Thanks to you and to our riveting #ELNetNeedsYou crowdfunding campaign, the ELNet Show CAN go on – we raised nearly £9,000! Massive thanks everyone. If you claimed ‘rewards’ never fear they will reach you by the end of this month, thanks to Top Riveter Anna Blasiak. You know me, and you know that I never knowingly ‘under-gush’, but on this occasion I am going to leave the enthusiastic thanks of the whole ELNet team to our two newest recruits, Alice Banks and Rosie Eyre, without whom the campaign would not have been so buoyant and brilliant. My gushing thanks to them both. Do read their personal assessment of the campaign after the following ELNet Parish Notices.
Thanks to you, ELNet will be able to afford a new spring wardrobe and in keeping with this fresh new approach we would like to ask you to complete a survey about us and our work, devised by ELNet’s editor West Camel. The European Literature Network exists as a networking hub to serve you and we would like to do that as best we can. Please be honest in completing the survey. The deadline for completion is 31 May. Here’s the link. Our plan is to hold a virtual Networking meeting in June (date tbc) to discuss the survey, All Things Riveting and to welcome you all back into the ELNet fold.
Riveting Editor West Camel also continues to oversee the #RivetingReviews. Email him directly with your books for review on west@westcamel.net. Our May deadline for reviews is 17 May for publication on 21 May. April’s crop proved to me once again how essential and enjoyable our monthly reviews are. Do catch up on the latest publications from Europe and all the reviews in our archive, here on our website. You can also read all nine Riveter magazines online too, including the latest, The Dutch Riveter, but even more excitingly you can ‘purchase’ print copies for free (you only need to cover P&P) through our distribution partner. Remember that ELNet has signed up to the independent online bookshop hub so that you can purchase any books featured in our events and #RivetingReview pages. Look out for our reviews of the European titles on this year’s wonderful International Booker Prize. I’ll be discussing the shortlist and interviewing the winner at the Hay Festival on 4 June. Do register for the free online Hay Festival (and for my event) here.
Before then, in this merry month of May, I’m honoured to be chairing one of the Debates on Europe:Budapest & Beyond, Defending Intellectual Freedom,taking place from 4-7 May, the kind of deeply satisfying and honest debates on European culture that all countries need to hold. Register herefor free. Don’t forget too that the great Gianrico Carofiglio will be in discussion about his latest novel with Bitter Lemon Press on 6 May.
And as if you could forget, it is Europe Day on 9 May, which of course we still celebrate. You can attend a free concert by signing up here.
Thank you to Jeremy O’Sullivan for still flying the EU-UK cultural flag.
I’m also delighted to be treading the real boards again on 18 May at the Institut Francais in London when I interview French superstar author Maylis de Kerangal about her new novel, Painting Time. The event will also be livestreamed by the IF and by ELNet. Check both websites for details closer to the date. The 18 May is also the date that the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL) will be announcing its 2021 winners. You can see the fabulous shortlist here.
Before I hand over the May Newsletter reins to Alice Banks and Rosie Eyre, do remember that you can still donate to ELNet (click on the DONATE button on our website) and that you can still read our regular columns Poetry Travels, The Italianist and the brand new Spanish La Espagñola.
That’s enough gushing from me, over to Alice and Rosie E and On With The Show!
Love and thanks, Rosie the Riveter