Josephine Balmer is a British poet, translator of classics and literary critic.[1][2] She sets the daily Word Watch and weekly Literary Quiz for The Times.[2]
She was born in 1959 in Hampshire and now lives in East Sussex.[3] She studied classics at University College, London and was awarded a PhD degree by publication by the University of East Anglia.[3]
She was Chair of the British Translators' Association from 2002-2005, and reviews editor of the journal Modern Poetry in Translation from 2004-2009. She was a judge of poetry translation for the Stephen Spender Prize in 2006-2009 and 2015.[4]
In 1989 her translation Sappho: Poems and Fragments was shortlisted for the inaugural US Lambda Literary Awards.[5] In 2017 her collection The Paths of Survival was shortlisted for the London Hellenic Prize.[6]