MPT's spring issue 'Clean Hands' focuses on the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, featuring the Stanza/MPT Windowswap Project; a conversation between Simone Atangana Bekono and Jay Bernard about the language of lockdown; and new poems and translations from across the continent including Jan Wagner, Stella N'Djoku, David Harsent, Safiye Can, David Constantine, Agnes Agboton, and many others. Also: an introduction to Uyghur poetry curated by Munawwar Abdulla, Naush Sabah's version of 'Qasida Burda', and climate change poems by Marion Poschmann, translated by Jen Calleja. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

Why don't they tell you it is the beautiful princess who becomes the evil queen; that they are just the same person at different points in their story? Versailles, 1682. It's a city of the rich, a living fairy-tale, Louis XIV's fever dream. It's a place of opulence, beauty, and power. But strip back the lavish exterior of polite society, and you'll find a dark undercurrent of vicious gossip and secrets. Nobody is safe here - no matter how highly born they are. Nobody knows this better than Madame Marie d'Aulnoy. Each week, a rogue group - elites, intellectuals, mostly women - gather at her Parisian home. Finding comfort and creative camaraderie, the group act out Contes de Fées - fairy tales - at a salon that will change the course of literature forever. But among the members, a wolf is lurking. A force more dangerous than any they could conjure in their tales, watching, waiting, reporting, and threatening to destroy them one by one. Brilliant and bawdy, witty and provocative, and inspired by real events, THE MODERN FAIRIES is a dazzling novel about scandals and secrets, and the delights and dangers of storytelling in dark times. 'Pollard's future, as a novelist, is very bright indeed' The i, praise for Delphi

'Vivid as fireworks ... Both terrifying and exhilarating' Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat 'Funny and sharp ... A hungry book, looking everywhere and seeing everything' Observer In a time more turbulent than any of us could have ever imagined, a woman is attempting to write a book about prophecy in the ancient world. Navigating the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes fixated on our many forms of divination and prediction: on oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves and the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates. But in doing so she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her own home. For despite our best intentions - our sacrifices and our bargains with the gods - time, certainty and, sometimes, those we love, can still slip away ... Heartbreakingly relatable and achingly funny Delphi is both a snapshot and a time capsule, deftly capturing our pasts, our presents, and how we keep on going in a world that is ever more uncertain and absurd. 'Impressive ... What good fiction is meant to do' The New York Times 'Bold, brave and uncompromising, Pollard has found a way to write about the last couple of years which is both truthful and enjoyable to read, which I didn't think was possible' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive

MPT's spring issue 'Dream Colours' focuses on Japan, featuring two of Japan's most popular post-war poets, Shuntaro Tanikawa and Noriko Ibaragi; new work by Sawako Nakayasu; an essay by Polly Barton on the complications of translating Japanese concrete poetry; and a poetic manifesto regarding dreams from the surrealist Shuzo Takiguchi (1903-1979). Also featured: Chris Beckett introduces the young Ethiopian poet Misrak Terefe; Kit Fan translates Bei Dao's 'June' in the light of Hong Kong's recent protests; and a tribute to Elaine Feinstein's translations of Marina Tsvetaeva by Sasha Dugdale. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

MPT's summer issue, 'The Previous Song: Focus on Somali Poetry' includes new poems by Asmaa Jama and Hibaq Osman, translations of Amran Maxamed Axmed and Xasan Daahir Ismaaciil 'Weedhsame', an introduction to the lyrics of Qaraami - the popular music of Somali culture - and Ayan Salaad's translations of Ali Osman Drog's womens' songs. Also: new translations of Tove Ditlevsen, Meret Oppenheim and Mona Kareem, poems in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and Olivia McCannon translates Louky Bersianik's Cold War sequence 'Ruins of the Future'. All this and more in the ground-breaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

