Author: qmulcatalancentreconference

Queen Mary Annual Catalan Lecture 2026

Wednesday 28 October 2026 – Film and Drama Studio, ArtsTwo

“I didn’t know that having an accent was going to give me everything I have now”

We were delighted to welcome Sergi Polo for this year’s Queen Mary Annual Catalan Lecture… with a twist! Sergi Polo is a stand-up comic from Barcelona who has lived in London for 10 years. Sergi learned English through performing comedy, and now frequently does shows in English, Spanish, and Catalan!

He told us how he uses the stage to educate audiences about the issues that are important to him, and how bilingual people are always more intelligent, of course!

It was a fantastic night of “automenyspreant” (look it up!), the art of mastering swearing in three languages, and learning what makes every audience different, even when the jokes stay the same.

Sergi is currently touring Spain and Europe and will return to perform in the UK in Janaury.

Autumn 2026

15 October 2026, 6.30pm (online)

In the autumn session of the Queen Mary Catalan Bookclub, we were thrilled to take on poetry for the first time! Poet Anna Gual and translator AKaiser joined us online to discuss Unnameable / Innombrable (2025), a collection of translations published by Zephyr Press (Massachusetts).

Anna Gual is a prize-winning poet who has published eight collections of poetry. Her poems have been translated into French, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Croatian, Slovenian, and Russian.

AKaiser is an acclaimed poet herself, and the author of the debut collection glint (2025). She is a translator of Catalan, French, and Spanish. AKaiser holds a doctorate in Translation and Intercultural Studies from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Unnameable appeared on the Longlist for the 2026 National Translation Award (ALTA).

Observing the thematic refractions throughout the book, our conversation encompassed relationships, definitions, and the construction and reconstruction of poetry in the feminine. We are very grateful to Anna and AK for talking us through their literary inspirations, and how an anthology of translations comes into being!

Thank you to all who attended online – and to Zephyr Press for kindly providing complimentary copies of the book for our participants. Keep your eyes peeled for our next Bookclub event!