With a background in art history, Siân Melangell Dafydd has worked in galleries in London and abroad before more recently graduating from the renowned creative writing programme at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich. Y Trydydd Peth (The Third Thing) is her first novel and won her the coveted 2009 National Eisteddfod Literature Medal. Originally from the coastal and mountainous region of Meirionnydd in north Wales she now divides her time between Wales and Paris, where she is researching a second novel. Sian is also currently involved with the Word Express project http://www.word-express.org
was born in Beijing in 1949. In 1978, he co-founded the first unofficial literary journal Today (Jingtian). Since 1987, Bei Dao has lived and taught in England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, France, and the United States. His works have been translated into thirty languages, including six poetry volumes in English – The Rose of Time (2009), Unlock (2000), Landscape Over Zero (1996), Forms of Distance (1994), Old Snow (1992), The August Sleepwalker (1990), a collection of stories, Waves (1990), and two collections of essays, Midnight’s Gate (2005) and Blue House (2000). He has won numerous awards and honors and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize several times. Currently, he is a Professor of Humanities at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
was born in 1962 in Törökszentmiklós, eastern Hungary, and graduated from the University of Szeged. He has worked as editor of a Szeged daily since 1989 and as co-editor of the only national literary weekly, Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature). Although he began publishing as a poet in 1991, he now writes mainly prose. His major short story collections are A veinhageni rózsabokrok (The Rose Bushes of Veinhagen, 1993) A Borgognoni-féle szomorúság (Sadness à la Borgognoni, 1994) and Szerelmem, Dumumba elvtársno (My Love, Comrade Dumumba, 1998). One of his short stories was published in German, French and Dutch translation and three of his short stories have been adapted for the stage and performed abroad. After seven volumes of short fiction came his historical novel, The Legend of the Tear-Grifters, 1999. Encompassing more than a century of Ottoman occupation of Hungary in the 16th and 17th century, it has been hailed as one of the most significant Hungarian novels of the nineties and a work of “amazing imagination and sheer linguistic brilliance”.
was born in Ljubljana in 1961. Poet, essayist, translator and Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Ljubljana, he is a well-known figure on the Slovenian literary scene. Author of six collections of poetry and eight books of literary criticism and socio-cultural essays, including Temno nebo Amerike (The Dark Skies of America, 1991) Zaton idolov, 1994, published in English as The Twilight of the Idols: Recollections of a Lost Yugoslavia in the same year, Individualizem in literarne metafore naroda, (Individualism and Literary Metaphors of the Nation) and Reluctant Modernity: The Institution of Art and its Historical Forms, both 1998. His latest is Lanski sneg: eseji o kulturi in tranziciji (Last Year's Snow: Essays on Culture and Transition), 2002. His poetry was published in English as The Dictionary of Silence and The City and the Child, both 1999, Anxious Moments, 1994, and The Chronicle of Melancholy, 1989. His work has been translated into many languages and his poetry features in a number of foreign anthologies of Slovenian writing. He is the editor of the Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian sections in Shifting Borders: East European Poetries in the Eighties, 1993, and of the anthologies Prisoners of Freedom: Contemporary Slovenian Poetry, 1994, and The Imagination of Terra Incognita: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995, published in 1997.
(1980) is a poet, writer, translator and painter. He has published two collections of short stories Kolekcija (Collection, 1999) and Rynek w Smyrnie (The Market Square in Smyrna) 2007), four books of poems, Żywoty równoległe Parallel Lives, 2004) and Wyprawa na południe (An expedition southwards, 2005), Wiersze (Poems, 2006) and Brzytwa okamgnienia (Razor-sharp glance) 2007) He also translates poetry - among others Osip Mandelshtam, W.H. Auden, Philip Larkin, George Szirtes, Mary Oliver - and lyrics - for example songs to music by Astor Piazzola. He has been awarded several literary prizes, including the prestigious Kościelski Prize in 2005.
(b. 1972) is a poet, translator, and a member of Lithuanian Writers Union. He has graduated from MA studies in philosophy at Vilnius University in 1996 and from PhD studies in philosophy at Graduate School for Social Research in Warsaw, Poland – in 2002. In 2004 he defended his PhD degree at Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2003 he was writing reviews on Polish press for Lithuanian cultural magazine Naujasis Židinys. Working as an independent translator, he translates essays, prose, poetry, studies in humanities mostly from Polish, Ukrainian and other Central-Eastern European languages for prestigious Lithuanian publishers: Mintis, Aidai, and others. In 2005 he published a poetry book Exceptions that was awarded the “Young Yotvingian” award at prestigious Druskininkai Poetic Fall festival in 2006.His work has been translated into Latvian, Slovenian, and English. Dekšnys lives and works in Vilnius.