MPT's autumn issue `In a Winter City' marks the 20th anniversary of our co-founder Ted Hughes' death, with responses to his translations by Tara Bergin, Zaffar Kunial and Polly Clark. We also fulfil his plan to have a Hungarian focus, with new translations of work by Krisztina Toth, Agota Kristof and Andras Gerevich, as well as Margit Kaffka's forgotten feminist masterpiece `While We Wait for Sunrise, 23rd May 1912'. Also in this issue: a stunning translation of Simone Atangana Bekona by David Colmer, poems by Mona Arshi after the Mahabharata, and Chris McCabe brings Villon into the 21st Century. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

This creative collaboration between artist Naoko Matsubara and poet Penny Boxall celebrates in words and colours the beauty and variety of the human hand. The series of dynamic woodcuts at the heart of this book was initially inspired by the artist's wonder at the busy hand movements of her baby son and grew into a wider celebration of hands in all their extraordinary variety - hands engaged in music, sport, prayer, or creative acts. The woodcuts convey a sense of joy and energy, whether exploring the symbolism of gestures, playing with form and colour, or expressing a mood or emotion. Penny Boxall's new poems were specially written to accompany the woodcuts. In their clarity and playfulness, their range of mood and their deceptive simplicity, they form a remarkable creative synergy with the art works. During the coronavirus pandemic the subject of hands - and the idea of touch or its absence - has taken on a new significance. Many of the images in the series have taken on powerful new meanings: healing hands, hands finding ways to occupy hours of furlough, or hands clapping in support of those working to keep us safe. We are particularly delighted that this elegant book has been designed by Yoshiki Waterhouse, Naoko Matsubara's son, whose baby hands were the original inspiration for the series.

Ovid's Heroides, written in Rome some time between 25 and 16 BC, was once his most popular work. The title translates as Heroines, and it's a series of poems in the voices of women from Greek and Roman myth - including Phaedra, Medea, Penelope and Ariadne - addressed to the men they love. It has been claimed as both the first book of dramatic monologues and the first of epistolary fiction. It's also a radical text in its literary transvestism, and the way it often presents the same story from very different, subjective perspectives. For a long time it was Ovid's most influential work, loved by Chaucer, Dante, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Donne, and translated by Dryden and Pope. Clare Pollard's new translation rediscovers Ovid's Heroines for the 21st century, with a cast of women who are brave, bitchy, sexy, suicidal, horrifying, heartbreaking and surprisingly modern. Two of the most popular poetry books of recent times have been Ted Hughes's new version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, and Carol Ann Duffy's The World's Wife, dramatic monologues by women from myth and history giving their side of the story. Clare Pollard's new take on Ovid's Heroines is another book in that vein, bringing classic tales to life for modern readers.

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, Ho Xuan Huong, Marina Tsvetaeva, Lakshmi Holmstroem, Noemia de Sousa and many more, you are invited to join the seance. Also featured: Ali Al-Jamri's new translation of Aboul Qassem Al-Shaabi'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

The poems in Clare Pollard's fifth collection Incarnation are about our children and the stories that we tell them. Whether looking at the discourse around pregnancy, describing the pain of childbirth or thinking about surveillance at soft play, they blur the personal and political. Pinocchio, Hamelin, Alice and The Tiger who Came to Tea make appearances alongside biblical tales: the ark, the whale's belly, the Moses basket in the rushes. There are poems for lost daughters - Amy Winehouse, Madeleine McCann, the victims of honour killings - and lost sons. There are also poems about innocence and responsibility which ask what it means to bring new human beings into this world, and how we shape them through our words.

MPT's spring issue, 'The Fingers of Our Soul', includes a focus on bodies guest edited by Khairani Barokka and Jamie Hale, featuring signed languages such as ASL, BSL, LSF and BISINDO, Anthony Price's translation using the medium of eye-gaze, and Salma Harland on the blind poet al-Ma'arri. Poetic forms include dagli from Filipino poet Stefani J Alvarez and the picture-poems from Hoshino Tomihiro. Also: long poems from Geet Chaturvedi and Shooka Hosseini, Andrew Nielsen's version of Du Fu in tribute to Roddy Lumsden, and Dzifa Benson reviews Maria Stepanova's War of the Beasts and Animals. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

It is 2020 and in a time more turbulent than any of us could have ever imagined, a woman is attempting to write a book about prophecy in the ancient world. Navigating the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes fixated on our many forms of divination and prediction: on oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves and the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates. But in doing so she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her own home. For despite our best intentions - our sacrifices and our bargains with the gods - time, certainty and, sometimes, those we love, can still slip away ...

