European Literature Night

European Literature Night presents some of the brightest literary talent from Europe to audiences and readers across the UK. ELN is an annual literary showcase bringing the best of the continent’s writers and contemporary European literature to the UK. It is a unique initiative involving 28 European Cultural Institutes and Embassies, many arts organisations and the European Commission Representation in the UK which promotes European literature of all genres in English translation. European Literature Nights are hosted by the British Library, chaired by BBC journalist and presenter Rosie Goldsmith and produced by Speaking Volumes.

EUROPEAN LITERATURE NIGHT VII (2015)

Rosie Goldsmith: European Literature Manifesto
13 May 2015, British Library, London
on the occasion of European Literature Night VII

Thank you for voting YES to European Literature.
Thank you for attending our annual European Literature party conference.
As your party leader I hereby pledge to keep European Literature in Britain… and in the British Library!
Independent research shows that European Literature in translation is good for our culture and our country.

7 years ago – when I stood on this very stage to chair the first ELN – it was just a ‘Night’. Now it is officially also a ‘Day’ – several days in fact.
It achieved its own acronym – ‘ELN’!
I had to buy more shoes, more dresses, more books! Therefore, who could argue that ELN is not good for the country’s economy?
ELN started touring the UK, launching websites, bombarding Social Media – I eventually learned what a Hashtag was – hooking up with other festivals, organisations and countries.
ELN is now a literary force to be reckoned with.

A reminder of our manifesto:
ELN champions the best of contemporary European literature in English.
The main criteria are: excellent literature, excellent translation and excellent entertainment.

The ELN judges and I selected tonight’s 6 writers from nearly 50 entries. They scale the mountaintops of superlatives, covering east west, north and south of Europe and that bit in the centre.
Their books will change your lives – as they did mine when I read them – because that is what good literature does.

Thank you to my election team – my fellow judges
Janet Zmorczeck and Kristian Jensen from the British Library,
translator supremo Daniel Hahn and the author Gabriel Gbadamosa.

We can also proudly boast strong female leadership in our ELN campaign: thank you especially to Renata Clark and Tereza Porybna of the Czech Centre for your continuous support and for the original idea, and thanks to Sarah Sanders and Sharmilla Beezmohun of Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions for organizing everyone and everything.

Party broadcast over – on with the show!

Let’s meet our Grand Coalition of 6 European writers from ITALY, DENMARK, SLOVENIA, SPAIN, POLAND and FRANCE.
4 novelists, one short story writer and one poet.

A Big United Kingdom round of applause for tonight’s European Superstars:
Evald Flisar
Yasmina Khadra
Jesus Carrasco
Wioletta Greg
Andrea Bajani
Naja Marie Aidt

You can follow everything we do via our various websites, Facebook and Twitter – see the screen behind me… but do make note of 2 new websites:
The Czech Centre’s EUNIC site www.europeanliteraturenight.co.uk/

And our very own European Literature ‘hub’ for the UK www.eurolitnetwork.com

If you’re tweeting about tonight the hashtag is #ELN2015 and our various Twitter handles are @eurolitnet @EUNICLONDON @BL_European @speakingvolumes – and many more! And do check out our films, photos and drawings of the authors and events.

As your party leader I’d like to say Thank You for your support of European Literature Night!

IAN LONG’S DRAWINGS FROM THE EUROPEAN LITERATURE NIGHT 2015 www.ianlong.org