Title: In Translation: A Scottish-Slovenian Poetry Exchange

Since 2015, the Edwin Morgan Trust has supported a biennial series of international translation exchanges that bring leading international poets to Scotland to collaborate with Scottish poets through workshops and public readings.

The fifth edition of this series brings together four poets – Beth Frieden, Iva Jevtić, David Kinloch, and Milan Šelj – working across Scottish Gaelic, Scots, and Slovene for a two-part exchange in Edinburgh (November 2025) and Ljubljana (summer 2026). During these residencies, the poets will translate each other’s work and explore the cultural and linguistic contexts that inform their writing.

Chaired by Ken Cockburn, this event will feature readings from all four poets as they share the outcomes of the Edinburgh workshops and reflect on the process of literary translation, offering insight into the creative and collaborative journey behind their work. The event will be followed by a reception in The Atrium.  

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Ken Cockburn is a poet and translator based in Edinburgh, where he worked for many years at the Scottish Poetry Library. He was the first writer-in-residence at the John Murray Archive, National Library of Scotland, and was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship for Literary Translation 2008

Beth Frieden is an American poet who writes in English and Scottish Gaelic. Her debut pamphlet, Acair san talamh / Anchor in the land, was published by Stewed Rhubarb Press in 2023. She received a New Scottish Writer’s Award in 2021 from the Scottish Books Trust, and was in the 2023-24 cohort of Genesis Emerging Writers.

David Kinloch is the author of six collections of poetry, most published by Carcanet Press, the latest being Greengown: New and Selected Poems. In 2022, David received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in recognition of his contribution to poetry.

Iva Jevtić (1976) is a poet, translator, and literary theorist. Her first poetry collection Težnost [Gravity] was published by Apokalipsa in 2005. In 2023, KUD Zrakogled published her second poetry collection Milost [Grace], which won the 2023 Veronika Prize for best poetry collection.

Milan Šelj is an award-winning Slovenian poet and translator. He is the author of five poetry collections: Darilo [Gift] (2006), Kristali soli [Crystals of Salt] (2010), Gradim gradove [Building Buildings] (2015), Slediti neizgovorjenemu [Tracing the Unspoken] (2018), and Jezik je ključ [Language Is the Key] (2023).