This beautifully designed book is a celebration of one of the world's most creative, dynamic and fascinating cities: Tokyo. It spans 400 years, with highlights including Kano school paintings; the iconic woodblock prints of Hiroshige; Tokyo Pop Art posters; the photography of Moriyama Daido and Ninagawa Mika; manga; film; and contemporary art by Murakami Takashi and Aida Makoto. Visually bold and richly detailed, this publication looks at a city which has undergone constant destruction and renewal and it tells the stories of the people who have made Tokyo so famous with their insatiable appetite for the new and innovative - from the samurai to avantgarde artists today. Co-edited by Japanese art specialists and curators Lena Fritsch and Clare Pollard from Oxford University, this accessible volume features 28 texts by international experts of Japanese culture, as well as original statements by influential artists.

MPT's summer issue 'The Illuminated Paths' focuses on emerging poets of the Maghreb, with poems written in Arabic, Arabic dialect and Tamazight, and translated as part of the British Council's Majaaz project by Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Martha Sprackland, Adham Smart, Vidyan Ravinthiran and Stewart Sanderson. Also: an introduction to Dalit poetry curated by Gopika Jadeja, Judith Wilkinson's translations of Toon Tellegen, Maria Stepanova's `weird ballads', and Michele Lalonde's searing `anti-imperialist cri de coeur': `Speak White'. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

MPT's summer issue 'If No One Names Us' focuses on Mexico, and includes new translations of legendary figures such as Pita Amor and Nahui Olin, as well as contemporary poets including Natalia Toledo, Elena Poniatowska, Tedi Lopez Mills and Mikeas Sanchez, and contributions from British LatinX poets including Juana Adock and Leo Boix. Also: poems in response to CK Norwid's centenary, a new translation of Jacques Jacques Brel's 'Amsterdam', Endre Ruset's concrete elegies for those who died in the terrorist attack at Utoya, and 'Butterfly Valley', a gorgeous sonnet redouble by Inger Christensen. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

Torsion and tension are characteristic of the vessels created by the exceptional Japanese ceramicist Shozo Michikawa (b. 1953), whose works are reminiscent of rock strata and lava flows. Michikawa is known for his unique technique, for turning edgy, dynamic sculptures on the potter's wheel. First he cuts and scores a solid block of clay before he carves out the interior hollow through pressing and turning with a rod and his hands. Natural-looking surfaces emerge, just as geological forces formed the earth's surface - an irrepressible energy from the inside out. Michikawa's pots, with their irregular shape, granular texture, and rich earthen hues are so poetic in their appearance that they have been likened to 'haikus in clay'. With a selection of works from the last fifteen years, Shozo Michikawa introduces the first comprehensive insight into his ceramic production, which has attracted attention across the globe. The Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Qinglingsi Temple, Xi'an and Shimada City Museum are among the institutions that have acquired his work. This book accompanies an exhibition, which will tour between venues: Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA (US), 3 to 24.6.2017; Erskine, Hall & Coe, London (UK), 11.10. to 2.11.2017. The artist is active on facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/shozo.michikawa

MPT's spring issue 'Our Small Universe' focuses on the many languages of the United Kingdom - from Romani to Welsh; Shetlandic to BSL; Turkish to Ulster Scots - and features Owen Sheers, Zoe Brigley, Liz Berry, MacGillivray, David Morley, Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi and Matthew Hollis. Cyril Jones and Philip Gross collaborate using the Welsh `englyn' form, and Sophie Herxheimer writes in her Grandmother's `Inklisch'. Also: an introduction to Rohingya poetry, Zeina Hashem Beck's bilingual form, the Duet, and a new translation of Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski's major modernist poem `A Trip to Swider' by Renata Senktas and Christopher Reid. All this and more in the groundbreaking magazine dedicated to poetry in translation: for the best in world poetry read MPT.

