EURO STARS – THE NOVELISTS
21st Sept 2015, 18:30 – 20:30
Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith at the Free Word Centre in London
& Staring
Carolina Schutti from Austria
Ida Hegazi Høyer from Norway
& Donal Ryan from Ireland.
Rosie Goldsmith introduces our second ‘Euro Stars’ event
(photos by Max Easterman):
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ROSIE GOLDSMITH: Welcome to the second in our series of EURO STARS.
We held our first EURO STARS in April with short story writers from Malta, Turkey, Latvia and England. Tonight I’m meeting 3 novelists from Austria, Ireland and Norway – similarly to our first group of Euro Stars, not a group of countries we often get to meet together in one room, except maybe at an EU conference, or indeed at an EUPL prize-giving!
All 3 writers are indeed winners of the 2015 ‘European Union Prize For Literature’.
So congratulations and welcome to:
Carolina Schutti from Austria
Ida Hegazi Høyer from Norway
And Donal Ryan from Ireland
Thank you to our supporters Free Word Centre, Creative Europe, ELIT Literature House & Arts Council England for helping us bring European Literature to the UK. Welcome to Walter Grond, Artistic Director of ELit in Austria, our partner in this grand project to link all the literatures of Europe in one big multilingual network. Great thanks to Anna Blasiak, our event and website manager and the best colleague anyone could possibly have in this crazy endeavour of promoting European Literature in the UK.
The idea behind our Euro Stars series is ambitious – particularly in the UK where we are generally ignorant and/or sceptical about European arts and literature.
The idea is to treat these writers as the rock stars of European fiction that they are, not as the warm-up act to the Anglo-American All-Stars, which is often how we approach literature from Europe.
We have 3 novelists from Austria, Norway and Ireland and I am curious to find out what happens when we bring such varied cultures, languages and writing styles together: what are their themes? How popular is the novel today?
Do they have anything in common? Is there something grander they can tell us about Europe today – if anything? Should writers comment on current affairs or be left in peace simply to write?
Europe today is in a state of turmoil, thousands of people are on the move, crossing borders, risking their lives for freedom, challenging values – it feels rather like 1989. I was a BBC reporter then and met many writers and artists among those many migrants and refugees jumping over barbed wire fences and settling in our countries. A quarter of a century later how will this new wave of immigration influence our lives and our literature?
I had hoped for a full stadium tonight for our Euro Rock Stars – but we are talking about Europe and – typically for London – our event is competing with other premier league events – such as the Rugby, London International Fashion Week, the Dalai Lama, Art Garfunkel, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ennio Morricone – so therefore I am amazed that SO MANY of you have turned up!
You can also follow our continuous virtual debate about European literature on our website www.eurolitnetwork.com on Twitter @eurolitnet and on our Facebook page.
You may already have read online extracts and blogs online from tonight’s 3 EURO STARS…
Here at Eurolitnetwork we believe in supporting our great translators – and also commission translations where they don’t exist.
We are publishing tonight’s author biographies, extracts and translations on our website, with thanks to the authors, translators and to our EUPL colleagues in Brussels. You can read ALL the extracts from all 12 winners on the EUPL website: http://www.euprizeliterature.eu/sites/www.euprizeliterature.eu/files/Twelve_Winning_Authors_2015.pdf
Apologies for my long party broadcast and let’s meet and greet the stars of the show, hear their readings and what they have to say… Welcome
Carolina Schutti from Austria
Ida Hegazi Høyer from Norway
And Donal Ryan from Ireland
Have a listen to the podcast of our Euro Stars event on 21st September 2015 at Free Word Centre.
Ian Long came to the event and drew all the writers:
Photos from the event were taken by Max Easterman:
More photos at Flickr.