Just a Word, Europe

Yassin Adnan

Yassin Adnan c_privat

Yassin Adnan (born in 1970 in Safi, Morocco) studied English Literature and Education at the University of Marrakesh and the Mohammad V University in Rabat and subsequently worked as an English teacher. Today he is known for his weekly cultural programme Macharif on the Moroccan TVM television channel, which was voted Best Cultural Programme in 2007 and 2008. He also works for Moroccan radio, as a correspondent for the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar and the magazine Dubai al-thaqafiya, and in the editorial team of the Lebanese cultural magazine Zawaya.
Adnan is a co-editor of the literary journal Aswat mu‘asira, the journal al-Ghara al-shi‘riyya, mouthpiece of the new voices in poetry in the 1990s, and of the renowned Internet portal for Arabic poetry jehat.com. He has received several literary prizes for his verse.
What distinguishes him from other poets of his generation in the Arabic world is his simple and spontaneous language. He does not try to blind his readers with metaphors and rhetorical figures, but uses elements of prose, so that long poems are created which are held together by the intuition of a story. The poems are notable for their desperate tone and their dark and yet life-affirming attitude.
In 2008 he published together with Sa‘d Sarhan Marakish: asrar mu’lana (Marrakesh: Announced Secrets), a literary text bearing the features of his home town, in which prose and poetry, reflection and narration, reality and legend merge. His latest novel Hot Maroc was longlisted for the 2016 Arabic Booker Prize.

Publications (a selection):
Hot Maroc (novel). Cairo 2016
La akad ara (I can hardly see; poems). Beirut 2007
Tuffah al-zill (Shadow Apples; short stories). Casablanca 2006
Rasif al-qiyama (Pavement of Resurrection; poems). 2003
Man yusaddiq al-rasa'il? (Who believes the letters?; short stories). Cairo 2001
Mannequins. Casablanca 2000

Ghayath Almadhoun

Ghayath Almadhoun c_Cato Lein

Ghayath Almadhoun (born in Damascus in 1979) is a Palestinian poet and film maker. He was born in a Palestinian refugee camp and studied Arabic Literature at the University of Damascus. He has published three volumes of verse in Arabic, the most recent of which was published in Beirut in 2014. In 2008 Almadhoun emigrated to Sweden where he now lives and works. He has collaborated with Swedish poet Marie Silkeberg on two books of poetry, most recently Till Damaskus. They have also produced several poetry films together. Ghayath Almadhoun’s poems have been translated into several languages including Swedish, German, Dutch, Greek, Slovenian, Italian, English, French, Danish and Chinese.

Nikolina Andova-Shopova

Nikolina Andova c_Igor Todorovski

Nikolina Andova-Shopova (born in 1978 in Skopje, Macedonia) studied Macedonian and Yugoslav Literature at the University in Skopje. As a member of the New Wave Generation she writes predominantly haikus, a traditional Japanese verse form. Her texts have been translated into many languages including English, Serbian, French, German, Bulgarian and Chinese. As well as poems she writes short stories and children’s verse.
Her debut The entrance is on the other side was published in 2013 and was awarded several prizes including the UNESCO Prize. The book surprises with its provocative content and ironic tone. With childlike simplicity Andova-Shopova writes in her poems about life and death. Without being dogmatic she tells of god and love, thereby inventing a new world in which the entrance is always on the other side.

Publications (a selection):
Connect the dots. Skopje 2014
The entrance is on the other side. Skopje 2013

Abbas Beydoun

Abbas Beydoun c_gezett

Abbas Beydoun (born in 1945 in Shahhur, Lebanon) is a poet, novelist and cultural journalist. He grew up in the port city of Sur (Tyre), studied Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut and worked for several years as a teacher of Arabic. In 1977-1978 he studied Islamology at the Sorbonne in Paris. After returning to Lebanon he worked as a culture editor for various Lebanese magazines including al-Hayat and al-Nahar. From 1997 until it ceased publication in early 2017 he was the head of the cultural section of the Beirut daily newspaper al-Safir.
Abbas Beydoun has published many books of verse and several novels and is one of the most significant members of the second generation of modern Arabic poetry. Unlike the previous generation, Beydoun writes in a pared-down, reduced language, using, however, complex, many-layered images and metaphors, and is concerned with breaking with political, social and literary conventions. He is best known in the German-speaking area for his writing in reaction to the events surrounding 11 September 2001, pointing out the late consequences of Western (colonial) policy and challenging Arabic intellectuals to self-criticism. His work has received several literary prizes, most recently the Sheikh Zayed Prize (2017).

