further cross-cultural
engagements [5.4].
Enriching cultural life in Wales
The projects outlined above have generated ways of understanding the
role of English as a `bridge' language in poetry translation and
performance; English is decentralized and placed in relation to
other languages, while the process in itself is made a creative focus
rather than a neutral transaction. This approach addresses the literary
cultural heritage of Wales, which is split between two languages, and has
provided new models for cultural interaction. The first North Wales
International Poetry Festival, directed by Dr Skoulding, took place in
October 2012. Nine visiting international poets gave readings alongside
Welsh writers in both languages with a focus on the role of translation
and performance in the local bilingual context. Performances took place in
empty shops and small businesses in Bangor High Street, including a
recital in Welsh by local schoolchildren, contributing to current
initiatives to regenerate the town through artistic and community
engagement. Encompassing experimental work by highly regarded
international practitioners in several languages as well as Wales's
historic strict-metre traditions, the festival transcended the binary
linguistic oppositions that often limit cultural exchange. The
curation of the festival as a multilingual event with site-specific and
cross-media elements was drawn from Dr Skoulding's research in
Metropoetica. The event was the first of its kind in Wales and over 300
people attended, mainly in Bangor but also in Aberystwyth and Mold.
Dr Skoulding's application for Arts Council of Wales funding for a second
festival in 2013 was successful, indicating support for the project at
a national level. [5.6]
As Editor of the quarterly Poetry Wales since 2008, a position she was
offered on the basis of her work as a poet and critic, Dr Skoulding has commissioned
poems and essays from leading poets and critics both within Wales
and internationally as a means of encouraging diversity within Welsh
culture and opening it to international readerships. Her editorials
link creative and critical elements in the magazine, providing an
exchange between public literary engagement and practice-based research
by poet-academics throughout Wales [5.5]. Public presentations of
Poetry Wales have enabled her to speak about writing from Wales at
literary events across the world. At the same time, she maintains contact
with thousands of contributors and would-be contributors through replying
personally to unsolicited submissions. In providing a channel for
cultural engagement across the country, with attentiveness to its
disadvantaged regions as well as more obvious centres, the magazine
contributes actively to the development of Welsh culture outside
academic structures. This ongoing work links an awareness of
poetry's international significance with its local and regional potential,
thereby increasing cultural confidence.
Sources to corroborate the impact
- Website for Metropoetica, showing examples from activities in cities
across Europe:
http://www.metropoetica.org
- Press coverage of Metropoetica in Poland:
http://kulturaonline.pl/metropoetica,spacer,po,wroclawiu,tytul,artykul,10956.html
- Letter from the Director of Literature Across Frontiers (held on file
in Bangor University), demonstrating the impact of Dr Zoë Skoulding's
work on Metropoetica.
- Review of Poetry Connections in Pune, India, referring to use of Dr
Skoulding's use of sound art in performance.
http://openspaceindia.org/engage/recent-events/literature/poetry/art/poetry-connections.html
- Website for Poetry Wales, demonstrating variety of engagement through
publication:
www.poetrywales.co.uk
- North Wales International Poetry Festival website, where video of the
poetry walk shows enthusiastic engagement of international poets and
local audience:
http://www.northwalesinternationalpoetryfestival.org
- BBC Radio 4 programme about poetry festivals with contributions from
Zoë Skoulding
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2011/50/guns-roses-and-poetry-readings.html
- Zoë Skoulding reading at Granada Poetry Festival in Nicaragua can be
heard at http://www.festivalpoesianicaragua.com/2009/12/zoe-skoulding.
Other photos on the same site indicate the scale of the audience, e.g. http://www.festivalpoesianicaragua.com/wp-content/uploads/poesiagranada-319.jpg
- Press coverage of Zoë Skoulding at Venezuela World Poetry Festival
http://www.correodelorinoco.gob.ve/regiones/festival-mundial-poesia-llega-a-nueva-esparta/