Sasha Dugdale

British poet, playwright and translator

Sasha Dugdale FRSL
Born	1974 (age 49–50) Sussex, England
Occupation	Poet, playwright, translator
Notable works	Joy Deformations
Notable awards	Forward Prize Cholmondeley Award Lois Roth Award

Sasha Dugdale FRSL is a British poet, playwright, editor and translator. She has written five poetry collections and is a translator of Russian literature.

Biography

Sasha Dugdale was born in 1974^[1] in Sussex.^[2]

Between 1995 and 2000, Dugdale worked for the British Council in Russia.^[2]

Dugdale has published five poetry collections with Carcanet Press: Notebook (2003), The Estate (2007), Red House (2011), Joy (2017) and Deformations (2020). She won the 2016 Forward Poetry Prize for Best Single Poem, entitled Joy, and a Cholmondeley Award in 2017.^[2]

Dugdale specialises in translating contemporary Russian women poets and post-Soviet new writing for theatre. She has worked both in the United Kingdom and the United States on a number of productions, translating modern Russian plays.^[3] In 2020, she won an English PEN Translates Award for her translation of a collection of poetry by the Russian poet Maria Stepanova.^[4]

From 2012 to 2017 Dugdale was the editor of Modern Poetry in Translation, publishing sixteen issues of the magazine as well as its fiftieth year anniversary anthology Centres of Cataclysm (Bloodaxe, 2016). From 2015 to 2021 Dugdale directed the biennial Winchester Poetry Festival.^[5]

Dugdale's poetry has been featured in the Guardian^[6] and her translation of Maria Stepanova's novel In Memory of Memory was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, the 2022 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize, the 2022 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and in 2021 was longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature.^[7]

Dugdale was poet-in-residence at St John’s College, Cambridge between 2018 and 2021, running a series of poetry circles, workshops and one-to-ones with students at the College, along with readings in partnership with the English Society.^[8]

Publications

Poetry

(2020), Deformations, Carcanet Press, ISBN 9781784108984
(2017), Joy, Carcanet Press, ISBN 9781784105037
(2011), Red House, Oxford Poets, ISBN 9781906188023
(2007), The Estate, Oxford Poets, ISBN 9781903039809
(2003), Notebook, Oxford Poets, ISBN 9781903039670

Translations

(2021), Maria Stepanova, The War of the Beasts and the Animals, Bloodaxe, ISBN 9781780375342
(2021), Maria Stepanova, In Memory of Memory, Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK), ISBN 9781913097530, New Directions (US), ISBN 9780811228831
(2017), Natalya Vorozhbit, Bad Roads, Nick Hern Books, ISBN 9781848427143
(2009), Natalya Vorozhbit, The Grainstore, Nick Hern Books, ISBN 9781848420458
(2008), Elena Shvarts, Birdsong on the Seabed, Bloodaxe, ISBN 9781852247836
(2004), Vasily Sigarev, Ladybird, Nick Hern Books
(2004), Tatiana Shcherbina, Life Without: Selected Poetry & Prose 1992-2003, Bloodaxe, ISBN 9781852246426
(2003), The Presnyakov Brothers, Terrorism, Nick Hern Books
(2003), The Presnyakov Brothers, Playing the Victim, Nick Hern Books, ISBN 9781854597595
(2003), Vasily Sigarev, Black Milk, Nick Hern Books
(2002), Vasily Sigarev, Plasticine, Nick Hern Books, ISBN 9781854596901

Awards

— (2022), Lois Roth Award, In Memory of Memory^[9]
— (2020), T. S. Eliot Prize, Deformations, (shortlist)
— (2017), Cholmondeley Award^[10]
— (2017), Poetry Book Society Choice - Joy
— (2016), Forward Poetry Prize for Best Single Poem, Joy^[1]
— (2003), Eric Gregory Award

References

^ ^a ^b "Sasha Dugdale". Forward Arts Foundation. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Sasha Dugdale". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
^ "We're all Translators: Interview with Sasha Dugdale". Huffington Post. 24 September 2017. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
^ .englishpen.org/press/pen-translates-awards-june-2020 Nineteen PEN Translates awards go to titles from fifteen countries and thirteen languages. English PEN, 10 June 2020
^ "Clare Pollard appointed as Artistic Director". 10 January 2022.
^ "Poem of the week: Shepherds by Sasha Dugdale (Carol Rumens, in: The Guardian)". Guardian.
^ "Sasha Dugdale translation shortlisted for Booker". Booker Prizes. Archived from the original on 20 June 2023.
^ "Sasha Dugdale residency at St. John's Cambridge". Saint Johns, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 21 September 2020.
^ "Lois Roth Award for a Translation of a Literary Work Winners". Modern Language Association. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ "Sasha Dugdale". Carcanet Press. Retrieved 10 September 2018.