Publications (a selection):
Kharif al-bara’a (Autumn of Innocence; novel). Saqi Books, Beirut & London 2016
Album al-khasara (Album of Loss; poetry). Saqi Books, Beirut & London 2012
Maraya Frankenstein (Frankenstein’s Mirror; novel). Saqi Books, Beirut & London 2010
B. B. B. (poetry). Saqi Books, Beirut & London 2007
al-A’mal al-kamila (Collected Works; poetry). Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, Beirut 2007
al-Waqt bi-jur’a kabira (Time in large mouthfuls; poetry). Dar al-Farabi, Beirut 1982

Rabia Djelti

Rabia Djelti c_privat

Rabia Djelti (born in 1964 in Algiers, Algeria) is a poet, novelist and translator.
She gained her doctorate in modern literature of the Maghreb and is currently a professor at the University of Oran in the west of Algeria. Rabia Djelti has published five volumes of verse and a novel. Her poems have been translated into French by the Algerian novelist Rachid Boudjedra and the Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi.

Publications (a selection):
‘Azib hayy al-murjan (The Bachelor of the Mujan Quarter; novel). Difaf, Beirut & al-Ikhtilaf, Algeria 2016
al-Nabiyya (The Prophetess). Difaf, Beirut & al-Ikhtilaf, Algeria 2015
Nadi al-sanaubar (The Pine Club). al-Ikhtilaf, Algeria & al-Dar al-‘Arabiyya li-l-‘Ulum, Beirut 2012
al-Dharwa (The Highpoint). Dar al-Adab, Beirut 2010
Man al-lati fi al-mir’at? / Qui est-ce dans le miroir? (poems). Translated into French by Rachid Boujedra. Dar El Gharb, Algeria 2003
Wa-hadith fi al-sirr (And a Conversation in Secret; poems). Dar El Gharb, Algeria 2002

Aymen Hacen

Aymen Hacen c_Youssef ben Ammar

Aymen Hacen (born in 1981 in Hammam Sousse, Tunisia) is a poet, editor, essayist, translator and literary chronicler, who writes in French. He studied French Literature at the École normale supérieure de Tunis and is currently working on a doctoral thesis in Lyon and Tunis. His publications include books of verse, essays, translations and literary chronicles. Since 2006 Aymen Hacen has been writing regular chronicles for La Presse de Tunisie, Tunisia’s best-known French-language daily newspaper. He also publishes in Les Lettres françaises, writes chronicles and a diary on the website Causeur.fr. He heads the French-language part of the journal Alfikrya, mensuel de pensée éclairée, which started up after the Tunisian 2011 revolution. Hacen worked from 2008 to 2013 as a lecturer at the Institut supérieur des langues appliquées de Moknine at the University of Monastir. He currently teaches French Literature and French Studies at the École normale supérieure de Tunis. He was awarded the Roger Kowalski Prize of the City of Lyon for his book of verse Tunisité (2015).

Publications (poetry):
Tunisité. Suivi de Chroniques du sang calciné et autres polèmes. Éditions Fédérop. Gardonne 2015
Le silence la cécité. Éditions Jean-Pierre Huguet. Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette 2009
Erhebung, poetic texts with photographs by Yan Tomaszewski. Éditions Jean-Pierre Huguet.
Saint-Julien-Molin-Molette 2008
Stellaire. Découverte de l'homme gauche. Éditions Fata Morgana. Fontfroide-le-Haut 2006
Alphabet de l'heure bleue. Éditions La Balance. Sousse 2005
Dans le creux de ma main. Éditions L'Harmattan. Paris 2003
Bourgeons et prémices. Éditions La Balance. Sousse 1999

Ervina Halili

Ervina Halili c_Zoran Jovanovic

Poet Ervina Halili (born in 1986 in Pristina, Kosovo) studied Comparative Literature and does research on Surrealism and Collective Behaviour. She regularly publishes articles on these subjects in national and international scientific journals. She applies her theories on perception and collective memory in her live video and sound performance. In 1997 at the age of eleven she published Crowd 97, a text about the massive student protests in Pristina. Halili has been a guest in various literature houses including Krokodil in Belgrade, Kulturkontakt in Vienna, PEN Sarajevo, the Internationales Haus der Autoren in Graz and in Tirana.
Her poems are idiosyncratic and full of contrasts. Soberly and far from pamphleteering and flag-waving Halili writes herself a possible fatherland which does not consist of soil but of sky. Her poetic image worlds know of the breaks in the past of her homeland and in her search for identity speak a modern European language. She was awarded the National Annual Award in Literature in Kosovo for her 2015 volume Amuletë.

