An evening with Alan Baker, Stephen Watts and Attila József

Alan Baker was born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and has lived in Nottingham since 1985. He runs the poetry publisher Leafe Press and its magazine, 'Litter'. His latest collection is “A Book of Psalms” (Shearsman). Other work includes a book of modernist sonnets about the river Trent, Tyneside dialect poetry and a sequence of prose poems entitled "Letters from the Underworld".

 

Stephen Watts’s most recent books are Journeys Across Breath: Poems 1975-2005 (Prototype Publishing 2022, reprinted 2025) and Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds (Prototype 2020, reprinted 2025). A black and white, 75-minute film The Republics was made by Huw Wahl from the latter. Stephen’s A Book Of Drawn Poems was published by Sylvia Editions in December 2025 and The Language Of It (Shearsman) and Explosion Of Words: Poems 2006-2026 (Prototype) are both forthcoming. He also edited Swirl Of Words/Swirl Of Worlds: Poems in 94 Languages Spoken Across Hackney (Peer Gallery, 2022) and is much involved in the translation and co-translation of poetries as a vital language energy.

 

Attila József (1905–1937) is one of the most renowned Hungarian poets of the 20th century who gained recognition for his literary achievement only after his tragic death in 1937. Attila József, a Hungarian poet of working-class origin, endured a tragic childhood marked by the early loss of both parents. Born to an unskilled worker and a washerwoman, he was orphaned at a young age. Despite these hardships, József pursued higher education, studying Hungarian and French literature at the University of Szeged. However, his academic career was abruptly cut short in 1925 after a disagreement with a conservative professor over his poem ‘With a Pure Heart’ (‘Tiszta szívvel’). This led him to continue his studies in Vienna and Paris. In the 1920s, he sympathised with anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist ideals. From 1930 to 1933, József actively participated in the illegal Communist Party. However, he was expelled due to his growing disillusionment with the Party’s Moscow-inspired ideology and his burgeon ing interest in Freudian psychoanalysis. Despite his undeniable talent, József remained largely unrecognied during his lifetime. Even his final poetic period, marked by his work as managing editor of the independent leftist review Szép Szó, failed to bring him widespread acclaim. His final collection, Nagyon fáj (‘How It Hurts’), published in 1936, met with poor sales. Attila József’s poetry collections published in his life are Szépség koldusa (1922); Nem én kiáltok (1925); Nincsen apám se anyám (1929); Döntsd a tőkét, ne siránkozz (1931); Külvárosi éj (1932); Medvetánc (1934); Nagyon fáj (1936). His poems in English have been published in Poems, trans. by Thomas Kabdebo, Michael Beevor, Michael Hamburger, John Szekely, Vernon Watkins (London: Danubia Book Company, 1966); Selected Poems and Texts, trans. by John Bátki (Cheadle, United Kingdom: Carcanet Press, 1973); Perched on Nothing’s Branch, trans. by Peter Hargitai (Buffalo: White Pine Press, 1978); Winter Night: Selected Poems of Attila József, trans. by John Batki (Oberlin, Ohio: Oberlin College Press, 1997); Poems and Fragments, trans. by John Batki et al. (Budapest: Argentum/Maynooth, Kildare, Ireland: Cardinal Press, 1999); The Iron-Blue Vault: Selected Poems, trans. by Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner (Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1999); Attila József: Sixty Poems, trans.by Edwin Morgan (Glasgow: Mariscat, 2001); Attila József: Selected Poems, trans by Peter Hargitai (New York: iUniverse, 2005); A Transparent Lion: Selected Poems of Attila József, trans. by Michael Castro and Gábor G. Gyukics (Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2006).

 

Adam Piette is Professor of Modern Literature at Sheffield. He is the co-editor of the international contemporary poetry journal Blackbox Manifold with Alex Houen. He is author of Remembering and the Sound of Words: Mallarmé, Proust, Joyce, Beckett; Imagination at War: British Fiction and Poetry, 1939-1945, and The Literary Cold War, 1945 to Vietnam. He edited the special issue of Translation and Literature on “Modernism and Translation”, The Salt Companion to Peter Robinson with Katy Price (2007) and The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature with Mark Rawlinson (2012). His poetry collections are: nights as dreaming (Constitutional Information / earthbound press), CCCLXV with Crater Press (October 2025), and Lies Blurring Here with Broken Sleep (2026). He is the co-translator, with Ágnes Lehóczky, of The Song of the Cosmos: Selected Poems of Attila József (Shearsman Books, 2026). He is currently co-editing an edition of Australian poet Catherine Vidler’s work with Amelia Dale and A.J. Carruthers for Puncher & Wattman.

 

Stephen Watts : his most recent books are 'Republic Of Dogs/Republic Of Birds' (Prototype Publishing 2020) from which a 76 minute b/w film 'The Republics' was made by Huw Wahl & 'Journeys Across Breath : Poems 1975-2005' (Prototype Publishing 2022). Both were reprinted in 2025. Sylvia Editions published his 'A Book Of Drawn Poems' in 2025. He has also co-translated books of poetry by the Syrian poet Golan Haji, the Iraqi poet Adnan l-Sayegh & the Iranian poet Ziba Karbassi, among others. His 'Poems 2006-2026' is forthcoming, also from Prototype', with a working title of 'Explosion Of Words', as are a number of other co-translated titles. He has lived in Whitechapel for almost 50 years. 

 

Ágnes Lehóczky’s poetry collections published in the UK are Budapest to Babel (Egg Box, 2008), Rememberer (Egg Box, 2012), Carillonneur (Shearsman, 2014), Swimming Pool (Shearsman, 2017), Lathe Biosas, or on Dreams & Lies (Crater Press, 2023) and Apropos Paradise Square (Pamenar Press, 2025). She also has three full poetry collections in Hungarian published in Budapest: Ikszedik stáció (Universitas, 2000), Medalion (Universitas, 2002) and Palimpszeszt (Magyar Napló, 2015). She is the author of the academic monograph Poetry, the Geometry of Living Substance – comprising four essays on the poetry of Ágnes Nemes Nagy (2011). Her pamphlet Pool Epitaphs and Other Love Letters was published by Boiler House Press (2017). She co-edited major international anthologies: the Sheffield Anthology (Smith/Doorstop, 2012) with Adam Piette, The World Speaking Back to Denise Riley (Boiler House, 2018) with Zoë Skoulding, Wretched Strangers (Boiler House, 2018) with J. T. Welsch and most recently the ‘Monk Collective’ with Adam Piette (Blackbox Manifold, 2023). Fission of Being – Endnotes on Earthbound was commissioned by The Roberts Institute of Art, London in 2021. She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Director of the Centre for Poetry and Poetics at the University of Sheffield. Lehóczky is editor of The Song of the Cosmos – Attila József Selected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2026) which she co-translated with Adam Piette.

 

Please note this is an in person event however you can log on to this link virtually by no later than 6.15pm on the night.