Prototype invites you to celebrate the launch of acclaimed Dutch poet Anne Vegter’s Island mountain glacier, her first full collection to be published in English. Translated by long-term collaborator Astrid Alben, the book was recently granted an English PEN translates award.
This event will be hosted by Prototype published Jess Chandler, with readings and conversation from the author and translator.
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Island mountain glacier is tumultuous, humorous, erotic, enigmatic and vulgar in equal measure. Written in an elastic, playful style that levels the playing field of what kinds of images carry poetic weight, the poems inhabit an incongruous space between everyday distractions and intimate, at times uncomfortable or disturbing questions.
Vegter became the first female Poet Laureate of the Netherlands in 2013. This collection, which also features drawings by the author, was awarded the prestigious Awater Poetry Prize in 2011; published with her long-term translator Astrid Alben, Island mountain glacier is Vegter’s first full collection in English.
Anne Vegter is the author of numerous poetry collections, children’s books, theatre monologues and erotic stories. Her first collection of poems, Het Veerde (It Bounce), was published in 1991, followed in 1994 by Ongekuiste versies (Filth), a book of erotic tales. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Awater Poetry Prize in 2011. Vegter became the first woman to be named Poet Laureate of the Netherlands in 2013 and is Rotterdam’s city poet for 2021–22. Her most recent collection, Big Data, was published in 2020.
Astrid Alben is a poet, editor and translator. Her most recent collection is Plainspeak (Prototype, 2019). Little Dead Rabbit, a collaboration with Zigmunds Lapsa, is due out in 2022.
The translation and publication of Island mountain glacier has been made possible by the generous support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and English PEN.
The event will take place on Zoom, and is free to attend.
Date: Wednesday 9 March, 2022
Time: 7–8pm
Tickets: free, but booking required