was born in 1977 in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. She graduated in Macedonian Literature and South Slavic Literatures. During her studies at the St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, she published poetry in the Mugri student literary magazine and in the Lettre Internationale literary magazine. In 2002, her first book of poetry, Exercises For Proper Breathing was published by Makavej, Skopje. Her second collection of poetry entitled Me-You was part of a project with the painter Marija Nikoloska Naneska in 2004. The project was installed in the Skopje City Museum in October 2002. In 2003 and 2004, her poems were published in the literary magazine Stremez. In 2008, her third collection of poetry entitled Goddess Of The Feral Cats was published by Blesok, Skopje, and in 2009 her fourth book was published by the same publisher. The fourth book is entitled In The Barbie’s Aquarium. Her poetry has been published in the electronic magazine for culture Blesok No.63. She is working on her master thesis on The Post-Modernist Traps In Goran Stefanovski’s Plays. As well as poetry, she writes prose and literature reviews. Aleksandra Dimitrova works and lives in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. Blog - www.bonbonce.blogspot.com
was born in 1977. In 2008 she won the Maribor poetry tournament award and the 6th Ljubljana poetry slam. In September 2008, her first poetry collection, Rumeno Gori Grm Forzicij, was published by Literatura and awarded Best First Book award at the 24th Slovenian Book Fair. Veronika has published poems and essays by Louise Glück, Muriel Rukeyser and Denise Levertov in her translation and co-translated the 20th century Irish poetry anthology, Čudovita usta. Dancing on the Edge of the World, a collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin in Veronika's translation was published in 2007. Veronika is a co-organizer of the monthly poetry reading series Mlade Rime hosted at Metelkova by Cultural Society Kentaver.
(1977, Belgrade) is a poet, prose writer, translator and editor. He holds degrees in Serbian and world literature from the University of Belgrade and from the Belgrade Open University. He is one of the founders of the cultural NGO Treći Trg (Third Square) which publishes the electronic and printed literary and art magazine Treći Trg (www.trecitrg.org.rs), where he works as editor. He is also the founder director of the Belgrade International Poetry and Book Festival. His poetry and prose has been in various Serbian magazines and newspapers ( Student, Beogradske novine, Pančevac, Rukopisi, Istočnik, Txt, URB, Re, Contrastes, Album), and he has also published studies about early Christianity. His short stories were included in the anthology Shortest stories (2006), and he has co-authored the prose book Diary 2000 (2001). His poetry collections are Pressure(2002), Coping(2006) and Blessed Losers (2009). His works have been translated into English, French, Polish and Catalan.
was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1951. She attended the School of Applied Arts and graduated from the University of Latvia where she studied French and English languages, later she studied Croatian in Zagreb. Her first poetry book, Brūnās zvaigznes (The Brown Stars) was published in 1971, and she has written prolifically ever since, publishing eight collections of poetry and five books of prose. In addition, she has published several books for children and many translations from French, English, Russian, Spanish, Polish, Bulgarian, Croatian languages. Among the authors she has translated are the Bronte sisters, Jane Austin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. Hemingway, T. Hardy, I. Murdoch, H. de Balzac, V. Hugo, Ch. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, F. Presheren, A. G. Matosh, P. Preradovič, T. A. Ujevich. In 2004 she received the most prestigious prize awarded to Latvian translators for the translation of Moby Dick by Hermann Melville. Her poems have been translated into Lithuanian, Russian, French, English Icelandic, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Slovak, Bulgarian. A volume of her prose texts have appeared in Armenian in Yerevan.
(1983, Budapest) is a poet, writer, literary translator and critic. He started publishing around the turn of the millennium, since then his prose, poetry, translations and criticism have appeared in all leading Hungarian literary reviews and magazines. In 2006 he recieved the Petőfi Poetry Grant from the Hungarian National Radio. He is member of the Attila József Young Writers’ Association (József Attila Kör, JAK), and Hungarian PEN. He translates classical and contemporary French and Belgian authors, such as the works of Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Marguerite Duras, Maurice Blanchot, William Cliff, Carl Norac, Laurent de Graeve, etc. His translation of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s last novel, Un roman sentimental (A Sentimental Novel) is due to be published in spring 2009 by Magvető. From 2005, he has been working as a a critic of contemporary Hungarian literature, and publishing essays on the works of Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. He is currently in the process of finishing his studies of aesthetics and French literature at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest.
Efe Duyan, born 1981 in İstanbul, is a poet and architect. After graduating from the German School of İstanbul he studied Architecture and Philosophy at Middle East Technical University (B.A.) and History and Theory of Architecture in Yıldız Tecnical University (M.S). He teaches architecture at Mimar Sinan University. His poems and essays have been published in several literary reviews such as Edebiyat Eleştiri, Öteki‐Siz, Damar, Kavram Karmaşaand Akköy. He has been on editorial boards of the reviews Nikbinlik, Damar, Sol and Sanat Cephesi. He has published one collection of poems, Takas (2006) with Kemal Özer. His book The Construction of Characters in Nâzım Hikmet’s Poetry was published in 2008.