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Astrid Alben

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British poet
Astrid Alben
BornAstrid Reijna van Baalen
NationalityDutch
Occupation(s)Poet, editor, translator
Years active2007 - present
Websitewww.astridalben.com

Astrid Alben is a Dutch-born British poet, editor and translator. She is the author of several poetry collections, and her poems have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Maltese, Slovene and Romanian. Alben often appears at literary festivals throughout Europe, including the Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival.

Alben was the co-founder and artistic director of the arts and sciences initiative PARS (Atlas of Creative Thinking) between 2002 and 2018, curating site-specific events which combined theatre, art installations and scientific experiments, in spaces including the Serpentine Galleries and Central Saint Martins in London, and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. She was elected chair of Poetry London in 2021 and is Commissioning Editor for Literature in Translation for Prototype Publishing.

Biography

Alben was born in Loosdrecht, the Netherlands, and was raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and Hawkhurst, Kent, where she attended Cranbrook Grammar School. Abandoning a law degree at Leiden University, she switched to studying English literature and philosophy at Edinburgh University. She divides her time between London and Amsterdam and is married to the British poet Philip Hancock.

Works

Alben is the author of four collections of poetry, not all in English. Ai! Ai! Pianissimo appeared in 2011, Plainspeak in 2019, and Little Dead Rabbit in 2022, a collection she self-translated into Dutch and published with PoëzieCentrum in 2021 as Klein dood Konjin; there were further translations through small press outlets Broken Sleep and Arc. She also curated and edited the anthology series Findings on... and curates site-specific events combining theatre, art installations, and scientific experiments. Her poems, reviews, and essays have been featured in many outlets, including The Times Literary Supplement (on themes such as Brexit), Granta and Poetry Review. Her poetic approach is innovative and experimental, often involving unpunctuated stream of consciousness writing that is "supple and precise".

Books

  • 2011: Alben, Astrid (2011). Ai ! Ai ! pianissimo. Todmorden, England: Arc. ISBN 978-1-906570-73-6.
  • 2019: Plainspeak. Prototype.
  • 2021: Klein dood konijn (in Dutch). poëziecentrum.
  • 2022: Little Dead Rabbit.

Anthologies

Translations

  • 2022: Island mountain glacier.

Awards

Her translation of Island mountain glacier (Dutch: Eiland berg gletsjer) by Anne Vegter won an English PEN Translates Award in 2021. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Critical reception

Plainspeak was described by SPAMzine as reclaiming "the radical possibility of re-inventing ourselves through new and surprising language, which, she shows us, can be done just by speaking in the clearest, plainest form." Little Dead Rabbit, a collaboration with graphic designer Zigmunds Lapsa, was described as "an innovative combination of concrete poetry and abstract handmade die cuts."

References

  1. "Astrid Alben translator". Poetry Translation. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  2. ^ "Astrid Alben | Poet, Translator, Editor | London, UK". Astrid Alben. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  3. Malta, Inizjamed (2019-07-09). "Astrid Alben". Inizjamed. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  4. "Winter Warmer Videos 2014". www.obheal.ie. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  5. "A world of literature to enjoy". Times of Malta. 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  6. ^ "About Hester and Astrid - parsfoundation". www.parsfoundation.com. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  7. "Ways of Curating". Ways of Curating. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  8. "Astrid Alben Elected Chair of Poetry London's Board of Trustees". Poetry London. 2021-03-31. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  9. "About". Prototype. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  10. Poetry London biography
  11. "Philip Hancock | Poet". Philip Hancock. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  12. "Astrid Alben biography for publisher (Arc publications)". www.arcpublications.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  13. "Astrid Alben Archives". TLS. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  14. "Astrid Alben". Granta. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  15. "Vol 110, No 2, Summer 2020 – The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  16. "Astrid Alben publisher biography for Plainspeak". prototypepublishing.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  17. Williams, Aime (2012-03-30). "Astrid Alben: AI! AI! PIANISSIMO". TLS. Times Literary Supplement (5687): 25–26.
  18. "Plainspeak by Astrid Alben". Prototype. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  19. "Klein dood konijn". Poëziecentrum (in Dutch). 2021-10-11. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  20. "Little Dead Rabbit by Astrid Alben and Zigmunds Lapsa". Prototype. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  21. "Island mountain glacier by Anne Vegter, trans. Astrid Alben". Prototype. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
  22. "news - PEN Translates Awards for 'Island mountain glacier' - Letterenfonds". www.letterenfonds.nl. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  23. "PEN Translates awards announced". English Pen. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  24. "PEN Translates award winners from 15 countries revealed". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
  25. SPAM (2020-05-08). "(REVIEW) Plainspeak by Astrid Alben". SPAM. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  26. "Little Dead Rabbit: playful poetry book finds new ways to balance text and design". Creative Boom. 2022-03-23. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
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