The Vilenica festival has been successful at obtaining project funds from the Creative Europe 2014-2020 programme initiative. In 2014 the Vilenica festival successfully applied for EU funds with the Sharing the Wor(l)d project – a collaborative project with the renowned Irish Cúirt Festival (managed by the Galway Arts Centre) and the Croatian Festival of World Literature (Fraktura publishing house), revealing the importance and the quality of the festival that is proven again and again both domestically and internationally.

The two-year project generated EU funds in the amount of approximately 200,000 EUR. This will enable us to continue to leave a mark in the international realm and plan additional activities, such as residencies for writers, a festival guest exchange, “kitchen readings”, a travelling book exhibition, residencies for young domestic and foreign critics, live broadcasts of domestic literary readings to partner festivals, art exhibitions, literary interviews, round tables, concerts, and various programmes for children and young adults.

 

Literary Europe Live (LEUL), led by the UK-based European platformLiterature Across Frontiers (LAF), is a new project selected for funding under the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Slovene Writers’ Association is among the sixteen member organisations from thirteen countries participating in the project.

Through the Literary Europe Live project the Literature Across Frontiers Platform will:

• create a forum for debate of shared European topics;
• foster the development and recognition of emerging literary creators by providing them with international opportunitiesand highlighting the most outstanding talent in all genres;
• develop a quality label to recognize Europe-wide programming andinnovative dissemination of European literary works;
• cooperate with a range of partners including the organisers of book fairs, literary festivals, national bodies promoting literature and supporting translation, and the organisers of the European Union Prize for Literature, to present European writing in all its diversity to audiences across Europe and beyond, and to give professionals working in the field of literature opportunities to share ideas, experiences and information.

The first year of the project will see over thirty events organised in the members’ countries featuring more than three hundred literary creators and professionals. There will be also events presenting European literature in China and India, and an international audience developmentforum which will bring together professionals working in this field across Europe.

Alexandra Büchler, Director of Literature Across Frontiers, said: “We are delighted to be supported by Creative Europein our work as a European Platform. The Literary Europe Live project will allow us to focus on developing audiences for European writing in all genres and particularly to support emerging writers, something we have been successfully doing with earlier projects. The members of our Platform — from prominent large festivals to smaller grassroots ones — will share their expertise in organising literary events and learn from each other about the ingredients of successful pan-European programming. Digital dissemination of literature is another topic we will be focusing on in order to reach young audiences in particular. European writing is booming and we are here to help make it travel.”

Notes:

1. Literature Across Frontiers – European Platform for Literary Exchange, Translation and Policy Debate was established in 2001 within the Mercator Institute for Media, Languages and Culture at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK, and was supported with subsequent grants from the Culture Programme of the European Union.

2. The project Literary Europe Live was selected as one of three from among forty-seven proposals under the new Platforms strand of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The key objectives of the Platforms sub-programme are to foster the mobility and visibility of European creators and particularly emerging ones or those lacking international exposure, stimulating a genuine pan-European programming, and providing visibility for Europe’s values and cultures. The grant awarded for the first year of the project is over 455,000 Euros.

3. The Platform members participating in the project are:

• AnadoluKültür – Diyarbakir Art Centre,TR
• North Wales International Poetry Festival / Bangor University, GB
• Kosmopolis Festival / Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture, ES
• BiuroLiterackie – Literary Bureau, PL
• Booktailors – Bookoffice, PT
• Festival of European Short Story / Croatian Writers’ Society, HR
• Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, GB
• Malta Mediterranean Literature Festival / Inizjamed, MT
• Kulturtreger / Booksa, HR
• Poetry Days and Prose Readings / Latvian Literature Centre, LV
• Berlin Poetry Festival / Literaturwerkstatt, DE
• Oslo International Poetry Festival, NO
• PassaportaFestival / PassaportaHouse of Literature, BE
• Petöfi Literary Museum, HU
• Scottish Poetry Library, GB
• Vilenica International Literary Festival / Slovenian Writers’ Association, SI

Contact:

