(1970) gained a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Cairo in 1992. After publishing many short stories, he published two novels, of which The Black Magic was published in English by AUC Press in Cairo and awarded the Sawiris Foundation Prize for Egyptian Literature in 2006.
(pen name: László G. István; poet, translator; Hungary) holds degrees in Hungarian and English Literature from L. Eötvös University in Budapest. He has authored five books of poetry, most recently I Lay Me Down Thy Soul to Keep (2006). His translations of Larkin, Dickinson, Shakespeare, Hughes, and Yeats have appeared widely in journals and anthologies. His awards include a fellowship to the International Writers’ House in Rhodes, an NKA Literary Grant, and the Radnóti Award for Poetry.
(1963) was born in Berlin, and since 1989 has lived and worked in Hanover. A poet, translator and teacher, she has published anthologies dedicated to Central European literatures and poetry translations from Russian, Bulgarian, and English. Her books include award-winning poetry collections Morgen Blaues Tier (A Morning Blue Animal, 1997), Nichteuklidische Reise (Non-Euclidic Paths, 1998), Die Umgebung des Auges (Eye Surroundings, 2004), and the novel Der Pfau (The Peacok, 2008).
born in Malta in 1973, is particularly sensitive to the linguistic schizophrenia prevalent on the island, due to his upbringing speaking English and his relatively late embracing of Maltese as a viable literary vehicle. Following University, a series of dead end jobs and a five year stint in Prague playing the bohemian, he now lives in Brussels earning a living translating into Maltese for the European Union. He is married and has a son. His interests are not limited to writing, and include film making and music, while his dream is to write a number of books currently germinating in his head and keeping him awake at night, and then quit. A number of his novellas have been published this year in two books: Lil Hinn Mill-Jien and Żewġ.
was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1976. He graduated with a degree in English Literature from the Eötvös University of Budapest (ELTE), then went on to study Creative Writing at Dartmouth College in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship. His third degree is in Screenwriting from the National Film School in the UK. He is now working on his third volume of poems and has published widely in journals in his native Hungarian. His work has been translated into several languages. Among his many activities, he is the President of the József Attila Circle (JAK), the association of young Hungarian writers. He is also a commissioning editor for Chroma, the London-based literary and arts journal, and poetry editor of Kalligram, a Hungarian literary monthly. He has written a number of international prize-winning short films produced in London, and currently working on both film and theatre projects.
was born in 1973 and graduated from the Faculty of Letters in Bucharest. His literary talent was evident when he was still at high school and he also attended Mircea Cartarescu’s literary club during his studies. But even with this background, his first published work (Time-out, in 1998) was an outstanding example of prosodic and parodic virtuosity. Sorin Ghergut is one the most reserved of writers in the Romanian contemporary literary scene in terms of appearances in literary clubs and public readings, although his first published volume won the national poetry contest.
(Gaza, 1974) graduated in Arab Literature in Gaza. She worked as a volunteer in women projects and then as a presenter of various local radio programmes before becoming the culture correspondent for the news agency Wafa. In 2001 she began working for a Palestinian satellite station. She is the author of two books of poetry, There is still sea between us (Gaza, 2000) and A Very Seditious Woman (Egypt, 2003). Her works are also present in the anthology Fifty years of Palestinian Poetry (Ramallah, 2004) and in A World without a Sky.
is the author of a number of poetry collections, including The Ringing Rock (1995), and, most recently, The Lightning Tree (2002). She teaches creative writing and has held writing fellowships throughout Scotland. Her work includes various projects with visual artists and musicians. The book Men and Beasts: Wild Men and Tame Animals of Scotland (2000), together with an exhibition of the same name at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, was the result of a collaboration with photographer Rebecca Marr and was organised with hospital arts charity Artlink. In 2005, Valerie Gillies won a Creative Scotland Award, and is working on a collection of poems entitled The Spring Teller, inspired by Scotland's springs and wells. In 2005 she became Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate).
was born in Dublin in 1960 and is currently a Writing Fellow at Sabhal Mor Ostaig. He writes in both Scottish and Irish Gaelic, and his most recent collections are Bealach Garbh (Coisceim, 1999) and On the Underground/ Air a’Charbad fo Thalamh (Polygon 2000).
