| POETRY CURRENTS | |
PRAGUE: A NON-STOP INFLUX OF POETS
Sorry I’m late folks, but this gal’s gotta work before she can play. Lots going on in this neck of the woods.... Let’s start with Prague, which may end up with the Central European record this year for non-stop influx of poets. It does seem at times that Prague is the backdrop of choice for grant writers -- excuse me -- lovers of literature.
April in Czech translates as “Prague Writer’s Festival” -- yes, the lucky 13th just happened, with the usual book signings up the kazoo but hey, this year Edna O’Brien showed up! She’s usually not on this circuit and I love her stuff. Also Arundhati Roy -- last year she couldn’t make it on account of being in jail back home on the subcontinent. What struck me most oddly was that the most oft-repeated comment I heard re: Roy was along the lines of “Now she is very nice -- even with her hair cut.”
In mid-May Naropa University wrapped up its first “Study Abroad in Prague” semester with the Sanalan “Third Mind” Festival put on in collaboration with Prameni, a public service company based here. Among workshop and reading participants were Anne Waldman, Anselm Hollo and Rikki Ducornet from the U.S., Teatr Novogo Fronta, Russian-born experimental performers, Irina Andreeva and several writers connected with Prague-based Josef Skvorecky Literary Academy: Alexandra Berkova, Pavla Jonssonova, and Jachym Topol (his book, Nocní Práce/Night Work won the Magnesia Literary Award for best novel last year).
Readings were held in the tiny Saint Martin in the Wall Church off Narodni. I went the first night to hear three voices from the Group of Czech and Slovak Surrealists. Frantisek Dryje, chief editor the Group’s journal, Analogon, read from “Pavla Adlerova” (trans. by William Hollister), and “Smichov Train Station” (trans. by Katerina Pinosova).
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June in Czech translates as “Prague Summer Writers’ Workshop” (www.wmich.edu/studyabroad/prague). This year it runs from 28 June - 27 July.
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I’ll hold off on autumn’s Olomouc Poetry Festival until my next Museletter column, but... see what I mean by record “poet influx”? Uh-huh.
FURTHER AFIELD: TO POLAND
“Pole” really does mean “field” in Czech and Polish -- and a good deal of Poland is just that.
NIKE AWARD
Poet and short-story writer Natasza Goerke (b. 1962) has been nominated for the Nike for her latest book, 47 With a Swing (47 Na Odlew, 2002). The Nike is one of Poland’s highest literary awards, given each year since 1997, for the best book in Polish published in the previous year. This year’s nominees, 20 poets and writers in all, were announced in May during the 48th Warsaw International Book Fair.
Goerke has lived in Hamburg since the mid 1980s. I’ve heard her read in Prague. Some critics use language like “grotesque” and “surrealistic” to describe her stories. I enjoy them viscerally: a sensation similar to my first cliff-dive when, after scrabbling 50 or so feet up the side of an old abandoned rock quarry, I stood a moment, solid and equilibrate, then simply pushed off and dove into air.
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A good deal of the new Polish writing happens outside the cities of Warsaw and Krakow, in areas that historically and culturally spill over Poland proper and encompass parts of neighboring countries like Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania. Sometimes called “the borderlands” and sometimes “the small motherlands”, they are home to some of the most distinct and vibrant voices in contemporary Polish poetry.
ALTERED STATE: The New Polish Poetry
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TALES OF GALICIA
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PORT LEGNICA CONTEMPORARY POETS FESTIVAL
The festival started out small in 1996 -- perhaps as an alternative to the big guns’ “Meeting of the Poets Krakow” which began about the same time, and which Nobel laureates Czelaw Milosz and Wislawa Szymborska help host every three years in Krakow (next one is September 2003). Port Legnica now claims to be the largest poetry festival in Poland. It happens every spring -- this year it ran from 21-25 April and featured Hungarian poet Istvan Kovacs, British poets Simon Armitage and Glyn Maxwell, as well as several Polish poets. I want to concentrate on one: Marcin Swietlicki.
Swietlicki (b. 1961, Lublin) has been a cult figure in contemporary Polish poetry for over 15 years. He had an early association with the literary journal brulion, received the 1992 George Trakl Award for his first book of poems, the 1996 Koscielski Award, and has three times been nominated for the Nike (including his most recent collection, Undisclosed Until Further Notice, Czarne Press, 2002). What else? He also writes songs for his band, “Swietlicki,” and back in the mid 90s while in Krakow for some literary award, supposedly told Czelaw Milosz that “Someday this city will be mine.” Hohoho. Given all this, can someone explain why, outside of a Finnish translation of an early collection, and 20-odd poems in English translation in various lit journals, the bulk of Swietlicki’s 13 collections of poetry are only available in Polish? Hello?
KORET AWARD WINNER
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OSI ROMA LITERARY AWARDS
In mid-April Open Society Institute, Hungary presented Special Distinction Awards ($1,000) to Romany poet Mehmed Merejan of Bulgaria and Serb/Montenegrin poet Baja Saitovic Lukin. They were two of the 10 Romany poets, writers and translators honored for their work. This was the OSI Award’s first year; over 50 writers from 12 countries submitted work. Judges noted that through their works, the authors “provide valuable information about their culture, often challenging preconceived arguments and stereotypes, each making valuable contributions to the ongoing process of establishing a Romany literary standard.” Tera Fabianova and Andrej Gina from Czech Republic won Special Distinction Awards in Fiction. The big $5,000 award went to Germany-based Serb/Montenegrin writer, Rajko Djuric, for his trilingual (! German/Romany/English) short story collection.
