Versopolis Newsletter — September Festivals 2022
Dear Versopolis friends,
follow us and discover Europe through the lens of poetry. September is a fabulous month to spend time with like-minded friends, poetry readings and gatherings.
This time we would like to draw your attention to Tbilisi International Festival of Literature, Athens World Poetry Festival, the Poetik Bazar in Brussels and Druskininkai Poetic Fall festival, the most important literature event in Lithuania. If you happen to be close to any of them, join in and share your impressions with us!
Discover more on www.versopolis.com and read the newly published articles in the format "author of the week". Slovenia is this week's focus. Author Nina Dragičević writes about poetry and sound and Kristian Koželj on poetry and transcendence.
Sending you our best,
your VERSOPOLIS teamAUTUMN FESTIVALS
September 2022
Tbilisi, GeorgiaThe Tbilisi International Festival of Literature (TIFL) is held in May each year. The previous two festivals were the highlight of cultural life in Tbilisi, with an exciting program, fascinating speakers and guests, and high audience participation. The TIFL is hosted and organized by the Writers’ House of Georgia in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and a number of international organizations based in Tbilisi. The festival shares the platform between Georgian and international authors and humanists, continuing the great literary and cultural traditions of Georgia.
The festival aims to create a localized platform for connecting international professionals of the literary world: authors with significant records, translators, researchers, biographers, scholars and other interested members of the public, and most importantly, allowing local lovers of literature to observe the processes and even participate in discussions.
>> Visit the Website
Athens, GreeceThe Athens World Poetry Festival is organized by the literary organization Poets Circle. For a week, the city is transformed into a large poetic canvas, with the participation of Greek and foreign poets.
When the Poets’ Circle was founded in 2012, it set as its primary goal the continuous and public communication of poetry with the wider public. Within this framework, the Athens World Poetry Festival was materialized, featuring, ever since, the ‘dream team’ of world poetry, with internationally renowned poets from around the world.
During the festival, numerous public events – such as readings, workshops, music, visual arts and more – are hosted at several venues around the city so that poetry becomes a vital part of everyday life, emphasizing on the importance of poetry in difficult times, while also contributing to the extroversion of the Greek poetry, to dialogue between different traditions and the promotion of Greek cultural traditions abroad.
>> Visit the Website
Brussels, Belgium
Poetik Bazar is a new and unique bilingual poetry festival in the capital of Belgium and Europe. It showcases Belgian verse from both sides of the linguistic border (Dutch and French) as well as from across Europe, in various forms. For three days, the public has the opportunity to discover the vitality of contemporary poetry at the publishers' fair with lectures, workshops, performances and presentations.
The first edition was in September 2021. The second takes place from Friday 23th until Sunday 25th of September 2022.
Poetik Bazar is being set up in BE-HERE in the suburb ‘Laken’, in an old industrial building (1923) with character that now is a vivid place for various sustainable and cultural initiatives. BE-HERE is the epicentre of the festival where the poetry market is taking place during the day. At least 40 poetry publishing houses and poetry magazines (Dutch/French) participate. At the market there are also readings and small spectacles. Alongside the events in BE-HERE, there are also initiatives in various places in Brussels and its suburbs.
The Versopolispoets are presented at the openingsevening which take place in the legendary ‘Le Théâtre Poème’, now called ‘La Maison Poème’ in the suburb ‘Sint-Gillis’. Since 1962, many famous authors have lectured there.
Poetik Bazar is organized by different poetry partners from Flanders (Dutch speaking), Brussels (Dutch/French speaking part) and Wallonia (French speaking) such as: Midis de la Poésie, les éditeurs singuliers, VONK & Zonen, Poëziecentrum, Passa Porta, maelstrÖm reEvolution, la Maison de la poésie d'Amay et la Foire du livre de Bruxelles.
>> Visit the Website
Druskininkai, Lithuania
Druskininkai Poetic Fall festival is one of the most important literature events in Lithuania. It is international poetry festival, held every autumn in October. The festival begins in Vilnius with Presentation of Anthology. A day later we are leaving to Druskininkai where all other Festival activities are held.
There are few traditional events of the Festival every year – readings of Festival guests and Lithuanian poets, performances, mini book fair, Presentation of Anthology, conference, seminar, young poets’ evening readings, Presentation of the photo exhibition, Presentation of the Yotvingian and Young Yotvingian prizes, anonymous single poem competition. The last event of the Festival - Readings by DPF guests and winners of prizes is held in Vilnius.
Cultural press is plenty of different texts after festival. Poets, writers, critics, all are very positive about festival despite different points of views. Young poets are a bigger part of festival attendants every year. It’s a very good tendency as changes will be accepted and even promoted.
About 120 poets, translators, literature critics, writers are a part of this big International event in Lithuania. All events of the Festival in Vilnius and Druskininkai get attention of up to 800 listeners. This means that the festival is needed. Poets from all over the world have visited the festival. Guests from Japan, South Korea, USA, Egypt, Pakistan, Brasil, Australia, Canada, almost all European countries have been part of our Fest.
>> Visit the WebsitePOETRY EXPO 23Call for Entries
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Poetry Expo wishes to create a space for free expression and creativity, and share collective and individual best practices and accomplishments in culture and literature. With five digital pavilions focused on the subthemes of opportunity, sustainability, human and artificial creativity, future prospects and connect not divide, we invite the global art and culture community to pitch their projects related to the above subthemes, and indeed other works that may not fit the subthemes, but can reach and move audiences, raise awareness and mobilise.
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PR: Beletrina