(1966, Marijampolė) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer and jazz musician. He worked with the Lithuanian Radio and Television, and since 1994 he has been working with the daily Klaipėda as editor of its literary supplement. He sings and plays bass with the group The Rockefellers. His first book Tattoo was published in 1993, followed by A Bone Pipe. His poetry has been translated into English, German, Swedish, Polish and other languages, and has been included in the forthcoming anthology Six Lithuanian Poets, Arc Publications. He lives and works in Klaipėda. http://grajauskas.googlepages.com/ http://www.imeem.com/people/cokQH5T/playlists/
vive nei Campi Flegrei (Napoli), luoghi di Virgilio, dove la terra danza al ritmo di terremoti quotidiani. Ha pubblicato vari saggi di letteratura e arti visive (con impostazione cognitivista) e alcuni libri di poesia, talvolta in edizione bilingue. Col poema "Sebeto" (antico e sotterraneo fiume di Napoli) ha ricostruito la lingua napoletana, nel segno di Federico II. Poiché i versi stampati in off-set vanno al macero, ha optato da anni per le edizioni a tiratura limitata curate da case di libri d'artista e in tandem con incisori e pittori. Il suo ultimo testo, "Taranterra" (aprile 2009), poema sulla possessione e il dionisismo, ha inaugurato la "Settimana della cultura" del Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Intensi i suoi studi sull'oralità, che lo hanno obbligato a suonare la tammorra perché i primi poeti, a cominciare dai rapsodi omerici, erano anche suonatori di tamburo. Ha scritto testi per canzoni, alla maniera del trobar clus, e ha ricostruito danze storiche (la pirrica, p.es.) utilizzando il "piede metrico" popolare e partendo da riti e culti ancora praticati durante feste religiose. Ha tradotto molti autori sia antichi che contemporanei. E' segretario dell'Istituto Patafisico Partenopeo con la qualifica di "ingegnere e macchinista di labirinti mnemonici".
Her debut Titlul volumului meu, care mă preocupă atât de mult... ( The Title Of My Collection, Which Preoccupies Me So Much...) made Adela Greceanu (1975) one of the voices that highlighted a certain shift of vision and attitude in new Romanian poetry. Concerned with femininity and the subjective emotional life of a "persona" called in her second book Domnişoara Cvasi (Miss Quasi, 2001), Adela Greceanu consolidated her reputation with every new book. Her latest collection (Understanding Right Through The Heart, 2004) and her recent novel (The Red‐Socked Bride, 2008) develop her onirical, almost surrealistic vision, making her one of the most original contemporary Romanian writers whose poetry is considered to continue the tradition of Gellu Naum and Rene Char.
Niall Griffiths was born in 1966 in Liverpool and lives in Aberystwyth in west Wales. The author of six novels to date, he burst on to the literary scene in 2000 with Grits, a ferocious novel narrated through a series of vernacular voices, which is currently being adapted for television. The novels that followed, including Stump, 2003, Wreckage, 2005, and his most recent, Runt, 2007, confirmed Griffiths's reputation as a writer of striking originality, who looks at the world through the eyes of marginalized characters like the semi-literate, nameless teenage protagonist of Runt, whose inner monologue is "redolent with pagan myth, and richly evocative of the natural world around him". Niall Griffiths' novels have been translated into French, German, Italian and Croatian.
Adrian Grima (1968) lectures in Maltese Literature at the University of Malta and has written poems, short stories and drama for children. His poetry collections in Maltese are It-Trumbettier (The Trumpeter, 1999) and Rakkmu (Weavings, 2006), and a selection was published in English as The Tragedy of the Elephant (2005) and in German under the title Dieser verwundete Frühling - Dir-Rebbiegħa Midruba (2007). He is the coordinator of the Mediterranean cultural organization Inizjamed, and the Maltese correspondent of the Babelmed.net website about culture in the Mediterranean region.
(1977) is a young and gifted Finland-Swedish poet, whose works are now published in Finnish for the first time. The first part of her selection of poems, Sinä siellä kaukana näytät tutulta (You out there, you look familiar) contains ten poems from her first collection of poetry, På diabilden är huvudet proppfullt av lycka (In the slide the head overflows with joy), while the second part consists of her acclaimed collection, Ödemjuka belles lettres från en till en (Softly destined belles lettres from one to another). The poems have been translated by the praised young poet, Kristiina Lähde. Gripenberg won the Arvid Mörne poetry prize in 1998 and the Stig Carlsson prize in Sweden in 2003.