ORIGINS OF THE FIRE EMOJI: FOCUS ON DEAD [WOMEN] POETS

We’re delighted to share the cover for our autumn 2020 issue. Funded through supporters on Indiegogo, our initial target of £1500 was exceeded in the first week, raising a total of £2,419, allowing us to extend the issue and host a special online launch.

Cover art by Lily Arnold

Highlights in this issue

MPT’s autumn issue, ‘Origins of the Fire Emoji’, has a focus guest-edited by the Dead [Women] Poets Society, and will bring voices from all corners of the world back to life. From Enheduanna, a high priestess from ancient Mesopotamia who is the first recorded poet, to Suzannah Evans’ essay on ‘Resurrecting’ Nadia Anjuman, via Sappho, Hồ Xuân Hương, Marina Tsvetaeva, Lakshmi Holmström, Noémia de Sousa and many more, you are invited to join the séance. Also featured: Ali Al-Jamri’s new translation of Abu Al-Qassim Al-Shabbi’s influential poem ‘The Desire of Life’. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

Pre-orders will be shipped with the regular subscriptions mail-out in November 2020.

Launching Origins of the Fire Emoji: Focus on Dead Women Poets

Date and time: 7pm GMT 30 October 2020
Location: YouTube Live
Registration: Register your attendance to receive a reminder email on the day, with a direct link to the event.

Join the séance!

We’ll be streaming live from MPT’s YouTube channel from 7pm GMT 30 October 2020, where MPT Editor Clare Pollard will be joined remotely by Dead [Women] Poets Society’s Helen Bowell and Jasmine Simms. We’ll welcome three translators featured in this issue: Zoë Brigley, Natalie Linh Bolderston and Jessica Wood.

This launch will work like a Dead [Women] Poets Society séance, so get ready to resurrect the spirits of the dead and hear how our translator-mediums have communed with these ghostly grandmothers over the past months. 

We’ll also be answering your questions on the night – so please email questions in advance to webeditor@mptmagazine.com with Dead Women Poets focus online launch in the subject line. We’ll also try to respond to any comments on the livestream as they come in.

With special thanks to our supporters

A sincere thank-you to everyone who shared and supported our Indiegogo campaign.