Thessaloniki International Book Fair

Helexpo Exhibition center
154 Egnatias Street, Thessaloniki
29 May – 1 June 

LAF will be attending this year’s fair with a collective stand representing literary organisations from the Basque Country, Catalonia, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Flanders – Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia and Wales.

www.thessalonikibookfair.com

European Literature Today

This weekend Literature Across Frontiers is in Egypt for two evenings of poetry and debate with Sylvia Geist (Germany), Adrian Grima (Malta), Jaan Kaplinski (Estonia), Marta Pessarrodona (Catalonia) and Fatima Naoot (Egypt).

Saturday, 17 May 2008, 19:00 – 20:30

An evening of poetry and debate moderated by Alexandra Büchler

Goethe Institut Cairo

17, Sharia Hussein Wassef, Midan El-Missaha-Doqqi

Admission free

Sunday, 18 May 2008, 19:30 – 21:00

An evening of poetry with a debate moderated by Dr. Sohair Wastawy

Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Conference Centre Theatre

Admission free

Literature Across Frontiers is celebrating the Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 with a landmark exchange of literary culture between Europe and the Arab World. A collection of contemporary books is being donated to the Alexandria Library to highlight the linguistic and literary diversity of today's Europe.

The project is supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation in cooperation with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Goethe Institut Cairo, Estonain Literature Centre and Institut Ramon Llull. Please click here to find out more.

Israel Translation Workshop

Galilee and Tel Aviv,
28 April – 5 May

Following the first successful joint workshop in 2007, LAF and the Helicon Society for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel are bringing together Israeli poets Yael Globermann, Sabina Messeg and Amir Or with Doris Kareva (Estonian, Estonia) Meg Bateman (Scottish Gaelic, UK) and Pascale Petit (English, France/UK).

The poets will be reading at the Nissan International Festival of Poetry in Ma’gar in Galilee on the 29th of April and at Helicon House in Tel Aviv on the 3rd of May. They will write, share and translate each others work with workshop leaders Alexandra Büchler and Tziona Shamay.

Book World, Prague 2008

 Industrial Palace Prague - Holešovice Exhibition Grounds, Prague
24 – 27 April

The 14^th Prague international book fair and literary festival, Book World, is this year taking a close-up look at Love and Passion in Literature, Books and Lifestyle, and 50 Years of Czech Egyptology.

LAF is holding a collective stand representing literature organisations from the Basque Country, Catalonia, Estonia, Flanders, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia and Wales.

In accordance with the guest of honour – Spain, LAF is also organising a debate on the current status of Spanish and Latin American literature. Literature from Spain and Latin America in the World is hosted by Mercedes Monmany de la Torre and will be held on Thursday, 24 April at 17:30 in the Literary Hall. On the panel will be Anežka Charvátová (Czech Republic), Anna Housková (Czech Republic), Amanda Hopkinson (UK), Márta Patak (Hungary), Tomasz Pindel (Poland) and Simona Škrabec (Spain-Catalonia).

The London Book Fair 2008

Earl’s Court, London
14-16 April

This year’s London Book Fair will be focusing on the Arab world and you can visit Literature Across Frontiers's collective stand (V345). LAF will be hosting a seminar ‘Making Literature Travel’ with Alexandra Buchler on April 15th at 17:00pm, Westminster Room, level 1.

Literature in translation is one of the cornerstones of international cultural exchange – unlike performance and visual art, writing cannot travel without translation. Translated books represent a high proportion of publishing output in most European countries – with the exception of the United Kingdom. How is this essential activity addressed by cultural policy and what support is provided by arts funding bodies across Europe? How does their support contribute to the cultural diversity agenda on the one hand and interact with the highly commercialized area of international publishing on the other? And how does the UK compare with other large European countries such as France and Germany when it comes to supporting, publishing and reading literature in translation? These and other questions are addressed in the report prepared by Literature Across Frontiers, the UK-based European programme of literary exchange and policy debate.

A New European Irony?

Dasein Club, Athens
4-6 April

LAF brings up-and-coming writers to the Dasein Club in Athens for a three-day gathering of discussions, readings and celebration through film, music and prose. Chris Chryssopoulos (novelist, essayist, translator; Greece) Alex Epstein (fiction writer; Israel) István László Geher (pen name: László G. István; poet, translator; Hungary) Ekaterina Taratuta (novelist, fiction writer, philosopher, editor; Russia) will all make appearance and join journalists, critics, bloggers and bookcrossers in a  closing party on April 6th. For more information on the festival, visit www.dasein.gr

Poetry Translation Workshop - Algeria

March 27, 14:30pm,
Galerie d'art Benyaa, 4, rue de Picardie les Castors II, Bir Mourad Rais, Alger.
March 30, 17:00pm,
Centre culturel francais, 7, rue Hassani Issad, 16000 Alger.

