Tomas Transtromer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2011. He was then the first Swedish writer to become a laureate for almost forty years. This anthology takes an intercontinental perspective on the poetry of Transtromer. It raises the question of how his poetry is actually perceived in continents predominated by other literary preferences. It also gives insight to the literal appearance of his poetry in essentially different languages. Transtromer International features a seminar of world poets, placing his poetry in context by relating to their countries of origin: Columbia, Iran and Bangladesh. Angela Garcia, Azita Ghahreman, Anisur Rahman and Kristian Carlsson-i.e. the main seminar committee-also present one poem each inspired by Transtromer. And a select working group has translated sample poems of Transtromer into several world languages, printed alongside the Swedish originals. Most translations are done exclusively for this anthology, and in addition to some new English versions, there are poems in Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Japanese, Romani, Russian, North Sami, Somali and Spanish.

Negative of a Group Photograph brings together three decades of poems by the leading Iranian poet Azita Ghahreman. Born in Mashhad in 1962 and based in Sweden since 2006, Ghahreman is the author of five highly acclaimed collections. Her poems are lyrical and intimate, addressing themes of loss, exile and female desire, as well as the changing face of her country. Negative of a Group Photograph runs the gamut of Ghahreman's experience: from her childhood in the Khorasan region of south-eastern Iran to her exile to Sweden, from Iran's book-burning years and the war in Iraq to her unexpected encounters with love. The poems in this illuminating collection are brought to life in English by the poet Maura Dooley, working in collaboration with Elhum Shakerifar. Farsi-English dual language edition co-published with the Poetry Translation Centre.