Contributors: Sophie Collins (ed.), Christian Hawkey, Georg Trakl, Don Mee Choi, Caroline Bergvall, Lisa Robertson, Sawako Nakayasu, Sagawa Chika, Erín Moure, Chus Pato, Molly Weigel, Jorge Santiago Perednik, Holly Pester, Sonja Kravanja, Tomaž Šalamun, Rosmarie Waldrop, Elfriede Czurda, Chantal Wright, Yōko Tawada, Zoë Skoulding, Rachael Allen, Linh Dinh, Mien Dang, Nguyen Quoc Chanh, Sandra Doller, Eric Suchère, Khairani Barokka, Brian Henry, Catherine Petit & Paul Buck, Colette Thomas, Anne Carson, Tara Bergin, Lawrence Venuti, J. V. Foix, Oli Hazzard, Vahni Capildeo, Hilary Kaplan, Angélica Freitas, Eliza Griswold, Karen Van Dyck, Uljana Wolf and Sophie Seita.

All rewritings, whatever their intention, reflect a certain ideology and a poetics … the study of the manipulation processes of literature as exemplified by translation can help us towards a greater awareness of the world in which we live. André Lefevere & Susan Bassnett

Test Centre is delighted to announce the upcoming publication of Currently & Emotion: Translations, an innovative and extensive anthology of contemporary poetry translations edited by Sophie Collins, whose debut collection is forthcoming from Penguin in 2017.

The anthology presents a varied and carefully curated selection of works which foreground the translator, and, by showcasing a broad range of approaches, seeks to challenge dominant perceptions of translation as an uncomplicated literary service that simply facilitates access to foreign and/or historical texts.

Currently & Emotion is comprised of 29 extended excerpts from book- or pamphlet-length translation projects (rather than one-off translations of individual poems), either unpublished or published since 2010. The selection leans towards translations by and from female translators and authors, and towards work that shows awareness of, and that negotiates in interesting ways, the complex power dynamics inherent to every act of translation.

Currently & Emotion is both a collection of striking original work and an insightful and provocative reflection on contemporary practices of translation. The anthology aims not to provide a definitive thesis on what the process and function of translation should be, but to encourage discussion about its challenges and possibilities, and the complex political and emotional issues with which it unavoidably engages.

In addition to the poems, the anthology includes extended introductory material by Sophie Collins, a preface by Erín Moure and an afterword by Zoë Skoulding. The excerpts are accompanied by short contextualising notes based on discussions with the translators and (where possible) the authors of the source texts.

The book is intricately designed by Traven T. Croves, printed in three spot colours which distinguish between the different layers of text – all translations in bronze, source texts in red, and secondary material in black. The cover artwork is by Stephanie Hier.

Sophie Collins is co-editor of tender, an online journal promoting work by female-identified writers and artists. Her poems have appeared in magazines, anthologies, newspapers, art books and in the first instalment of the newly revived Penguin Modern Poets series. She is currently Artist in Residence at Glasgow Women’s Library, where she is researching and writing a text on self-expression, subjectivity and shame to be published by Book Works in 2017. Her first poetry collection will be published by Penguin, also in 2017.

£20 + p&p. 230 x 170 mm. 352pp (+ 2 bookmarks). 600 copies.
Offset printed in 3 spot colours. Section sewn binding with cold glue.
Cover art: This time I’m gonna beat you to the truck, by Stephanie Hier
Designed by Traven T. Croves
Printed by Unicum, Netherlands
ISBN: 978-0-9935693-1-9