A evening of film poems followed by readings by poets from across the globe

First Half

We're thrilled to be showing a selection of film poems

With films by:

Olive Mills

Mimi Thompson

Katherine Stockton

Peter Whittenberger

Daisy Thurston-Gent

Catching Shadows

Emma Gant

C. Moss Collective

Janet Lees

Jo Gifford

Second Half

Readings by Athambile Masola, and Ma Yongbo and his co-translator, Helen Pletts.

Athambile Masola is a poet, teacher and researcher who grew up in East London and currently teaches at the University of Cape Town. A Mandela Rhodes Scholar, she researches the literary careers of historically ignored black women writers and is the founder of Asinakuthula Collective. Her debut collection of poems, Ilifa, was published in isiXhosa by uHlanga in 2021, and subsequently won the HSS Award for Poetry in 2022.

Ma Yongbo has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 including 9 poetry collections. Ma Yongbo’s complete Chinese translation of Moby Dick has sold over 600,000 copies. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) comprising 1178 poems, celebrate 40 years of writing poetry. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology.

In August 2026 he received the American poetry award: New Generation Beat Poet Laureate (2026-lifetime) China, from The National Beat Poetry Foundation (NBPF) in the United States. In July 2026, at the 6th Silk Road International Poetry Festival, he received the Egyptian Arab Oscar Poetry Award, the festival’s highest honour, and the Silk Road International Poets Federation Laureate Poet Award.

Helen Pletts is the English co-translator of Ma Yongbo, her official Chinese translator. She is a committee member of CB1 Poetry (/events/cb1-poetry-x-cpf), the established monthly poetry reading event in central Cambridge UK, which has organised poetry readings for many years. Besides Chinese, her work has been translated into Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian, Romanian and Spanish.

Helen and Ma Yongbo are co-creators of the ongoing series of Response Poetry Volumes of the transnational dialogue featured in the ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip – Summer Tour 2025’ published by International Times since 10th May 2025.

In July 2026, her poetry, translated by Ma Yongbo, was awarded the Hong Kong Literature and Art Award, an accolade of extraordinary excellence in literary creation, artistic expression and cultural communication by Hong Kong Literature and Art.

Description supplied by the event organiser.