Manchester Translation Series 2026: Lorna Goodison and Colin Bramwell

Lorna Goodison was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica in 2017. In 2018, she received a Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and in 2019 she was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Her numerous poetry collections include Collected Poems (2017), Supplying Salt and Light (2013), Goldengrove: New and Selected Poems (2006), Controlling the Silver (2005) and others. She is also the author of short story collections, including By Love Possessed (2011), as well as the memoir From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and Her People (2007), which won the BC (British Columbia) National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. In 2019, she published Redemption Ground: Essays and Adventures. Goodison is the editor of New Voices: Selected by Lorna Goodison, Poet Laureate of Jamaica, 2017–2020. Professor of English and of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, Goodison divides her time between Ann Arbor, Toronto, and the north coast of Jamaica.

Colin Bramwell was born in Ayrshire, grew up in Fortrose on the Black Isle and lives in Edinburgh. His poetry has appeared in Poetry Review, Irish Pages, The London Magazine, PN Review, Magma, The Rialto, New Writing Scotland, Interpret, Poetry Scotland and The Scotsman. He was the runner-up for the 2020 Edwin Morgan Prize; his translations of Yang Mu won the 2018 John Dryden Translation Competition; his translation of Ko-Hua Chen’s Decapitated Poetry won the 2024 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. He holds a doctorate in creative writing from the University of St Andrews.

This event is part of the 2026 Manchester Translation Series.

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