Publications (a selection):
Amuletë (Amulet). 2015
Vinidra. 2008
Trëndafili i Heshtjes (Rose of Silence). 2004


Stanislav Lvovsky

Stanislav Lvovsky c_Oleg Yakovlev

Stanislav Lvovsky (born in 1972 in Moscow, Russia) studied Chemistry at the Moscow State University, subsequently working in advertising and as a journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of the literature segment of the online magazine Openspace.ru, the only magazine in Russia specialising exclusively in culture.
Lvovsky works as a cultural manager and has translated works by writers including Leonard Cohen, Charles Bukowsky and Diane Thiel into Russian. His own work has been translated into English, Chinese, Georgian and Italian. Lvovsky is the Programme Director of the Slovo Nova poetry festival in Perm (Russia) and represents the Joseph Brodsky Memorial Fellowship Fund.

Publications (a selection):
Camera Rostrum. Moscow 2008
Stikhi o Rodinye (Poems on the Fatherland). Moscow 2004
Polovina neba (Half of the Sky). Moscow 2004
Tri mesyatsa vtorovo goda (Three Months of the Year). Moscow 2003
Slovo o tsvetakh i sobakakh (A Word on Flowers and Dogs). Moscow 2003
Beliy shum (White Noise). Moscow 1996

Mohamad Alaaedin Abdul Moula

Alaaedin Abdul Moula c_privat

Mohamad Alaaedin Abdul Moula (born in 1965 in Homs, Syria) is a poet and critic. In his texts about politics, religion and the dignity of the human body he speaks out against his country’s taboos. He published his first critical verse and prose texts in the early 1980s. He worked for 18 years in the Archaeological Museum in his home city. From 2011 to 2015 he lived in Mexico at the invitation of a Mexican foundation in co-operation with the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), subsequently coming to Hanover for two years at the invitation of the Hannah Arendt Foundation in co-operation with ICORN.


Over the past three decades he has published thirteen volumes of verse, six volumes of literary criticism and an anthology of Syrian verse. Three volumes of verse and an anthology of Syrian verse have been published in Spanish translation. In its form and content his verse is extremely varied, in keeping with his view that poetry should not be restricted to one single form and one style. The range varies from long, philosophical poems to short, simply constructed lyrical texts.

Dragana Mladenović

Dragana Mladenovic c_Zoran Jovanovic

Writer Dragana Mladenović (born in 1977 in Frankenberg) grew up in Serbia. She studied Serbian Literature in Belgrade and now works as a writer and journalist for the weekly magazine Pančevac. She has published many books of poetry. Her book Rodbina (2010) has been translated into German, Swedish and Macedonian. Her poems have been published in many magazines and anthologies as well as in comics. Her poems deal with the failure of utopias and with political scenarios. Mladenović writes about war crimes, guilt and repression from various perspectives, drawing on her own experience. Her language is narrative and rich in imagery, both sober and empathetic, almost prosaic.

http://draganamladenovic.blogspot.rs/

Publications (a selection):
Uljezi. Fabrika knjiga, Belgrade 2016
Magda. Fabrika knjiga, Belgrade 2012
Rodbina. Fabrika knjiga, Belgrade 2010
Slova ljubve. Fabrika knjiga, Belgrade 2010
Omot spisa. Fabrika knjiga, Belgrade 2008

Prizes (a selection):
2013 Prize of the City of Pancevo for her literary work
2007 Laza Lazarević Award of Šabac
2003 Smederevo Poetry Autumn, Book of the Year for the volume Nema u tome nimalo poezije

