Really pleased to conduct a conversation with Sarah Hemens, who heads up New Books in German, about the upcoming 9th edition of the European Poetry Festival https://www.new-books-in-german.com/the-european-poetry-festival/ An excerpt here below
I was struck by the breadth of partners involved in the festival, both international organisations as well as national initiatives. What does this suggest about the relevance and resonance of European poetry today?
I’d be cautious to draw any wider conclusions on relevance, just as a mode. I believe the festival has been sustainable, psychologically or emotionally, shall we say, being run by one person, because I am not trying to create any utopian or over arching impact. I’m just trying to create singular evenings, where people create unusually dynamic collaborative live poetry in an environment where it is friendly, funny, hospitable and down to earth. I want to meet people, connect them and put literary and avant-garde poetry in an open space. European poetry carries such powerful traditions in this regard, so it all fits together. The volume of partners is due to their generosity? Their trust? And maybe our consistency? Or the energy of the thing? My desire to reach out? To make more of what we have? I hope so. It’d be lovely if this speaks to a resonance for European poetry here in the UK, but I think it’s not for me to say, but for me to do, if that makes sense. Naturally I personally believe fervently in the resonance of European poetry today.
The Austrian and Swiss celebrations both feature poets working in collaboration with British counterparts to present new work. What stands out to you about the poetry scenes in Austria and Switzerland, and what is distinctive about these collaborative exchanges?
Yes these are two of the fest’s most generous and consistent partners. They really believe in what we are doing and we’re grateful for that because it means audiences get to see what is happening in these two nations in the UK every year. Some audience members do follow the work of these poets after the events and they become a way into to things happening in these nations that might otherwise be opaque. I wouldn’t want to make generalisations about the scenes in these countries but I’ve found the poets I work with often are really affable as people while being very complex in their texts, and I would say it’s because the traditions are different than in the UK, and certainly ideas around modernism and language are more fundamental, and casual, and discussions are accessibility and readability are different. My work is more aligned with the scenes I’ve experienced in Austria and Switzerland and I am jealous the people who seem to win prizes in these countries are doing really intense, complex work. I could write 50 pages on this, but I’ve bored too many people too many times to do that. In addition I think performance and the tradition of experimentation in literature is more common.