From the 24th to the 31st of March in Algiers, LAF is bringing together poets Mohamed Al Amraoui from Morocco and France, Adrian Grima from Malta, Slovenian poet Brane Mozetič, Sigurdur Pállson from Iceland, Catalan poet Josep Piera, together with Algerian poets Samira Negrouche who writes in French, Achour Fenni writing in Arabic and Brahim Tazaghart, writing in Tamazight.

Leipzig Book Fair

Leipziger Buchmesse
13-16 March

LAF is holding a collective stand at this year’s fair, representing organisations from Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovenia and Wales. The event is the spring meeting for the European publishing and media sectors and the aim is to drum up publicity for new books from across the world. The fair also marks the newest trends in the German-speaking and European literature markets; this year’s focus of attention is on Croatia.

Abu Dhabi Book Fair

Abu Dhabi
11-16 March

This year at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, LAF was pleased host a collective stand representing a range of organisations operating in support of literary translation and exchange from across Europe and beyond.

Throughout the fair’s professional programme and conference, discussions were held on the challenges of publishing books in translation. The fair was also host to the first International Prize for Arabic Fiction which was awarded to author Baha Taher on the eve of the fair. The Sheikh Zayed Book Awards for Arab thinkers and innovators working across the field of literature, arts and technology were also announced. Other highlights from a number of Arabic publishing figures included appearances from best-selling Egyptian author Alaa al-Aswany and ‘Talking Literature: Love Matters – Female Writing in Saudi Arabia’; with writers Leila al-Juhani and Badrya al-Bishr.

For further information on the Abu Dhabi book fair go to: www.adbookfair.com 

Changing Places - Welsh and Flemish poets in residence

Wales and Brussels
March - April 2008

In recognition that promotion of culture abroad cannot work without reciprocity, and following on from the Sealines Port Exchange project in 2005-7, Welsh Literature Abroad with the support of Literature Accross Frontiers is organising a literary exchange between Brussels and Wales

Welsh Literature Abroad will be welcoming Flemish poet Eva Cox to Wales in March and April 2008 for a writers' residency. The visit will enable quiet time to write and provide a first-hand experience of the diverse landscapes and literary cultures of Wales as she travels around the country. Whilst Cox will be in Wales, Gwyneth Lewis will be in residence in Brussels, at the invitation of the Brussels-based literary organisation Het beschrijf.

Istanbul Poetry Translation Workshop

Instanbul
1 – 7 March

After two successful visits to the Istanbul Book Fair in previous years, LAF returns to Turkey to bring together four poets from Europe with their Turkish colleagues to explore each others’ work and its context through discussion and translation.

Together with the Translation Department of Bogazici University, LAF is continuing to develop contacts with Turkish writers, translators, academics and publishers, paving the way for more frequent literary exchange between European countries and Turkey with its vibrant and fascinating literary scene. Bringing together poets from Turkey and European countries, where contemporary Turkish poetry is very little known, is the first step.

The visiting poets are Catharina Gripenberg, a Swedish-language poet from Finland, Albert Roig from Catalonia whose poetry has been widely performed on stage and set to music, the leading Polish poet Marzanna Kielar and the Estonian poet Ly Ehin who is also a translator of Turkish literature. They will appear together with the well-known poet Bejan Matur at the Can Bookshop, on Thursday, March 6, at 6pm.

European Literature Today - Bibliotheca Alexandrina

24th January 2008
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Small Theatre, 7 - 9 pm
 
Literature Across Frontiers starts the year of intercultural dialogue 2008 with a landmark exchange of literary culture between Europe and the Arab world. Books from all over Europe are being donated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt’s ambitious and extensive library.
 
To mark the project a gala evening of literature and music is being held in the library’s Small Theatre on 25th January 2008. A reading by visiting authors Niall Griffiths and James Robertson from the United Kingdom, Anton Hykisch from Slovakia, Sandra Kalniete from Latvia, Svetlana Makarovic from Slovenia and special guest Ibrahim Abdel Meguid will be followed by a concert given by the award-winning local band Massar Egbari.
The project is also being celebrated with an event on 24th January in Cairo to coincide with the opening of the Cairo International Book Fair.