Øyvind Rimbereid

Øyvind Rimbereid c_gezett

Øyvind Rimbereid (born in 1966 in Stavanger, Norway) lives in Bergen. He is one of Norway’s most significant contemporary poets.. In 1994 he graduated as cand. philol in literature from the University of Bergen. He is an assistant lecturer at the Skrivekunstakademiet i Hordaland writing academy. His debut work, a collection of short stories entitled Det har begynt, was published in 1993. Since 2000, he has been writing mainly poetry. His long poems, in which he initiates profound discussions on social, historical, political and economic themes, have attracted particular interest. Four volumes of poetry have appeared to date. The most significant of these is Solaris korrigert (2004), which includes the science fiction long poem of the same name, for which he won, among other awards, the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature, and which as early as 2007 became part of the canon of Norwegian literature. Most recently, in the poem Tulipan. Mani, he envisages the collapse of the financial markets. The poem was published just as his predictions became reality. The poem appeared in the volume Herbarium (2008), for which Øyvind Rimbereid was nominated for the 2009 Nordic Council’s Literature Prize. His poems have been translated into German, English, French and Slovakian.

Publications (poetry):
Herbarium. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 2008
Seine topografiar. Trådreiser. Solaris korrigert. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 2005
Solaris korrigert. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 2004
Trådreiser. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 2001
Seine topografiar. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo 2000
    
Prizes (a selection):
2013 Norwegian Critics’ Prize
2010 N.C. Kaser Poetry Prize
2010 Doblougprisen
2008 Brageprisen of the Norwegian Book Prize Foundation
2005 Norwegian Critics’ Prize

Max Scur

Max Scur c_Smatrychenka

Max Scur (born in 1977 in Brest, Belarus) is a poet, writer and translator and has been living mainly in Prague since 1998. His many publications have been translated into many languages including Czech, Polish, Swedish and Ukrainian. He received the Jerzy Gedroyc Prize in 2016 for his novel To Close the Gestalt. Shchur edits the web magazine litrazh.org and works regularly with such literary magazines as Dzejaslou, Analogon and Plav.

Publications (a selection):
Summer Time. Petr Štengl2013
Modus bibendi. Petr Štengl 2012
Amalgam. Petr Štengl 2010

Faruk Šehić

Faruk Sehic c_Zoran Kanlic

Faruk Šehić (born in 1970 in Bihać, now in Bosnia-Herzegovina) was forced to interrupt his study of veterinary medicine in Zagreb on the outbreak of the war in 1992 and joined the army at the age of 22. After the war he studied Literature and has been publishing his work since 1998.
His book of poems Hit depot was published in 2003 and was a bestseller in Bosnia-Herzegovina, helping him to the cult status he enjoys today. This book delineates what has become a central subject in his work, life after the war on the margins of society. His poems express a local, but also global feeling towards the capitalist system, mingled with the desperate post-war existence and remnants of a society in Sarajevo and Bosnia, which he sees as having ‘died off’. His work has been translated in to several languages, including English, German, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Hungarian. As well as poetry and prose, Šehić writes essays and reviews literature and art. He is a member of the Writers’ Union and the PEN Centre in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He now lives in Sarajevo where he works as a columnist and journalist for the political magazine BH Dani.

Publications (a selection):
Moje rijeke. Buybook. 2014
Knjiga o Uni. 2011
Pod pritiskom (Under Pressure). 2004

Prizes (a selection):
Competition of the Association of Writers of Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014
Risto Ratković Award 2014
European Union Prize for Literature 2013
Meša Selimović Prize 2011
Zoro Verlag Prize 2004

Armin Senser

Armin Senser c_privat

Armin Senser (born in 1964 in Biel, Switzerland) studied philosophy, German philology and linguistics in Berne. Since 1998 he has been living in Berlin where he works as poet, translator, playwright and essayist. He published his first volume of poetry, Grosses Erwachen, in 1999. Three years later he co-edited the anthology Junge Literatur der deutschsprachigen Schweiz (Young German Literature of Switzerland) with Reto Sorg and Andreas Paschedag. His most recent volume Kalte Kriege appeared in 2007 and in it he casts an ironic eye on the millennium that has just started. Norbert Niemann has written in Die ZEIT that “Senser’s poems are polished, to the point protocols of metaphysical journeys and encounters”. His poetry depicts metaphysical voyages through landscapes from Lisbon to the Alps or through literary history from Shakespeare to Virgil, from Schiller to Mandelstam to Robert Frost, from Nietzsche to Valloton. His early poetry was awarded the Book Prize of the Canton of Berne and the Poetry Debut Prize in 1999.

