Europe in a Poem

In spring 2019 the German Academy for Language and Literature will release the first volume in a new series of bilingual anthologies of poetry from various countries and in different European languages. The edition, published by the Hanser Verlag, will be accompanied by a reading tour entitled “Europe in a Poem” which aims to intensify and continue the dialogue between the diverse voices of European poetry.
The tour will commence with the poet, translator and Büchner Prize winner Jan Wagner, who recently edited the opening volume “Grand Tour. Reisen durch die junge Lyrik Europas” (Grand Tour. A Journey through New European Poetry) together with his Italian colleague Federico Italiano. The two writers will travel to various regions around Europe and organise readings and discussions with poets whose works are also included in the anthology. Their reading tour will begin in Frankfurt am Main at the “Fokus Lyrik” festival congress, followed by stops in Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, Belgrade, Leukerbad, Erlangen, Lemberg and Rome. Following stops at the “Poetica 6” and the “European Poet of Freedom” literature festival in Danzig, the tour will end at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Copenhagen, at which time Peter Urban-Halle will present his edition “Das Dänische Gedicht. Von den Balladen bis heute” (The Danish Poem. From the Ballads to Today). In view of the upcoming 2020 German-Danish Cultural Friendship Year, poets from both nations will read and discuss their poetry. Following this event, the “Europe in a Poem” project will continue. As the starting signal for the activities highlighting Slovenia as the “Guest of Honour” at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2022, the binational poet and translator trio Matthias Görlitz, Amalija Maček and Aleš Šteger will release the anthology “Der Nachbar auf der Wolke” (The Neighbour on the Cloud), containing 20th- and 21st-century Slovenian poetry. More anthologies are planned to follow, likewise accompanied by reading tours which promote dialogue between European poets and translators at established German and European literature centres.

Curators: Jan Wagner, Federico Italiano, Peter Urban-Halle
Poets: Tomica Bajsić (HR), Tadeusz Dąbrowski (PL), Sasha Dugdale (UK), Nikola Madzirov (MK), Valzhyna Mort (BY), Georgi Gospodinov (BG), Sinéad Morrissey (IE), Aleš Šteger (SI), Maria Stepanova (RU)

Representation of the State of Hesse to the European Union, Brussels: 7 May 2019; Festival Dichterloh: Alte Schmiede, Vienna: 15 May 2019; German Translators Fund c/o Literarisches Colloquium, Berlin: 4 Jun. 2019; Festival Krokodil, Belgrade: 8 – 9 Jun. 2019; International Literature Festival, Leukerbad: 28 – 29 Jun. 2019; Erlanger Poetenfest, Erlangen: 29 – 30 Aug. 2019; Lviv International Literature Festival, Lviv: 18 – 22 Sep. 2019; Casa di Goethe, Rome: 29 Nov. 2019; Poetica 6, Cologne: 24 Jan. 2020; European Poet of Freedom Literature Festival, Danzig: 18 – 21 Mar. 2020; Concluding event: GRAND TOUR / Book debut DAS DÄNISCHE GEDICHT (The Danish Poem): Concert Hall of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk near Copenhagen: 25 Sep. 2020