Tom Phillips is a poet, translator, playwright and teacher. His poems have been published in magazines and anthologies, and in his poetry book Recreation Ground. His translations of Bulgarian poetry have been published in the magazines Modern Poetry in Translation and Raceme, and his poems have been translated into Bulgarian, French and Albanian. Tom writes travelogues on Southeast Europe for the Star & Crescent magazine, academic texts and plays. He teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University and is co-editor of the new literary magazine Balkan Poetry Today.
Residency goals
Tom Phillips will be an artists-in-residence in the period 1st to 31st Aug 2016. His project will involve translating two contemporary one-act plays from Bulgarian into English – Милост by Maya Kisyova and Миграцията на сьомгата by Svetlana Dicheva – with a view to having them staged (and then published) in the UK. He will also be translating the poetry collection Годината на Джорджа by Mila Lambovska – a selection of these translations from Bulgarian into English will appear in the journal Balkan Poetry Today before the whole collection is submitted to UK-based publishers. In addition, Tom Phillips will be following up contacts made with other Bulgarian writers, again with a view to selecting and translating work for future issues of Balkan Poetry Today.
Public events
2nd August | 7 p.m. | at the Art Foundation Gallery, 19 Dyakon Ignatiy Street Sofia: Book Launch: Prof. Alexander Shurbanov's book of poems Foresun, published in English by the Sofia-based publisher Scalino. The event will be opened by Tom Phillips who had contributed to some of the translations. Poems from Foresun will be read in English by the author and by Wiebke Beiche, Sean Stancioff, Bilyana Petrinska, Mila Iskrenova, Maya Kisyova, Svetlana Dicheva, Rosen Karamfilov, Iliyana Deleva, Svetoslava Koynova, Tanya Ivanova.
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9th August | 18:30-20:30 | Sofia Literature and Translation House: On Translating as a Subversive Practice
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Book launch of the Bulgarian edition of Tom Phillips's poetry collection, Scalino Publishing House.
Residency materials
Tom Philips, Angel Igov and Bozhil Hristov on translating Geo MilevVideo from the webinar
Translation of the poem ‘Hell’ by Geo Milev, available here. The translation from Bulgarian is a collaboration between Tom Phillips, Angel Igov and Bozhil Hristov. Originally published in Raceme magazine.
