By Pierangelly Del Rio
Photography: Sean O’Mahoney

Manchester Metropolitan University continues to celebrate Manchester’s designation as an UNESCO City of Literature with an evening featuring guests Mary Jean Chan, André Naffis-Sahely and David Shook.

The event, hosted by Manchester Writing School and the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, continued the International Mother Languages Day celebrations, and aimed to explore the techniques authors use and issues arising from their work.

Dr Helen Mort, lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Met and the event’s host, spoke to Humanity Hallows about the evening. She said, “It’s a night about poetry and the guests will be reading out a piece of their work. But because it’s International Mother Tongue Day, we’re going to discuss about writing poetry and poetry in translation.”

The event followed a series of translation workshops on poetry, languages and film, led by the same guests during the morning.

As is tradition, a student was invited to open the event by reading a piece of their work. Nooram Nahar, a second year English and Creative Writing student, took the stage to share two poems, one of them named ‘Build me a fishing boat’. Nooram’s poetry is written in both English and Bengali, which inspires a multicultural fusion very present in her performance.

The next guest to be introduced was poet, critic and translator André Naffis-Sahely. Naffis-Sahely read a fragment of his first poetry collection published by Penguin Random House in 2007 titled The Promised Land: Poems from Itinerant Life.

Born in Venice to Italian and Iranian parents, Naffis-Sahely moved to Abu Dhabi at a young age. The city is well known for having a mostly foreign population; consequently Naffis-Sahely’s poems centre in the topic of diaspora and the status of “temporary citizen”. Poems such as ‘Disposable Cities’ and ‘Island of Strangers’ spoke about how cities such as Abu Dhabi came to be, their place in the world, the impact of globalization and the aspirations and misfortunes of its migrants. One particularly haunting fragment, belonging to ‘Banishing Act’ was the following: “Only 2 out of 10 people die in Abu Dhabi. The rest simply failed to have their visas renewed.” Such verses, which made the audience gasp, correspond to the frankness and rawness with which the poet speaks about his personal experiences.

The next speaker was Hong Kong born academic, editor and poet Mary Jean Chan. Chan’s debut collection will be published by Faber&Faber in 2019, and her poem ‘//’ was short listed for the 2017’s Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. For Chan, who identifies as queer, language was a mean of camouflage. The works of Shakespeare “the queerest thing I had in my library”, allowed her to explore her identity free from the gaze of her mother, who couldn’t understand English. Her poem ‘//’ which can be read as “chopsticks” was written out of necessity, inspired by her experiences with her partner after visiting Hong Kong and experiencing its conservative views towards the LGBT community. The title of the poem, two slashes on paper, represent equals; two female bodies mirroring each other. Chan’s reading also provided an insight into Hong Kong’s culture, its educational system and more, what she often described as the “post-colonial” experience.

The last speaker was David Shook, a translator, filmmaker and writer of the collection Our Obsidian Tongues, born in Mexico City. Shook skipped introductions and recited his poetry, which he later explained was “mash-up” of verses belonging to the Mexican poet Quintanilla, Victor Teran, Chilean actor Roberto Bolaños, and Joaquín Pasos from Nicaragua as well as his own verses. Shook’s monologue ended with Quintanilla’s verses in Spanish. Although not giving details about the background of his poetry, the work was rich in lush imagery and sensory detail.

After the readings, the guests were invited to discuss their work with the public. Each of them responded to the question of how the role of distance played out in their poetry. André Naffis-Sahely recalled his experiences as a temporary resident of Abu Dhabi while growing up, and how this status prompted him to think about his inevitable departure. Naffis-Sahely said, “Distance provokes a sense of dislocation. When writing I think about home and distance together at the same time.”

David Shook confessed he hadn’t thought much about distance and its relation to his work. “I think I require a temporal distance in my work,” he commented. “I need ten or 15 years of experience before I can write about it.”

Finally, Mary Jane Chan commented that her sexuality created a distance from Hong Kong and herself. She said, “I knew I couldn’t be fully myself there. Poetry has helped me to reduce that distance because I know I can’t return and perform the role I was used to.”

The Manchester Writing School will present Green Noise and Gravestones: A Reading of Poetry and Prose on Monday 5^th March.