In an increasingly interconnected literary landscape, translation is not just a feature but a defining force in contemporary publishing. In this panel, poet and translator Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal chairs a conversation with Nashwa Nasreldin (ArabLit Quarterly, Poetry Translation Centre) and Sana Goyal (Wasafiri) on the intricate, dynamic editorial practices that shape contemporary literary magazines. How do editors navigate the complexities of working with multiple languages, translators, and linguistic traditions? What challenges and possibilities arise when curating literature that moves across borders? Drawing on their experiences, the panellists will reflect on the role of translation in expanding literary landscapes, the responsibility of editors in shaping cross-cultural dialogue, and the creative potential of publishing multilingual voices in English. Join us for an insightful discussion on the creative and critical decisions that shape the multilingual literary sphere today. 

Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal is a writer, researcher and literary translator, and was born in Palampur, India. She studied at St. Bede’s College, Shimla; Trinity College, Dublin; and Queen’s University, Belfast. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German, Italian; and have appeared in Ambit, Bad Lilies, Banshee, bath magg, Cyphers, Gutter, Oxford Poetry, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Jukebox, Poetry London, Rattle, The Irish Times, and elsewhere. Her criticism has appeared in Brixton Review of Books, Free Verse: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry and Poetics and Wasafiri. In 2018, she was one of the twelve poets selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series. Supriya was the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. She was awarded the fellowship to develop a series of poems tethered to the life and work of Norah Richards, an Irish theatre practitioner who called the erstwhile Punjab and the Dhauladhars her home. Supriya is the author of The Yak Dilemma, published by Makina Books. She is currently working towards a practice-based PhD at the Centre for Place Writing, Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Sana Goyal is the Editor and Publishing Director of Wasafiri. She has an MA in Postcolonial Studies and a PhD in literary prizes from SOAS, University of London. She was formerly Deputy Editor at Wasafiri, Publicity Manager at Tilted Axis Press, and Marketing and Outreach Officer at Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal. Her reviews have appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Poetry Review, Vogue India, and elsewhere. She was a judge for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize and is a judge for the 2025 International Booker Prize. 

Nashwa Nasreldin is a writer, editor, and literary translator of Arabic novels, short stories, poems, screenplays and non-fiction. Her published book-length translations include Shadow of the Sun, by Kuwaiti author Taleb Alrefai, Shatila Stories, the collaborative novel by nine refugee writers, and After Coffee by Abdelrashid Mahmoudi, among others. She writes poetry and literary essays, and is a freelance writer and commissioning editor of poetry, features and personal essays, with a focus on language, literature, history and current affairs, culture and the arts. Nashwa is Commissioning Editor at The Poetry Translation Centre’s and a contributing editor at ArabLit.org and its sister publication, ArabLit Quarterly. She is a former programmes and documentaries producer at Al Jazeera English and a former video producer at Agence France Presse (AFP). She is also the founder of the Suffolk-based Bury St Edmunds Writers’ Workshop. She holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and was awarded a mentorship with the British Centre for Literary Translation in 2014. Nashwa is on the translations advisory board of The Other Side of Hope, a journal publishing literature by refugees and immigrants. 

This event is part of the 2025 Manchester Translation Series.

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