Publications (a selection):
Sensus. Chronik des Scheiterns. Edition Korrespondenzen 2016
Kolumbianischer Tango. Eine Reise. Carl Hanser Verlag (E-Book) 2015
Priester und Ironiker. Über Literatur. Klever 2015
Liebesleben. Gedichte. Carl Hanser Verlag 2015
Kalte Kriege. Gedichte. Carl Hanser Verlag 2007
Jahrhundert der Ruhe. Gedichte. Carl Hanser Verlag 2003
Großes Erwachen. Gedichte. Carl Hanser Verlag 1999

Prizes (a selection):
2016 Literature Prize of the Canton of Berne for the poetry book Liebesleben
2011 Poetry Prize of the German Industry Culture Group
2009 H.C. Artmann Literature Prize of the City of Salzburg
1999 Book Prize of the Canton of Berne
1999 Poetry Debut Prize of the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin

Girgis Shoukry

Girgis Shoukry c_privat

Girgis Shoukry (born in 1967 in Sohaq, Egypt) studied for a career in business before completing a diploma in Theatre Studies at the National Academy of Arts in Cairo. He now works as an art and theatre critic for a radio and television magazine and co-edits the magazine Aswat adabiyya. He lives in Cairo.
Girgis Shoukry has taken part in many poetry festivals and exchange projects around the world and has published many volumes of poetry. Shoukry says about his writing, “My poems are supposed to look like people in the street.” In clear and straightforward language and poetic rhythms he depicts everyday objects as being with souls. His imagery is powerfully expressive and makes hidden feelings, questions and hopes visible. Shoukry wants to liberate poetry from the ivory tower. Sometimes melancholy, sometimes laconic, his poetry trains the eye to see the rips in normality and reveals human loneliness.

Publications (a selection):
Ashya‘ laisa laha kalimat (Things that have no words), Dar Afaq, Cairo 2017
Wa-l-aydi 'utla rasmiyya (And the hands on holiday), Dar Sharqiyyat, Cairo 2004
Darurat al-kalb fi al-masrahiyya (On the necessity for the dog in the stage play), al-Hai’a al-‘Amma li-Qusur al-Thaqafa, Cairo 2000
Bi-la muqabil asqutu asfal hidha’i (Not for anything will I fall beneath the soles of my shoes) al-Hai’a al-Misriyya al-‘Amma li-l-Kitab, Cairo 1996

Sjón

Sjón c_Dagur Gunnarsson

Sjón (born in 1961 in Reykjavik, Iceland) is a border hopper. This proficient poet, who studied art and also has a career in music behind him, is one of the most original Icelandic writers. In 1978 when he was 15 he published his first book of poems, Sýnir (Visions). In 1979 he joined the surrealistic art group Medusa whose performances combine Surrealism, Dada and Punk. During his Medusa period 1980-1986 he published various books of poetry before publishing his first novel, Stálnótt (Night of Steel) in 1987. To date he has published twelve books of poems and four opera libretti as well as film scripts, novels, television plays, stage plays and song lyrics for various musicians. His lyrics for Björk and Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark were nominated for an Oscar in 2001. Sjón was Samuel Fischer Visiting Professor at the Free University Berlin in the winter semester 2007-8, and in 2010 he was a guest of the Berlin Artists Programme of the DAAD. In 2005 he received the Literature Prize of the Nordic Council for Shadowfox and in 2013 he received the Icelandic Literature Prize for his novel The Boy Who Did Not Exist. His novels have been translated into 35 languages.

Publications (a selection - poetry):
ljóðasafn 1978–2008 (anthology). 2008
söngur steinasafnarans. 2007
Myrkar fígúrur. 1998
Ég man ekki eitthvað um skýin. 1991
Leikfangakastalar sagði hún það er ekkert til sem heitir leikfangakastalar. 1986
Drengurinn með röntgenaugun (anthology). 1986

Matthew Sweeney

Matthew Sweeney c_gezett

Matthew Sweeney (born in 1952 in Donegal, Ireland) studied English and German Literature at London Polytechnic from 1973. In 1977 he spent a study year in Freiburg, where he undertook an intense study of German literature. Since the early 1980s he has published eight books of poems, most recently Sanctuary (2004) and Selected Poems (2002). On the one hand deeply rooted in the Irish tradition and on the other hand influenced by German writers from the Romantics to the present, his work has been unique in English poetry from the beginning.
Less interested in figurative questions than what the Croatian-American poet Charles Simic calls “European darkness”, Sweeney concentrates on developing his very own brand of realism, which, just like the anti-poetic mood and not infrequently a good dose of dark humour, is a trademark of his work. Sweeney takes a close look at the seemingly banal and often proves to be a relentless chronicler of misfortune and everyday tragedies.
Sweeney has received many prizes including the Cholmondeley Award (1987) and the Arts Council of England Writers’ Award (1999). His poems have been published in Slovakia, in Latvia, Mexico, Romania, Germany and the Netherlands. As well as writing poetry, Matthew Sweeney has edited several anthologies and written books for children, most recently Fox, the touching story of a friendship between a schoolboy and a homeless man.

