All throughout November, 11 Latvian writers will be travelling to seven countries to take part in 16 various literary events, readings, discussions and performances. The writers will be visiting Singapour, Norway, Germany, Finland, Italy, Estonia, Lithuania, Macao, and Hong Kong.
The Latvian Literature platform works around the clock in order to facilitate the participation of Latvian authors in various literary festivals and book presentations around the world, and this November is especially rich in such events.
Latvian Literature is an important negotiator in this process. The fact that we have now so actively entered the international literary circuit, is the result of several years of focused efforts. We frequently reach out to festivals abroad offering them our authors that match their portfolios. We work closely with our embassies around the world, publishers of Latvian literature abroad, as well as organizations like the British Council, EUNIC and Literature Across Frontiers, in order to ensure our writers get a chance to gain experience an share their work with readers beyond the Latvian border,” elaborates Ildze Jansone, international projects coordinator at Latvian Literature.
3rd–7th November, Latvian Literature representative Juta Pīrāga and writer Inga Gaile is attending a series of discussions at the Singapore Writers Festival. On 5th November, writers Jānis Joņevs and Nora Ikstena attended a conference and presented the translations of their works into Norwegian at the Vestfold Literary Festival in Norway. On 6th November, writer Māra Zālīte will be attending a discussion “30 Years After Fall of Berlin Wall” in Berlin, Germany, while poet Anna Auziņa will be heading to Helsinki, Finland, to present the Finnish translation of the first volume of Vizma Belševica’s trilogy “Bille”. On 7th November, poet Inga Pizāne will also be visiting Finland with her pop-up performance at the Poetry at the Crossroads event during the “CulturaFest” in Helsinki. On 8th November, poet Inga Gaile will be reading in Hong Kong, and on 9th November – in Macao. On 9th November, the Orbita poetry collective will be performing at the Turku Poetry Festival which will also host a screening of Maira Dobele’s short film “recycling4poetry” on 11th November, the same day poet Sergejs Timofejevs is scheduled to present the Italian translation of his collection in Torino, Italy. On 15th November, the Orbita Group will be also performing at the “Hullunud” festival in Tartu, Estonia. On 30th November, Latvian poets Inga Pizāne and Krišjānis Zeļģis will be attending the European Poetry Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Latvia’s participation in the events abroad is supported by the Latvian Literature platform in collaboration with Latvian embassies, publishers of Latvian literature abroad, and other collaboration partners. Latvian Literature operates with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
Learn more about Latvian authors in festivals abroad HERE.