Not long ago, it would have been unimaginable that one of the fastest selling out “performances” in a national theatre would be a lecture by an economist; that around a thousand people would buy tickets in a single day and then eagerly await a man who, in an English softened by a French accent, was…

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I do like a challenge. After all, I promote European literature in the UK! And we’ve got 3 big European ‘challenges’ coming up: the annual ‘European Literature Night’ at the British Library on Wednesday May 13th, and on Friday April 17th at Europe House in London our first ever ‘Euro Stars’ event, to present four…

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In literature things are stated in such a special way that – to sum it up with a simple phrase – they cannot be re-translated one to one into our everyday language. That distinguishes literature as art from world-political commentaries as expressed on a daily basis in editorial articles or on talkshows. This delimitation from…

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In 2004―that is, in ancient times, when online literary magazines were a relatively new phenomenon―I was working for the first Hungarian literary website, litera.hu. Litera pioneered a wholly new approach to the trends, works, and figures of Hungarian literature―an approach that made literature the concern of a wide audience, far beyond literati. As the site…

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The surprise was universal. Nominations for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize already left a lot of people wondering about a poetry volume being shortlisted among the year’s top five books. Now, precisely this exotic title has won the prize. Jury member Meike Feßmann described it in her laudatory speech as a “like a thunderbolt” for…

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It would be very difficult for me claim to have ever been infused by a feeling similar to national pride. I love Ljubljana; I like the fact that I can be in Trieste in one hour, in Zagreb in two, in Venice in three, and in Vienna in four. I have never felt the need…

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When the Leipzig Trade Fair’s impressive Glass Hall was officially opened in the mid-1990s, it was in the stars what this investment would mean for the Leipzig Book Fair. Leipzig, “the city of the book” with a long tradition, was to gain a future, and it seemed unthinkable that of all book fairs the death…

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  Quite recently, a young poet sent me one of his poems, a poem which drew a lot of attention in his home country and was likewise noticed in Ljubljana’s artistic corridors. He wished to share it with me because, well – I’m not really sure why. Probably because people like to share their creations,…

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SNOW OF TOMORROW Angela Merkel and Paul Celan move (themselves in) Budapest Currently a minor miracle is happening in Budapest. The city is celebrating the poet Paul Celan with numerous events and an exhibition that runs until 20 February. Actually, Celan had no noteworthy connection to Hungary. At the Goethe Institute there was an international…

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One of my roles as your Blogger-in-UK-residence is to share any Good News about International writing on ‘our’ side of the Channel  – and I’ve just been served up a large delicious helping of brain food which I want to share with you to give your new year a healthy start. Thanks to the great work of…

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