Publications (a selection):
Inquisition Lane. Bloodaxe Books 2015
Horse Music. Bloodaxe Books 2013
Black Moon. Poetry. Jonathan Cape 2007

Iryna Tsilyk

Iryne Tsilk c_Aleksandr Sinitsa

Iryna Tsilyk (born in 1982 in Kiev, Ukraine) studied at the Kiev University for Theatre, Cinematography and Television and now works as a director. She writes poems, songs and prose texts and has been translated into several languages including German, Swedish, Czech and Polish. Tsilyk wrote and directed the short films Blue Hour (2008), Commemoration (2012) and Home (2016). Her song lyrics have been nominated for the Ukrainian Literature Competition prize. In 2011 she was awarded the Coronation of word prize.

Publications (a selection):
Depth of field (poetry) 2016
The City-tale of One’s Friendship (children’s adventure novel) 2016
Red Marks on Black (short stories) 2015
Awesome Ukraine (introduction to Ukraine) 2012
The Day After Yesterday (novel) 2008.
Qi (poetry) 2007

Agron Tufa

Agron Tufa c_Elvana Zaimi

Agron Tufa (born in 1967 in Sohodoll, Dibra, Albania) is a poet and writer and one of the best-known members of the Albanian literary scene. He started his working life as a coal miner. In 1989 he won a nationwide literary contest with a poem cycle that was published in the newspaper Voice of Youth. Following the collapse of Communism in Albania he was a village schoolteacher for a year until being accepted as a student by the Philology Faculty at the University of Tirana in 1991 on the recommendation of the Albanian Association of Writers and Artists. While there he founded with other young poets the group E për7shme. He was also editor-in-chief of Voice of Youth from 1992 to 1994. After graduating he studied translation at the University of Moscow.
As well as his writing and academic work, Agron Tufa also works as a translator, mainly of Russian poets, prose authors, philosophers and philologists. Agron Tufa is not only well-regarded by literary critics, but is also sponsored by Albania’s most important writer Ismail Kadare. He has received many prizes and awards for his work at home and abroad, including in 2009 the Great National Prize for Literature of the Republic of Albania, his country’s most important award for literature. He now teaches at the University of Tirana and edits a literary magazine. He is also the director of the Institute for Studies of Communist Crimes in Tirana.

Publications (a selection):
Mistika e origjinalit. Studim mbi artin e përkthimit (The mystique of the original. Study of the art of translation). Tirana 2011
Kuja e Mnemozinës (The lament of the Mnemosyne, studies). Tirana 2011
Gjurma në rrjedhë (Flowing traces). Tetova: Ditët e Naimit 2010
Tenxherja (The Pot) novel, Tirana: Toena 2009
Fryma mbi ujëra (The Ghost Over the Water) poems, Fjala 2007
Avangardë engjëjsh (Advance guard of the angels), poems, Ideart 2005
Rrethinat e Atlantidës (In the area around Atlantis), poems, Aleph 2002
Aty te portat Skee (There at the gates of Skee), poems, Onufri 1996

Prizes (a selection):
Great National Prize for Literature of the Republic of Albania 2010
Serembe Prize for the best translation 2006
National Silver Feather Prize of the Republic of Albania for the novel Fabula Rasa 2005
Oeneum Prize of the Ditët e Naimit International Poetry Festival in Tetova, Macedonia 2004
First Prize at the XX NOSSIDE Poetry Festival of the Reggio Calabria 2004

Jovanka Uljarević

Jovanka Uljarević c_privat

Jovanka Uljarević (born in 1979 in Kotor, Montenegro) studied Philosophy at the University of Belgrade and since 2000 has been publishing poetry, prose and essays. Uljarevic is co-editor of Montenegro’s best-known literary magazine Otvorenog kulturnog foruma Cetinje. She is also the founder and co-ordinator of the Cyber Art Centre. Her poems are sharp-tongued, critical and attentive and describe the realities of life and everyday situations.

