How does Rosie The Riveter Goldsmith do it that she can be in so many places at almost the same time? All those literature festivals, events, award ceremonies… Unfortunately, while she magics herself away from Hay to Norway, she can not write our June newsletter, so here I am again, stepping temporarily into her Riveting Shoes.
Here is what we’ve been and are up to.
Behind us are London Book Fair (bravo, the Baltic countries and check out our The Baltics Riveter), EBRD Literature Prize 2018 (bravo, Burhan Sönmez and Ümit Hussein and check out the details about submissions to the 2019 prize) and the Man Booker International Prize 2018 (bravo, Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft. It makes me so very happy to see my personal favourite of all of Olga’s books get the recognition it deserves!). What a literary spring we’ve had!
Talking of Olga Tokarczuk… Eight years ago exactly was my first day as the Head of Literature at the Polish Cultural Institute (covering for Magda Raczyńska). Eight years ago exactly was when I first met Olga Tokarczuk and also… Rosie Goldsmith, who chaired the event with Olga at the London Review Bookshop. Looking back, this has been a very busy and happy eight years…
Now, for what’s ahead of us!
Our next European Literature Network meeting is on 20 June (Europe House, 6pm-8:30pm). Please do come, bring your news, have a glass of wine and some nibbles. If you haven’t done so yet, please RSVP to me at anna.blasiak@yahoo.co.uk or, if you prefer, at contact@eurolitnetwork.com.
At the same place and almost the same time (3pm-5pm) we will also hold our second Swiss Lit Net meeting, a gathering of enthusiasts of Swiss literature: publishers, promoters and other people interested in carving a bigger space for it in the UK. If you would like to join us, then, again, let me know at anna.blasiak@yahoo.co.uk or contact@eurolitnetwork.com.
And here is another bit of Swiss news: Literally Swiss will be in Leukerbad from 28 June.
The deadline for June #RivetingReviews is 11 June (for publication on 15 June). We are waiting for your review(s), so don’t be shy! If you want to know more, here are our Riveting Reviews Rules. If you are late with this month’s #RRs submissions, remember that the next round or two will be edited by West Camel.
And, I repeat it like a broken record, please do keep sending us your news and events. All we need is a copy and an image we can use on the website – just send them to me. Everything also goes on our on social media, where we have quite a following.
And one last thing – the dreaded GDPR… Like pretty much everybody else we’ve sent you an email (or two) asking for the usual – clicking buttons, replying, confirming, blah, blah, blah. We are aware of how serious this is, but we are also aware of how busy you all are and how easy it is to miss something in the avalanche of samey emails. Therefore we will ask you again, but differently – if you don’t want to stay with us, there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email, which will remove you from our mailing list. But please don’t use it, stay with us, pretty please!
Anna, the Temporary Riveter