TOO MUCH NEWS?
There is simply too much news these days. Everyday. Everywhere. Most of it bad and sad. And I am about to add to the overload! But my news is good and at least you know you can trust it – ofcourse you can! How could you ever doubt a former BBC journalist, objective to the core (except when it comes to Europe and Brexit)?
30 years ago I started my first job at the BBC on a new European affairs programme called Eurofile. As the walls came tumbling down, my colleagues and I raced round Europe from one dramatic – and often dangerous – story to the next. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions of eastern Europe, were, and remain, the most formative events of my life – and for the world; reminders also of everything we are about to lose in the UK. All good reasons to make our next magazine The German Riveter, to be launched on 26th November at the British Library. I’ll be discussing the upheavals in German literature of the past 30 years, with literary stars Julia Franck, Durs Gruenbein and Nino Haratischvili, as well as translation royalty, Charlotte Collins, Ruth Martin and Karen Leeder. Book your tickets here.On the 28th November we will be holding a second event at the Goethe-Institut London to celebrate the launch of her novel The Eighth Life with Nino, Charlotte and Ruth. The German Riveter, to which so many of you are already generously contributing, features many well known authors, from Jenny Erpenbeck to Jan Wagner. The cover design will be by Axel Scheffler (I promised you: only good news!)
Over the next few months our focus at the European Literature Network will be on the 30th anniversary of the changes and revolutions in Europe. We will be running our regular online Riveting Reviews in September (deadline for submissions: 25 September and publication: 30 September) and in October (deadline for submissions: 25 October and publication: 31 October) we’d like to publish mainly reviews of Slovak and Czech literature. Do get in touch with our editor West Camel, if you’d like to review: west@westcamel.net. November and December will be dedicated to German literature and The German Riveter. You can still participate even if you are not writing for our magazine: we welcome your recommendations of your favourite German reads from the past 30 years. You can either email them to us contact@eurolitnetwork.com or simply post them on our Twitter or Facebook pages (#RivetingGermans @eurolitnet https://www.facebook.com/EuroLitNetwork/). Please include the title, translator, publisher, your name and one sentence (more if you like) on why you recommend this book.
We’ll be filming our German events and author interviews too – to add to our growing YouTube and SoundCloud website archive of audio and video. Have you seen our latest Riveting Interview with Swiss-Italian-Albanian author Elvira Dones? Elvira was a guest author at the British Centre for Literary workshop in Norwich this summer, run by Shaun Whiteside and funded by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. This autumn we’ll be continuing our Literally Swiss projects and launching the third year of the EBRD Literature Prize – deadline for submissions is 1 October 2019). And my fellow judges for 2020 are none other than Boyd Tonkin, Thomas DeWaal and Vesna Goldsworthy. We’re also launching a bid for a new Arts Council England grant, based in the South West, where I was born and where I now live. Watch out Cornwall – there is life after “Poldark”!
And more good news?! Our resident poet Anna Blasiak has been invited to Timisoara and Venice this autumn to participate in translation and poetry events and our resident novelist West Camel has been shortlisted for the Polari First Novel Prize. And, Alyson Coombes, who many of you know from New Books in German and the world of publishing and German translation, is joining our European Literature Network team.
And just when we think we’ll be holding our last meeting at Europe House, we are extremely happy to inform you that our next European Literature Network meeting will take place at Europe House on Wednesday 17th September from 1800 to 2030. If you’d like to attend the ELNet meeting please RSVP Anna now: contact@eurolitnetwork.com.Only registered participants may attend – similarly for the Literally Swiss meeting that same afternoon (17 September 2019), for anyone involved in Swiss literature and translation, from 1500 and 1700, also at Europe House. There will be Swiss chocolate – and that is the best news of all!
Love, Rosie the Riveter