Clare Pollard's fourth collection is steeped in folktale and ballads, and looks at the stories we tell about ourselves. From the Pendle witch-trials in 17th-century Lancashire to the gangs of modern-day east London, "Changeling" takes on our myths and monsters. These are poems of place that journey from Zennor to Whitby, Broadstairs to Brick Lane. Whether relocating the traditional ballad 'The Twa Corbies' to war-torn Iraq, introducing us to the bearded lady Miss Lupin, or giving us a glimpse of the 'beast of Bolton', "Changeling" is a collection about our relationship with the Other: fear and trust, force and freedom. Poetry Book Society Recommendation.

Although Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf has lived in exile in the UK for 20 years, she is fast emerging as one of the most outstanding Somali poets, as well as a powerful woman poet in a literary tradition still largely dominated by men. She is a master of the major Somali poetic forms, including the prestigious gabay, by which she presents compelling arguments with astonishing feats of alliteration. The key to her international popularity is in her spirit and message: her poems are classical in construction but they are unmistakeably contemporary, and they engage passionately with the themes of war and displacement which have touched the lives of an entire generation of Somalis. The mesmerising poems in this landmark collection are brought to life in English by award-winning Bloodaxe poet Clare Pollard. Somali-English dual language edition co-published with the Poetry Translation Centre.

Look, Clare Look is the story of a year. When Clare Pollard set off on a six-month world trip, she wanted to write a long poem which engaged with what she saw and felt during her travels. On her return, she discovered that her father was seriously ill, and his funeral was held on New Year's Eve. closely at both global issues and the blossom in her yard. Beginning as a meditation on western guilt against the backdrop of SARS and the Iraq War, it ends by looking at our closest relationships, in poems that deal with a pregnancy scare and her engagement, as well as illness and loss. Bedtime have all the virtues of youth. They are raw and sexy, exotic and compelling, their insights at once intimate and universal. There's a cruel precision of observation too, coupled with a real opulence, about these pieces - and the wonderful, reckless revelling in the language. I loved the headlong rush of it all' - catherine czerkawska, Mslexia work their way under your skin. Her voice captures the pain, anxiety and emptiness of a generation weaned on Coke and Diamond White, reared on fast food and TV, and now entering adulthood armed with utterly ephemeral cultural reference points and a strong suit in self-destruction...Her poems compulsively re-enact the reaching out to life and the withdrawing in pain...Pollard is a poet of the 21st century, a witness of the present and a shaper of its voice' - john sears, PopMatters re-interpreted for the Trainspotting generation' - Daily Mail

Surimono poetry prints are among the finest examples of Japanese woodblock printmaking of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Consisting of witty poetry combined with related images, surimono were often designed by leading print artists and were exquisitely produced using the best materials and most sophisticated printing techniques. Unlike the ukiyo-e prints of actors, courtesans and landscapes that were being commercially published around the same time, surimono were never intended for sale to the general public. Instead they were privately published in limited editions by members of poetry clubs, to present to friends and acquaintances on festive occasions, especially at the New Year. This book introduces over forty surimono in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum and provides readers with an insight into the refined and cultivated Japanese literati culture of the early nineteenth century. As well as exploring the customs, legends, figures and objects depicted, it presents new translations of the humorous poems (kyoka) that lie at the heart of surimono, and highlights the intricate relationship that existed between the poetry and accompanying images. This will be the first time that the Ashmolean's collection of surimono, mostly from the Jennings-Spalding Gift and containing a number of rare and previously unpublished prints, has ever been catalogued.

Clare Pollard wrote most of these poems while still at school in Bolton. Too young, perhaps, to expect anyone to take her seriously, but young enough to question that assumption and much else besides. Her poems are fresh and energetic, barbed with a modern girl's natural cynicism, but tempered with open-eyed hope as well as wry acceptance. In The Heavy-Petting Zoo, the male of the species is shown in all his preening glory, his growling and posturing exposed but also given marks out of ten. The book gives us the world according to Clare Pollard writing as a teenager, an insider's in-your-face portrayal of the tarnished lives of today's bright young things.