Slovak Literature in English Translation

James Sutherland-Smith is a poet, translator, and tireless champion of Slovak poetry in the English speaking world.  He studied at Leeds University and after leaving Britain in 1980, he worked in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. In 1988 he took a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and in the autumn of 1989 took a lector’s job through the British Council in what was then Czechoslovakia, arriving six weeks before the Velvet Revolution and settling in Slovakia. From 2002 to 2009 he worked as English Language Advisor to the Armed Forces of Serbia and Montenegro. After returning to Slovakia he worked as a lecturer at the University of Prešov until his retirement in 2018.  James Sutherland-Smith has published over a dozen collections of his own poetry and has translated, on his own or jointly with his wife Viera, a great many Slovak poets into English. In 2003 he was awarded the Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav prize for his significant contributions to translating Slovak poetry into English.

jamessutherland-smith.co.uk