I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
When I was younger and reading everything voraciously and indiscriminately I used to write down my favourite quotes, hoping that I would never forget them and one day write something as memorable. That didn’t happen, but I still do love an uplifting quote. My Mum had read all the Anne of Green Gables books as a child and passed them on to me and my sisters. I adored red-haired, pigtailed ‘Anne with an E’ (my middle name!) with her big words and ideas and imaginings: Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it … yet. Or It is ever so much easier to be good if your clothes are fashionable. In the spirit of Anne, we hope you enjoy a fashionable October full of great words and imaginings.
Top of our October agenda: ELNet Networking!
We’d like to see you! In person! So we’re holding a physical meeting in the afternoon on Tuesday 26th October at Europe House (32 Smith Square, London SW1P 3EU; exact details to follow next week). Please register your attendance by emailing Anna Blasiak at contact@eurolitnetwork.com and rest assured that all Covid precautions will be taken. Bring your news, views and projects (and your own coffee – sorry). If you can’t attend in person, do email Anna your contributions – so that we can include and share at the meeting and in the follow-up notes. If we can, we’ll also livestream the meeting on Zoom – no guarantees but we’ll make sure you are notified in time as you’ll need to register for the Zoom link.
This October I’m boldly venturing out in person to chair events at various literature festivals. If you’re in Marlborough or Cheltenham do say hello. From climate change to art, Thomas Mann to Jed Murcurio, my festival canvas is broad and bright. I’m especially pleased to be reviving The Dutch Riveter at our All You Need to Know about Dutch Literature event on 14th October at Cheltenham, as well chairing several other translation events.
For all of you enquiring about our next magazine, The Italian Riveter, you’ll soon be receiving your invitations to contribute. It is one year exactly since we launched The Romanian Riveter and the first Romania Rocks festival, thanks to some truly outstanding people. And we’re happy to announce the second Romania Rocks festival, taking place at the Romanian Cultural Institute (RCI) between 2nd and 9th November. The full programme will be published next week on the websites of the RCI and ELNet, but we can already reveal a few of the participants from Romania and Britain: Mircea Cărtărescu, Ioana Pârvulescu, Magda Cârneci, Jonathan Coe, Monique Roffey, Lionel Shriver, Tracy Chevalier, Tessa Dunlop, Georgina Goodwin … and and and! The festival is run by the RCI but ELNet will help promote it.
On Monday 27th September, we launched a new weekly podcast series of Riveting Interviews with Europe Readr, the digital books and ideas platform created by EUNIC and the Slovene Presidency of the EU. My first guest was Slovene’s acclaimed author Drago Jančar. A new interview is released at 18:00 GMT every Monday for 10 weeks on all the usual podcast platforms, and ofcourse via the European Literature Network and EuropeReadr websites. There’s a whole team behind the creation of these podcasts: thank you to each of you.
Some other links to events and news:
The 10th Litvak Days, a two-day celebration and commemoration of Lithuania’s Jews, 6/7th October
The 25th anniversary of New Books in German
The recording of our panel discussion on UK-EU Cultural Relations post-Brexit
Check out our regular monthly columns: The Italianist, La Española, Poetry Travels and #RivetingReviews, edited by West Camel and Deputy Editor Rosie Eyre. If you are interested in reviewing or sending books then please email them at our dedicated reviews address: reviews@eurolitnetwork.com. The submission and pub dates for reviews this October are: deadline 18th, publication 22nd.Our November reviews will focus on Romanian Literature in English, to support the RCI’s Romania Rocks Festival.
Every day is International Translation Day here at the European Literature Network but we hope you are enjoying the myriads of special ITD events organised by indefatigable colleagues everywhere, from English PEN to National Centre for Writing. A reminder too to sign the petition instigated by Jennifer Croft and the Society of Authors #NameTheTranslator #TranslatorsOnTheCover.
Finally, to cheer you on your way, another favourite quote, from Winnie the Pooh: It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!
Love, Rosie The Riveter