We are delighted to open the conference with a poetry reading featuring two contemporary poets who engage with the medieval past in their art, Vahni Capildeo and Ian Duhig. The event, which will take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, 5 April, 2019, is free, but ticketed, and open to the public.
Having been a Rhodes scholar in translation theory and Old Norse, much of Vahni Capildeo’s poetry responds to medieval texts and themes. Their collection, Utter (Peepal Tree Press, 2013), includes responses to the Old English poems ‘Wulf and Eadwacer’ and ‘The Wife’s Lament’. Their Measures of Expatriation (Carcanet, 2016) received the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2016.
Ian Duhig is the award-winning author of several poetry collections, including his 2007 The Speed of Dark (Picador), which features his reworking of the medieval allegory, Le Roman de Fauvel. Ian has won the National Poetry Competition twice, as well as the Forward Tolman Cunard Best Single Poem Prize. His most recent collection is The Blind Roadmaker (Picador, 2016).