Ethiopian poets celebrate Songs We Learn from Trees (Carcanet, 2020), the first anthology of Amharic poetry in English.

Join us for an evening of bilingual readings and discussion of the vibrant poetry scene in Addis Ababa, with

• Dr Bedilu Wakjira (from Addis Ababa)
• Misrak Terefe (Addis)
• Kebedech Tekleab (New York)
• Hama Tuma (Paris)
• Mihret Kebede (Vienna)
• Alemu Tebeje (London)
• Editor/translator Chris Beckett.

የማይቀርበት ታላቅ የኢትዮጵያ ግጥም መፅሀፍ ምረቃ እና ንባብ ዝግጅት!!

This is the very first anthology of Ethiopian poetry in English, packed with all the energy, wit and heartache of a beautiful country and language. From folk and religious poems, warrior boasts, praises of women and kings and modern plumbing; through a flowering of literary poets in the twentieth century; right up to thirty of the most exciting contemporary Amharic poets working both inside and outside the country.

These poems ask what it means to be Ethiopian today, part of a young fast-growing economy, heirs to the one African state which was never colonised, but beset by deep political, ethnic and moral problems.

Finalist for the 2021 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry

Supported by Arts Council England, the Anglo-Ethiopian Society and Friends of Ethiopian Poetry.