Come and translate Russian poetry with one of Russia’s best-loved children’s authors and poets. Marina Boroditskaya will be here in person to help with translations of her poems into English and to discuss Russian poetry in translation with a small group. This workshop is supported by Modern Poetry in Translation who will be publishing Marina’s poetry in the Summer children’s issue and will be joint-led by Marina Boroditskaya and MPT editor Sasha Dugdale. 

The workshop is open to non-speakers of Russian. This workshop is supported by the Institut of Translation and is part of the Russian Children’s Book Festival.

Marina Boroditskaya was born in Moscow in 1954 and graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages in 1976. Marina is a renowned translator of English, American and French classical poetry. Her English poetry includes the first translation into Russian of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Donne, Burns, Keats, Kipling and Longfellow. She has translated several English-language children’s writers, including A. A. Milne, Eleanor Farjeon and Hilaire Belloc. Marina has written five books of verse: I Am Undressing A Soldier (1994), Single Skating (1999), The Year Of Horse (2002), It Should Be Possible (2005), Ode To Myopia (2009) as well as over a dozen children's books.In 2006 and 2010 she was awarded the Moscow Count poetry diplomas; also in 2010, the British Council Lion And Unicorn prize for translations of English poetry, and the Master Of Translation prize for her book on the Cavalier Poets (2010). In addition, she has been awarded three national prizes for children's poetry, including the most prestigious Korney Chukovsky prize. Her work has been featured regularly in Novy Mir and Inostrannaya Literatura since 1978. Marina presents the Radio Russia programme,  Literary Pharmacy,contributes to BBC radio and works as a freelance interpreter at international events. Many of her poems have been translated into English.

Sasha Dugdale is a poet, playwright, and translator. She was born in Sussex, England. She has worked as a consultant for theater companies in addition to writing her own plays. From 1995 to 2000, she worked for the British Council in Russia. She is author of the poetry collections The Estate (2007), Notebook (2003), and Red House (2011) and has translated Russian poetry and drama, including Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.