Last month, The Queen’s Translation Exchange (QTE) launched the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators for 2024-25. They sent out poetry teaching resource packs to over 1800 teachers to mark European Day of Languages (26 September) and International Translation Day (30 September).
Last year’s Anthea Bell Prize reached over 16,000 young people across the UK. This year, they’re aiming even higher! The competition window opens in February 2025, so there is still plenty of time to register and explore their excellent creative translation teaching resources.
For this year, the Translation Exchange has launched a new Russian-language strand of the Prize. The Russian-language teaching resources include an ab-initio resource designed for use by students and teachers with no previous experience of Russian. Read more about the launch of the Russian-language strand here.
QTE would love to hear from any Russian teachers interested to help them develop this strand across the year, as well as from any teachers who have used the new ab-initio resources and would be willing to share their experience. Feedback on any of the resources is also hugely appreciated. Please get in touch with the team at translation.exchange@queens.ox.ac.uk.
Tag Archives: creative translation
Stephen Spender Prize 2024
Calling MFL, EAL and English teachers! Bring creative translation into the classroom this summer with the Stephen Spender Prize 2024…
The Stephen Spender Prize is an annual competition for poetry in translation, with strands for pupils, teachers and individual young people, as well as a special rotating Spotlight highlighting a language widely spoken in the UK. The competition is open for entries from 1 May to 31 July and is free to enter for all schools and teachers in the UK and Ireland.
Whether you’re an MLF, EAL or English teacher, and whatever the languages taught and spoken in your school community, the prize is a perfect way to engage students of all ages this summer term.
Teachers are invited to register here to receive classroom inspiration and activity ideas throughout the prize window, and you can follow all the latest news on our website and social media channels. (X: @StephenSpender| Facebook: @StephenSpenderTrust | Instagram: @stephenspendertrust)
Here’s a list of the categories for 2024:
Ready to start planning and working on your entries? Head to our Guide for Teachers for all the key information about the prize at a glance, explore our Bank of Suggested Poems for poem inspiration, and find poetry workshops, worksheets, lesson plans and more in our Prize Resources hub.
To help you spread the word ahead of the launch, you can also download a free Stephen Spender Prize 2024 poster to display around your school, sixth form or university buildings.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at prize@stephen-spender.org. We hope that many of you and your students will get involved!
Stephen Spender Prize 2023
This week, we pass over to our friends at the Stephen Spender Trust to tell us about their 2023 prize for poetry in translation.
Translate ANY poem from ANY language into English, and win publication and cash prizes! Language lovers and budding poets of all ages are warmly invited to take part in the Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation, open to adults aged 19+ from all over the world, as well as to individual young people and school pupils in the UK and Ireland and students at British Schools Overseas.
For 2023 there will also be a special language focus with the Ukrainian Spotlight strand, open to all young people in the UK and Ireland aged 18 and under.
The deadline to submit entries is 14th July.
Details:
Entrants are invited to submit an English translation of a published poem from any language, ancient or modern, together with a commentary of no more than 300 words. The translation should be max. 60 lines (extracts are accepted). All forms and genres are welcome, including texts from rap, spoken word and slam poetry. We also welcome translations from sign language.
Prize strands:
- International Open Entry (NEW FOR 2023) – For adults aged 19+ from all over the world.
- Individual Youth Entry – For individual young people in the UK and Ireland or attending British schools overseas. Two age categories: 14-and-under; 18-and-under.
- Schools Laureate Prize (NEW FOR 2023) – For teachers submitting on behalf of their students, open to schools in the UK and Ireland and British schools overseas. Four categories for pupils from KS1 to KS5.
- Ukrainian Spotlight (NEW FOR 2023) – For young people in the UK and Ireland or at British schools overseas. Entries can be submitted individually or by teachers on behalf of students. Three age categories: KS1-2, KS3-4 and KS5.
- Teacher Laureate Prize (NEW FOR 2023) – Free to enter for all teachers at schools that have entered pupils for the Schools Laureate or Ukrainian Spotlight strands.
Judges:
Open category: Taher Adel, Jennifer Wong, Samantha Schnee
Youth categories (Individual Youth Entry and Schools Laureate Prize): Keith Jarrett
Ukrainian Spotlight: Nina Murray
Prizes:
- Open Entry: £1000 (1st), £500 (2nd), £250 (3rd)
- Individual Youth Entry, Schools Laureate Prize and Ukrainian Spotlight: Cash prizes of up to £100 for the winners in each age category.
- Teacher Laureate Prize: Annual print subscription to Modern Poetry in Translation for the winning teacher, plus a Stephen Spender Prize workshop for their school during the next academic year.
All winners will have their translations published in our 2023 prize booklet and will be invited to participate in our livestreamed awards ceremony in the autumn. The winner of the Open category will also be published in Modern Poetry in Translation.
In each age category we will additionally reward three Highly Commended entrants and up to 30 Commendees, as well as three special First-Time Entrant Commendations in the Open category.
Entry Fee:
Open category: £10 per translated poem, or £5 per additional poem in the same submission.
Youth and teacher categories: Free
Further details:
Full information on how to enter can be found on the Stephen Spender Prize homepage and the different category subpages.
For a wealth of poetry translation inspiration, including advice for those trying poetry translation for the first-time, explore our Guide to Poetry Translation for Newcomers, the archive of tutorials and testimonials on the Stephen Spender Trust YouTube channel, and the multilingual bank of suggested poems for translation in our Prize Resources hub.
Good luck to all entrants!
Prismatic Jane Eyre Schools Project: Resources
The Prismatic Jane Eyre Schools Project (2021–2022) has now come to a close. This was an AHRC-funded joint project between the University of Oxford and the Stephen Spender Trust.
On 30 September 2021 — International Translation Day — the nationwide competition was launched. Entrants were asked to compose a poem in a language other than English inspired by a selected passage from Jane Eyre. The competition accepted submissions in any language, and 136 entries were received in 26 languages — including Sindarin, a form of Elvish devised by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Up to 100 entries to the competition have been included in an anthology, which will be published online and in print in September 2022.
The Project drew on translation as an educational tool to explore how Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel has been translated since its publication in 1847 and how its plots and themes can be used as a springboard for new creative works. It comprised of three core activities: a series of translation workshops; a nation-wide translation competition (as mentioned above); and a bank of resources for teachers and pupils.
The bank of resources aims to allow more young people to enjoy creative translation activities based on Jane Eyre. Initially developed to support entries to the competition, these resources now provide a lasting legacy for the Project.
Three types of resources are available:
- A handout that outlines an approach to creating a poem from a passage of prose (all languages)
- PowerPoint workshops for teachers to deliver in school with accompanying worksheets (Arabic, French, Polish, Spanish)
- Pupil-led activity worksheets (Arabic, French, Polish, Spanish).
The Project’s resources are available here and here. To accompany these resources, we’ve created a short video explaining what creative translation is, and why it’s important. The video is available to view below.