Anna Buxton

European Festival of Literature

• by anna
• 31 May, 2016

The organisers of the event are The British Library, The European Commission, EUNIC London and the Czech Centre. Partners and supporters of the festival are too many to be listed, but include names like English PEN, The Poetry Society, Waterstones, the British Council and many publishers, literary agencies and Cultural Centres.

The variety of events on offer in the festival is immense – they include The Poetry Periscope – a new sound installation, which comprises of 30 poems from 30 countries, across Europe, performed by their authors. Three life events, including poets, translators and editors were dedicated to the periscope, prior to its going on tour in the UK. The Enemies Project allowed twenty poets from different countries to share new collaborative poems, across countries, languages and styles.

Another event looked at Don Quixote in Translation; there was an Extreme Narrative event, in which authors from Turkey, Slovenia and Netherlands discussed whether their work could be considered as social activism. There was a Translation Clinic and an event with Readings from the eve of the Man Booker Prize 2016, hosted by the BBC broadcaster Razia Iqbal. She presented six European writers and their work – including writers from Naples, Angola, Austria and Turkey. The Criminal Worlds Event, hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson, investigated the murky world of crime, espionage and intrigue in Europe with a number of best-selling writers – Peter James from the UK, Finnish Kati Hiekkapelto, German Volker Kutscher and other upcoming European writers.

The Translation Pitch Event, allowed translators to pitch books, which have not yet been translated into English to an audience of publishers, with the view of discovering new gems, worth translating, publishing and reading.

Some of the events were organised in collaboration with Waterstones –the Presentation of Writings from the Baltic countries and a Discussion of literature and politics with Tomash Zmeshkal (Cechoslovakia) and Hamid Izmailov(Uzbekistan), chaired by Misha Glenny a writer and former BBC and Guardian correspondent. Some of the writers, engaged in the festival, presented their work in a number of Waterstones bookshops around the country.

But the pinnacle event of the festival was the Writers Showcase, in which the broadcaster and host Rosie Goldsmith interviewed six writers, selected by a jury from 50-60 books, presented by publishers.

The event was opened by Rosie Goldsmith, who in turn invited Kate Moss to give the opening address. With charm and eloquence, Kate spoke about the authors and the importance of hearing voices from other countries, about the importance of Europe in the world of literature and the links, the UK has always had with it.

As part of their presentation, each author was invited to read a section from their book. They included the following:

–    Alek Popov from Bulgaria, -a writer, playwright, and film script writer, is a recipient of many awards. His books are published in EU, as well as the States. His first novel – Mission London (published in English by Istros Books), received numerous awards in Bulgaria, since its first publication in 2001 and was turned into a successful film in 2010. He presented to the Writer’s Showcase his novel The Black Box (published in English by Peter Owen), which won the UK Contemporary Bulgarian Novel Competition in 2013.

The Black Box tells the story of two very different brothers, who leave Bulgaria at different times for different reasons and end up in the States. They are united by a suspicion, relating to the death of their father –a Mathematics Professor in the USA. Through his characters and much laughter, Alec explores the two view pints, attitudes and perceptions. The action often takes unexpected turns and reflects with humour on the life of the heroes both the US and Bulgaria.

In the interview, he also spoke about his latest book – The Palaveevi Sisters, where his heroines are twins. Coming from a rich family, they are enchanted by the idea of communism and join a group of partisans to fight for it. Through the prism of political events just before and after the Second World War, Alec develops his dualistic approach to history, events and develops his characters with much humour and perception. He also spoke about his life as student in the US and his family.

–     Gabriela Babnik from Slovenia, had lived in Africa and written a number of books, where either the action takes place in Africa, or some of the characters are African. She regularly contributes to Slovenian press and has written several books, including Cotton Skin (2007), which has been awarded the Best Debut Book in the Slovenian Book Fair and Dry Season (2013, published in English by Istros Books). Dry Season was the book discussed at the event.

The book centres on the main character – a 62 years old European woman and her relationship with a 27 years old African man, brought up on the city streets. She realises with time that her problems are related not to age-difference or colour, but to the loss of her pre-ordained roles of daughter, wife and mother.

Gabriela was very honest, charming, with good English with a slight American accent. Rosie asked questions, relating to personal and professional issues. Gabriela discussed her background and the family problems she encountered herself, when she married an African.

–      Jaap Robben from the Netherlands, an acclaimed children’s wrier is also a poet, performer and playwright. The success of his first novel You Have me to Love, which was awarded the 2014 Dutch Booksellers Award, was confirmed not only by the 30,000 copies sold, but also by the fact that it is being turned into a film.

The book is a story about a boy, who lives with his parents on an almost deserted island. While saving his son from drowning, the father drowns, after a wave throws him at a rock. His devastated mother blames her son for the loss of her husband. The boy’s world begins to narrow – he finds release only in his contacts with the seagulls. Things get even worse, when his mother forces him to replace his father in every possible way.

Jaap spoke also about his family and their attitude to his book, his own relationship with seagulls and how the idea of the book originated.

–      Peter Verhelst: Born in Bruges, Peter is a Flemish novelist, poet and playwright, who has written more than 20 books. The unbridled imagination, evident in his writing and the rich language used, has won him a large number of fans. His work is known for its powerful and often sexual images. The book presented to the audience was – The Man I Became – his eleventh novel.

The story in it is told by a gorilla, which after learning to speak is put to a test – to be accepted at a cocktail party. With time, he is moved to act in an amusement arcade. When his experience in the human world makes him aware of human weaknesses, he has to decide between his instincts of self-preservation and his human training.

Peter also discussed the origins of the ideas for this books, his background and approaches to writing..

–       Burhan Sönmez was born in the Kurdish part of Anatolia in Turkey and grew up, speaking both languages. He graduated law in Istanbul and became a human rights lawyer, which led to difficulties with the authorities and his immigration to the UK. Now, those difficulties have been ironed out and he shares his time between Cambridge and Istanbul, where he teaches literary theory.

The action of the book presented – Istanbul, Istanbul starts underground, in the cells of four prisoners, expecting their turn in the torture chamber. They tell each other stories to pass the time and their subject soon turns to events aboveground, in the city of Istanbul. The novel consists of ten chapters, each told by a different character (like the tales in Decameron).

Burhan answered Rosie’s questions on his background, life in Turkey and his life in Cambridge.

–         Dorthe Norse from Denmarkwas the last author presented. She has graduated Literature and Art History in the University of Aarhus. The work presented tonight – a joint edition in English of her collection of short stories Karate Chop and her novel Minna Needs Rehearsal Space (Pushkin Press), followed the publication of her first three books. Her stories are widely published, many in European and American magazines and have won her a well-deserved acclaim.

This edition, with a uniquely original design, comprises of the two books, published back to back.  The action in these miniature stories often takes unexpected turns, but retains the humour in the ordinary life of their characters. Minna is written in a language, derived from Twitter and Facebook, which often take over her lives and emotions. The author explores the strive of her heroine to relate to other people and have her own voice heard above the endless din of the computer age.

The best English speaker in the group, Dorte read her passage with passion and explained how she came up with the idea about her stories. Her sense of humour delighted the audience.

The event finished by and invitation to the audience to have a glass of wine and talk more with the authors and about the books. There were copies for sale and autographs were given.

In conclusion, it is probably worth mentioning that six of the fourteen events organised were free to attend, four were at a minimal charge of £5, the remaining, charged no more than£12.