Publications (a selection):
In Resin Sandals. Podgorica 2007
Masquerade of prothesis. Podgorica 2003
Before the Flies. Podgorica 2000



Alexandru Vakulovski

Alexandru Vakulovski c_Moni Staanilaa

Alexandru Vakulovski (born in 1978 in Antonesti, Suvorov, Moldavia) is a poet, prose author, dramaturge, translator and editor. He studied Literature at the University of Chisinau and the Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. He was a founder member of the web magazine Tiuk! and works as an editor and critic. He obtained Romanian citizenship in 2010 and since then has lived in Romania. In his work he addresses everyday life in eastern Europe. His language is harsh, crude and provocative. In his texts, written in Romanian, he ignores ethical and aesthetic taboos and challenges critics.

Publications (a selection):
New Stage Europe. Goethe Institute Germany 2016
Daţi foc la cărţi. Tracus-Arte, Bucharest 2012
157 de trepte spre iad sau Salvaţi-mă la Roşia Montană (novel). Cartier, Kischinau 2010
Bong (novel). Polirom, Iaşi 2007
Estasy (poems). Pontica, Bucharest 2005
Ruperea (stage play). Bucharest2002
Pizdeţ (novel). Aula, Braşov 2002
Oedip, regele mamei lui Freud (poems). Aula, Braşov 2002

Prizes (a selection):
Galex Prize for Screenwriters of the National Library, Cool Publika 2013
Transmodernitate Prize (with Sagarmatha, from Moni Stănilă) of the Culture Ministry of Moldavia for Sagarmatha. International Book Festival, National Library Kischinau 2013
Insolite Prize, competition of the National Library for 157 steps to Hell 2010
Pizdeţ, Award for Tiuk! library 2002
Esinencu Prize for the Best Book 2002

Müesser Yeniay

Müesser Yeniay c_Metin Cengiz

Müesser Yeniay (born in 1984 in Izmir, Turkey) studied English Language and Literature at the Ege University. Yeniay works as a poet, writer and translator. Her work has been translated into several languages including Hungarian, English, Vietnamese, Persian and Hindi. She edits the literary magazine Şiirden and is a member of the Turkish PEN. Yeniay’s poems have been awarded many prizes and cover subjects from love poetry to feminism to a present-day political survey of Turkey. She sees the poet as a transparent being through whom the reader can sees the structure of the world. In her eyes poets are the mouthpieces of nature, the echo of everyday life and mirrors reflecting daily occurrences. Yeniay has been awarded many prizes and was has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize of the Muse Pie Press in the USA.

Publications (a selection):
Before Me There Were Deserts. Istanbul 2014
The Other Consciousness: Surrealism and The Second New. Istanbul 2013
Başak Aydınalp, Metin Cengiz. Istanbul 2011
Yeniden Çizdim Göğü. Istanbul 2011
Dibine Düşüyor Karanlık da. Istanbul 2009

Prizes (a selection):
Enver Gökçe 2013
Ali Riza Ertan 2009
Homeros Attila İlhan 2007
Yunus Emre 2006

Anat Zecharia

Anat Zecharia c_Asa Goldfrid

Anat Zecharia (born in 1974 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a prizewinning poet, dance critic, writer and editor. She studied photography in Haifa and Hebrew Culture in Tel Aviv. Since 2009 she has been dance critic for the magazine Yedioth Aharonot. She was an active member of the Artists' Greenhouse for Social Activism, a group at the Musrara School of Photography & Media in Jerusalem. Her poems have been translated into several languages including Albanian, Swedish, Arabic, Chinese and English. Zecharia writes in plain language about sexuality, desire and the yearning for power. She also establishes political cross-connections in her poems. The web magazine Parnassus: Poetry in Review writes about her, “Zecharia is an outspoken young poet who writes forthrightly about women’s desires. She does not ignore the times when being on either side of the power equation is part of erotic experience, and she casts her light on the way Israeli politics influences Israeli sex lives.” She has received several prizes for her work including the Levi Eshkol Prime Minister’s Literary Award for writers and the Street Prize Award from the city of Tel Aviv.

Publications (poetry):
Palestina I. 2016
Due to Human Error. 2012
Yafa Ahat Kodem. As Soon as Beautiful. 2008