Sasha Dugdale
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sashadugdale.bsky.social
Sasha Dugdale
@sashadugdale.bsky.social
700 followers 890 following 390 posts
Poet and translator in a very bad time for Lyrik
Lover of lurchers and other thieving dogs
The Strongbox, Carcanet, 2024
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sashadugdale.bsky.social
Sasha Dugdale @sashadugdale.bsky.social · Jun 16
Thanks @carcanet.bsky.social – delighted about this and very grateful to the Anglo-Hellenic league, @jhcreerw.bsky.social @sofkazinovieff.bsky.social & the judges of the #Runciman Award.
carcanet.bsky.social Carcanet Press @carcanet.bsky.social · Jun 16
Congratulations to Sasha Dugale (sashadugdale.bsky.social), who has been named the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2025 with her collection The Strongbox!

Well done Sasha!! 🎉
Read the news here: www.carcanet.co.uk/sasha-dugdal...
A graphic with a blue background, a picture of the cover of The Strongbox, and the Carcanet logo. Text reads: Winner, Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2025, The Strongbox, Sasha Dugdale.
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Top shagger Byron v lesser shagger Yeats is probably going to be the Guardian’s only article about poetry this month www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
Dominic West backs ‘top shagger’ Byron in poetry battle with Bob Geldof
Actor hails ‘proto-rock star’ as best poet, while musician argues for ‘Ireland’s Shakespeare’ WB Yeats at Somerset festival
www.theguardian.com
September 22, 2026 at 2:37 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Beautiful piece on poet Jack Mapanje and finding a way back into writing by @shashtrevett.bsky.social
September 15, 2026 at 8:45 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Very sad to hear this. I admired her poetry and her criticism.
tomsnarsky.bsky.social Tom Snarsky @tomsnarsky.bsky.social · 18d
RIP Rachel Blau DuPlessis, poet & critic extraordinaire. from one of her poems, & from an essay of hers on George Oppen—
samaras green sleeves make a moon round rainy trees. If more seeds fall will I learn the nature of rain? Gather the borders snug, pupal, eat the teachers, all under the bosky grids of time and place and under wreathe my boughs. Here the concept of humanity is constructed by addition: one person adds himself to another, like a set of stones or bricks in a wall. This way, people can be builders. The blood from the stone is one proof that humankind can give (say, their lives during a war) to make life blossom, despite the fact that old mother Nature, who appears in the final section, is a useless "stone dead dam." People can shape their lives — it is a high responsibility, but evidently not one that is beyond us. We can choose to live with a humanist ethic, where other people are "brothers" in part because they too have been deserted by a faith and by a system of belief, and because somehow we construct a new faith on the commonality of that loss. In another important poem from The Materials ("Return"), certain seeds of hope are presented, among them a woman, Petra, whose name, perhaps accidentally (perhaps not), means stone - a woman who awakens a whole community to a social and political struggle and is therefore one of the builders of the "wall," Oppen's image for a human community.
September 3, 2026 at 8:58 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
They have cleaned the walls of ferns at Darlington Hbf. At least this patch remains.
A red brick wall with a support column of bricks covered in tiny new fern growth
August 14, 2026 at 11:41 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
In 1926 Marina Tsvetaeva wrote on a questionnaire sent to her by Pasternak that “Ne daigne“ was her heraldic motto.
August 14, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
Francisco Garcia interviews Javier Cercas about ANATOMY OF A MOMENT, publishing 27 August. 🤍

'A strange, often propulsive book that resists easy categorisation.... Cercas, a sly, just about omniscient narrator, hovers above the fray, qualifying and contextualising at regular intervals.'
Javier Cercas: ‘The only rule is that there are no rules’
The Spanish author defied literary convention with his acclaimed book Anatomy of a Moment, which revisits the failed military coup that rocked his country 45 years ago
observer.co.uk
August 13, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
koernputer.bsky.social
This book is absolutely miraculous. Delighted to say we have an event at Foyles on the 13th August with @amykey.bsky.social @regretteruane.bsky.social Alice Vincent and Megan Hunter- also 🤞🏼, we shall be recieving a phone call from Joan Barfoot during the event! www.foyles.co.uk/events/unear...
July 27, 2026 at 3:58 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Pleased to see the outstanding Phoebe Giannisi GOATSONG tr by Brian Sneedon reviewed. She is a force of nature 🐐 and one of my beloved poets.
fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social Fitzcarraldo Editions @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social · Aug 11
'Giannisi’s poetry is rich in meaning and allusion, refusing to be fixed, thriving on organic freshness. Its interest is constantly renewed. Sneeden’s clean, accurate versions mirror the clear, unpretentious Greek of her sophisticated original poems.' 💙

Read Mark Glanville's review of GOATSONG:
Hereness, thereness
Goatsong, whose title is the literal translation of the Greek word for tragedy (“tragodia”), brings together three of the Greek poet Phoebe Giannisi’s
www.the-tls.com
August 11, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
sardonicus.eu
Horace the Irish hare and Cecil S. Webb, director of the Dublin Zoo
Carl Mydans, 1956
a hare stood on its hind legs as a man feeds it
August 9, 2026 at 9:29 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Really worth watching!
August 9, 2026 at 9:52 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Keen to read all of these but especially Anatomy of a Moment about the attempted Spanish coup of 1981, which coincided with my family arriving in Madrid on the night train. February, no lights, my 7th birthday, two baby sisters running down the corridors of the train @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social
fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social Fitzcarraldo Editions @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social · Aug 3
📚 We are pleased to announce our August publications

— HOW TO MAKE A WOMAN by Marie Darrieussecq, tr. Penny Hueston;
— ANATOMY OF A MOMENT by Javier Cercas, tr. Anne McLean;
— CROWDS AND POWER by Elias Canetti, tr. Carol Stewart.