Agata Šimenc (Slovenia)
 martina.fekonja@drustvo-dsp.si

Alexandra Büchler (GB)
 alexandra@lit-across-frontiers.org

Websites:

 www.lit-across-frontiers.org
 Literature Across Frontiers
 MakingLitTravel
 LitAcrossFrontiers

Litteræ Slovenicæ – International Edition of Slovene Literature
In May of 1963, Slovene Writers’ Association published the first issue of Le Livre Slovène. The publication was a response to the need of the Slovene Writers’ Association, Slovene PEN Centre and the Slovenian Association of Literary Translators to independently present Slovene literature, Slovene literary life and Slovene culture in general to readers abroad.
In the course of 50 years, around 100 volumes and 130 issues have been published. At first, the publication mostly published texts in French, German and occasionally in English. In the 1970s, the first texts in Italian and Russian were published, followed by those in Spanish in the 1980s. In 1991, the publication was renamed Litteræ Slovenicæ. Since then, the predominant language of publication has been English and German, accompanied by the previously mentioned languages and Portuguese. The series has traditionally given preference to publication of original literature of Slovene authors in translation, in particular of prose, poetry and essays.
Over 50 years, Le Livre Slovène/Litteræ Slovenicæ has always responded promptly to concrete opportunities for the promotion of Slovene literature abroad, even though it was often hard to ensure the necessary financial means for its publication. The edition was an integral part of the internationalization of Slovene literature from the moment Slovene writers began to lead this process in a decided, systematic and intensive way.
Today Litteræ Slovenicæ mostly reaches those readers who work as mediators for a wider audience: for book fairs, literary festivals, literary critics, publishers, literary agents, translators, foreign language programs, universities, libraries, cultural centers, embassies etc. The publication is directly available to subscribers as well as in book shops in Slovenia and abroad.
In 2012 the publication was awarded with the “Lavrinova diploma” prize for the best international project for promotion of Slovene literature in foreign countries.

 

Ulysses’ Shelter 2: building writers-in-residence network is the second phase of a project co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. The network of literary residencies is now extended to five European countries. The project and network of residencies are primarily oriented at young literary creators (prose and/or poetry) and literary translators.

The program of literary residencies will take place on the island of Mljet (Croatia), in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Larissa (Greece), Belgrade (Serbia) and in several locations in Wales (United Kingdom). The residency program focuses on transnational mobility and audience development, young authors and translators will thus be able to work, perform and present themselves in two different social and cultural contexts. The residencies will be accompanied by a rich support program consisting of literature-related activities aimed at specific (local) target groups.

For the first year, the theme of the Odysseus’ refuge project for all residents selected following this call will be the Library – both a physical space and a virtual database of important and relevant data for any social, cultural or artistic context.

Project’s web site: http://tovar.hr/us.php?j=2&kat=2

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Ulysses' Shelter 2 project is kindly co-funded by 
Creative Europe Programme of the European Union 
and Slovenian Book Agency.

 

Project name: Ulysses’ Shelter: Building writers-in-residence network 3

Project duration (start/end): 1/6/2022–31/5/2025

Website: http://tovar.hr/us.php?j=2&kat=2 

Presentation of the project: Ulysses’ Shelter: Building writers-in-residence 3

Ulysses’ Shelter is a literary residency network which was initiated in 2017 by Sandorf, independent publisher from Croatia, together with two partners from Greece and Slovenia. Now, in its third phase, the network includes seven partners from seven different countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Malta, Spain and Czech Republic and collaborates with many institutions and NGOs in each participating country. The objective of the project is transnational creation and circulation, in this project specifically in the literary field. The idea of ​​the project is to combine literary residencies for emerging writers, literary translators and from this year also for screenwriters of the younger generation with a strong supportive program, which will consist of literary activities aimed at specific (local) target groups, such as participation in literary readings, workshops, festivals and/or other literature-related activities. The residency programme addresses international dimension as its priority by giving the young emerging authors an opportunity to work, perform and present themselves in different social and cultural contexts. Within the project, the Slovene Writers’ Association will host 7 residents in the Dane Zajc Writers’ Studio in Ljubljana. During their stay in Slovenia, they will be invited to participate in the Slovenian Book Days and the Vilenica Festival, where they will perform together with national and international festival’s participants and participate in debates and networking activities.

 

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