A ROUNDUP OF ONGOING POETRY VENUES IN CENTRAL EUROPE
All of the reading info is current, but be forewarned: Europe shuts down in August, so it’s best to check out the Web site where noted.
PRAGUE
- Obratnik Poetic Kavarna
Various features and opens every Wednesday night; third Wednesdays are International Poetry nights. Starts at 7 pm, Jindrich Plachty 28, near Andel metro station. Last month they held a mini-festival focusing on Africa, with poetry, dance and readings. The Web site’s in Czech.
- Alchemy Reading and Performance Series
This feature/open mike is every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, 8 pm at Shakespeare and Sons Bookstore/Café, Krymska 12. Upcoming: Berlin-based performance artist, Gaby Bila-Gunther (*see below). For more info on upcoming events, archives of past readers, or to inquire about obtaining a feature, go to www.volny.cz/alchemyprague.
- Poetry in the Twilight
This open mike is every 2nd and 4th Sunday, 5 - 7 pm at Jazz Club Zelezna, right near Prague’s Old Town Square. There have also been some slam features added. For info, or if you are passing this way and interested in a possible feature, go to www.geocities.com/poetryinthetwilight.
HUNGARY
- The Budapest Bardroom Open Mike goes on at Merlin Theatre, downtown Budapest, but readings are intermittent. The folks came here to Prague in mid-May for a reading at Alchemy. Check out www.geocities.com/budapestbardroom for next dates.
BERLIN
- Bastard
The infamous Wolfgang Hogekamp of EX’N’POP fame hosts a slam-type event at Bastard Club, Kastanienallee 7-9, Prenzlauerberg area (Berlin-east). Usually on Sunday or Monday nights; next reading is 5 June, and features Moscow performance poet, Anastasia Trubacheva.
- Scheinbar-Variete
At Monumentstrasse 9, this series often has a “spiel” or spoken word night. Upcoming: 9 June at 8:30 slam with host Sebastian Kramer.
- Poesie Festival Berlin
This happens all over Berlin from 26 June -5 July with a roster of international and local poets. It culminates with Nacht Poesie, 5 July starting at 7 pm in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.
- Spotlight! Ya Can’t Take the Cuntry Outa These Gals
Gaby Bila-Gunther and Vagina Jones are two good reasons to check out the Berlin scene. Bila-Gunther, originally from Romania, arrived in Berlin via Melbourne where she would regularly perform her poetry in laundromats, beauty parlors, elevators, trams. Her chapbook Validate and Travel is about the latter. Vagina Jones got here by way of Seattle, and has nefarious ties to the Church of the Subgenius (yes, the very same J.R. “Bob” Dobbs guy that crazed San Francisco in the mid-1980s, a sort of “Devival” of it), and Les Voix Vulgaires (“Natural Progression”, Spoot Music, CD 2002). In Berlin she often performs with her band, Noisy Pink Vagina, and is much admired for her fashion sense and her pussy poetry.
In early March, as The Sugar Babes Paramedics, Bila-Gunther and Jones gave a performance that included erotic candy-making and other “real live cooking on stage!” as well as poems and candy diet tips. Czech writer Simon Safranek also took part in this very special evening. At the end of May they were at it again with “Die Liebe ist ein Seltsame -- Spiel #2” at the Tivoli in Prenzlauerberg (Berlin-east). This time Bila-Gunther performed with poets Jessica Falzoi and Helen Prince, Vagina Jones played accordion and, dig this, old Brit rocker, Nikki Sudden “and musical guests” were there as well (ha! eat your heart out, PS!).
In early June Bila-Gunther performs at Prague’s Alchemy reading. I can’t wait. Get info on her chapbook and her spoken word CD Off The Main from her Web site at www.geocities.com/gabycbila or by inquiring of Lady Gaby at Dorfdisco. Hopefully Vagina Jones will grace Prague with her presence soon as well.
VIENNA SPOKEN WORD
- After that, this isn’t going to sound too exciting but c’mon....
Labyrinth, the “Association of English Language Poets in Vienna”
They’ve been around since 1999 and hold a variety of events and readings. An open reading’s been going on since March 2002 (happy birthday!), every first Friday of the month, 8:30 pm, currently at Café Kafka, Capistrangasse; the next dates are 6 June and 4 July.
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Robert Gal’s new collection of philosophical aphorisms and poetic fragments, Signs & Symptoms is out from Twisted Spoon (2003). Bratislava-born Gal now teaches philosophy at Josef Skvorecky Academy in Prague.Compare prices
to buy the book• Signs & Symptoms
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Louis Armand has a new poetry collection, Strange Attractors (Salt Publications, 2003).Compare prices
to buy the book• Strange Attractors
- The Animal and The City, poems by J. August Buehler with Martin Zet (Divus Publications, 2003). Buehler is (was?) editor of the Prague-based contemporary art magazine Umelec International. He’s got an article on Zet’s work in a new lit magazine, Cento. Issue #1 also includes translations of the Hungarian poet Zsuzsa Beney and the late Czech-Moravian poet Jan Skacel.
Laura in Praguetory
Laura Conway