fitzcarraldoeditions.com/shop/?utm_so...
August 5, 2026 at 10:38 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
fell asleep over my work again
August 4, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
theartnewspaper.bsky.social
The trailblazing Los Angeles artist Betye Saar died on Sunday (26 July), aged 99, just days before her centenary. She was best known for her sculptural assemblages that explored spirituality and mysticism, African American heritage and the Black female experience.

buff.ly/pXK4Wou
July 30, 2026 at 1:30 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Fleur Jaeggy’s Die Letzten Tage von Ingeborg (Last Days of Ingeborg) tr. into German by Barbara Schaden is a slim and shocking account of Bachmann’s death. Typical Jaeggy restraint and precision. @suhrkamp.de will there be an English version soon?
July 27, 2026 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
remediosvaro.bsky.social
Garden of love
https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/19232
"Garden of Love" by Remedios Varo features a surreal forest scene where a mysterious figure in historical attire encounters a mystical figure within an archway, set against a backdrop of whimsical trees and red birds. Varo's work is emblematic of the surrealist movement, often exploring themes of mysticism, love, and the merging of the spiritual and material worlds.
July 26, 2026 at 12:07 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
‘There I was, standing in the middle of the Sistine Chapel, looking up towards the Creation of Adam, when I suddenly strained my back.’

From an essay ‘Three Nights in Rome‘ by Stav Poleg, currently free to read @pnreview.bsky.social

www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/thre...
PN Review Print and Online Poetry Magazine - Three Nights in Rome - Stav Poleg - PN Review 290
One of the outstanding poetry journals of our time.
www.pnreview.co.uk
July 25, 2026 at 8:00 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
it was things
it was things in tears
it was things in tears it was tears themselves it
was fear of the tears in things for the things in tears ah well

‘Smile’ Anne Carson @lrb.co.uk

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Anne Carson · Poem: ‘Smile’
www.lrb.co.uk
July 24, 2026 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
greenmirandahere.bsky.social
For the FT @hetanshah.bsky.social says what's happening to the humanities in our universities amounts to a tragedy - and it's very short sighted to let this happen www.ft.com/content/fbde...
We need humanities more than ever in the age of AI
Subjects like literature, languages and history are vital to a thoughtful and prosperous society
www.ft.com
July 17, 2026 at 8:38 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
As Britain’s first ‘openly Catholic’ Prime Minister Burnham can finally get the Downing Street toaster out of the cupboard.
July 21, 2026 at 10:46 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
really interesting piece: it relates (amongst much else) how the artist Pearl Binder, member of AIA (Artists International Association) helped found Puffin Books by showing Penguin editor Noel Carrington her collection of Soviet children's books.
lrb.co.uk London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Jul 14
‘The AIA created the sort of art which has had critical manure heaped on it since the 1940s: realist, figurative, agitational, achingly sincere.’

Owen Hatherley on British anti-fascist art in the 1930s.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Owen Hatherley · Raised on Spam: British Communist Art
The Artists International Association created the sort of art which has had critical manure heaped on it since the 1940s...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 19, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Sasha Dugdale
claraelenadice.bsky.social
The Strongbox by @sashadugdale.bsky.social explores Homeric themes of war, abduction and identity through interconnected scenes featuring both ancient and modern characters like Helen of Sparta and an unnamed girl in a warzone. The book examines how stories shape our perception of modern conflicts.
July 19, 2026 at 1:54 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
Many thanks to @claraelenadice.bsky.social for beginning what could be a thread of other work relating to this lesser known archaic epic about a few complicated women #Odyssey
claraelenadice.bsky.social Clara Elena García, Author 🇵🇾 @claraelenadice.bsky.social · Jul 19
For fans of the new Odyssey movie, here are two incredible retellings of Homer’s epic:

Penelope’s Sch()iff by Ulrike Draesner: Penelope has had enough. She leaves the island with a hundred women and her two daughters. Penelope’s real story begins in penelopes sch()iff.
July 19, 2026 at 6:55 AM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
‘Pitysad’ is from ‘Deformations’ a book about The Odyssey, PTSD, war and abuse @carcanet.bsky.social
(it’s featured in Henry Power’s excellent Homer Haunted) @bloomscontinuum.bsky.social
Poem title ‘Pitysad’ I entered a city at night, Penelope I couldn’t tell whether it was half-built or half-destroyed I ordered you killed, Penelope as I felt your hips in my hands your head under mine as I stroked your hair and wondered if you were still alive I moved through the streets and they were silent but I kicked down doors I crouched in stairwells and I saw you emerge from blasted places holding up my old coat and looking for me It was a cloudless night and the stars were tiny holes in the sky’s blackout beyond that dark fabric there’s a lit room brightly lit and although I can’t dance, Penelope we were dancing I burst into a room a few women huddled clutching pomegranates I thought they were bombs, Penelope I swear I thought they were bombs
July 18, 2026 at 7:55 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
A critic wrote in the Times of Goblin Market that ‘Miss Rossetti can point to work which could not easily be mended’ and this was her ensuing rage – as sketched by Dante Gabriel.
Sketch of crazy woman in kitchen smashing up furniture and holding g a hammer aloft
July 16, 2026 at 7:29 PM
sashadugdale.bsky.social
till you fall into so heavy a sleep — 
sleep made of asterisks and cattle,
the herd just a black scarf

Looking up Homeric poems I came across this by @pacificraft.bsky.social to me it has the same elemental feel as some of Mandelstam‘s lyric:

www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Homeric
Cold cry from the last page of the dictionary, name with a knife in it, and the knife italic against the throat till you fall into so heavy a sleep —…
www.poetryfoundation.org
July 16, 2026 at 9:33 AM