Wow!… what a busy, but incredibly heart-warming five weeks it has been for the European Literature Network team!
On 23rd March 2021, we embarked on ELNet’s first ever crowdfunding campaign, and thanks to your incredibly kind support, we have raised almost £9000. The success of our campaign means that here at ELNet, we can continue our great work championing European literature in translation. The money we have raised is essential in keeping the ELNet team ticking over and will also help us redesign our website and continue publishing our Riveter magazines.
The last five weeks have been a challenge, but a worthy one. We have certainly learnt a lot along the way and have been overwhelmed by the amazing support we have received from all of you: writers, translators, publishers, readers, booksellers, festival directors, academics, artists. For this, we owe all of you a huge thank you.
A very exciting point in the campaign was in ‘Week Four’, when literature and art came together for the ELNet Live Auction. A big thank you goes out to Ed Sumner for hosting the event and for also donating a piece of his wonderful art. Thank you also to Axel Scheffler, Andy Pearce, Lisa Kalloo, Henny Beaumont, Lo Cole, Maria Balinska, Caroline Evely, Bernardine Evaristo, Bitter Lemon Press and Francis von Hurter, and of course to Rosie ‘the Riveter’ Goldsmith for their generous and beautiful artistic and monetary donations to the ELNet Auction. Thank you to Emma House, Prashant Pathak and Mihai Andrei for their indispensable help in co-ordinating the event.
The live auction was certainly the most fun, but by far the highlight of the campaign was witnessing your support and comments as they came flooding in over the five weeks – by email, social media and in the post! For me this goes to prove the impact that ELNet has had, and will continue to have It is a reminder of how important our work is in drawing attention to European literature in translation in the UK. Now, thanks to the success of our campaign – thanks to you! – we can continue to make sure ELNet’s impact is strong, and European literature is heard, read and debated.
The #ELNetNeedsYou crowdfunding campaign would not have been possible without our friends and colleagues who donated books, art, wine, hampers, and more, to help us on our way to achieving our fundraising goal. Therefore, thank you to: Axel Scheffler, Lo Cole, Henny Beaumont, Andy Pearce, the Romanian Cultural Institute London, National Centre for Writing, Victoria Hislop, Vesna Goldsworthy, Emma Press, John Kampfner, Bitter Lemon Press & François von Hurter, Ed Sumner, Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Bernardine Evaristo, Kristina Sabaliauskaite, Istros Books, Europa Editions UK, Jean Smith, A.L. Kennedy, Deborah Levy, Elif Shafak, Linda Grant, Orenda Books and MacLehose Press. Also, a huge thank you to Razvan Danaila and Mihai Andrei (London Video Stories) for their work on our campaign video production.
“Last, but not least” (as they say!), finally, a huge thank you, from the bottom of our European hearts to our kind donors:
Ruth Urbom, Ian Giles, Fiona Graham, Angel Gurria-Quintana, Ros Schwartz, Jo Heinrich, Gosia Cabaj, Fernando Páez González, Lori Hetherington, Lucy Moffatt, Astrid Kohler, Ursula Phillips, Ruth Martin, Jennifer Banks, Chiara Salomoni, Maria Balinska, C Brennan, Aneesa Higgins, Isabel Stainsby, Christopher Bone, Rachel Van Riel, Sunjeev Sahota, Dylan Calder, Jonathan Davidson, Bernardine Evaristo, L Wilson, Sigurjon B. Sigurdsson, Helaine Lasky, Greet Pauwelijn, Timothy Beard, Tina Kover, David Mitchell, Ben Schofield, Claudia Ott, Lizzy Siddal, Hugues Azerad, Jill Boumphrey, Christophe Gagne, Robin Lustig, Gabriela Mocan, Stephanie Giesen, Jeremy O’Sullivan, Amber Blomfield, Johanna McCalmont, Morelle Smith, Mihai Andrei, Andrew Singer, Bitter Lemon Press, Angelika Salvisberg, Ellen Kythor, Tasja Dorkofikis, Julia Sherwood, John Evans, Marja Kingma, Maylis Vauterin, Linda Coviello, Aina Marti, Valeria Vescina, Sarah Rimmington, Axel Reiserer, Maria Jastrzebska, Pete Ayrton, Julia Wheeler, Nicola Locatelli, Heather Wilson, Howard Curtis, Patricia Calef, Helen MacCormac, Lisa Davey, Meritha Paul-van Voorden, Ruth Killick, Thomas Nightingale, Ramona Mitrica, Charles Beckett, Stephen Skinner, Melanie Florence, Hamid Ismailov, Deirdre O’Byrne, Magda Stroe, Duncan Beattie, Deirdre McMahon, Victoria Hislop, Ian Rankin, Caroline Sanderson, John Kampfner, George Szirtes, Elizabeth Winter, Lydia Harris, James Kille and Madeline Levine.
I’m not quite sure how many times the words ‘thank you’ have appeared in this post, but it still is probably not quite enough, so, one more time for good measure… Thank you!
By Alice Banks