Trafika Europe is excited to announce a partnership with the European Society of Authors, a platform promoting literary translation as a basis for Europeanness in the 21st-century. Needless to say, such scope and values couldn’t be a better match with our own mission and perspective.
We’re rolling out some exciting extras to supplement our new issue, Trafika Europe 11 – Swiss Delights. Firstly, if you haven’t seen it, this issue is especially fine, packed with a dozen chapters of translated literature spanning Switzerland’s great lingual and cultural diversity, co-edited with Tess Lewis. It’s free online right here:
Trafika Europe is so pleased to announce the launch of a modest European bookshop on our site!
Trafika Europe is curating a new European literary events calendar, for events in, from and about the 47 Council of Europe countries.
In this sublime audio conversation (57 minutes, fully bilingual), Ukrainian poet Natalka Bilotserkivets (Наталка Білоцерківець) speaks of her development as a poet in the former Soviet Union and following. We enjoy an extensive discussion and reading of her poem, “We’ll Not Die in Paris” [see full text below] in light of the poets Apollinaire, César Vallejo, and Paul Celan, and consider the influence also of Ukrainian poet Pavlo Tychyna, Pasternak, Cavafy and T.S. Eliot, and Ukrainian folk culture generally. She talks about the role of political poetry, the writing of her long, acclaimed poem, “May” on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and how poetry functions in present-day Ukraine, including in the context of the current war.
Wow – Trafika Europe‘s first book is here, with some very best choice offerings of new fiction and poetry from across Europe, from the first year of our journal. It’s a great gift item – published by Penn State University Press.
Trafika Europe hosted an Evening of Slovenian Literature at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC, Sunday 08 November 2015. Celebrating the launch of Trafika Europe 5 – Slovenian Interlude, three writers from this issue performed from their work. Visiting Slovenian poets Aleš Šteger and Tone Škrjanec were joined on stage by Tess Lewis, reading from her new translations of Maja Haderlap, the “lyrical voice of Slovenian Austrians”.
It’s a rare privilege to welcome Maureen Freely to the Trafika Europe advisory board. As the current president of English PEN, chair of the Faculty of Arts at Warwick University, and former chair of the Translator’s Association in the UK, she brings an unparalleled depth of experience to the table.
In a sublimely suitable match-up, Trafika Europe is pleased to welcome the organization Music & Literature as a partner on our upcoming radio station. One exciting prospect which Trafika Europe Radio holds forth is to foreground aural aspects of literary cultures – literary sound and music which just doesn’t fit on the printed page. The aesthetic and experience which Music & Literature brings in this regard couldn’t be a better fit, and we’re so glad to be teaming up with them.
Trafika Europe hosted a warm and wonderful evening of Latvian literature at the Latvian Mission to the United Nations in New York, with three visiting literary lights: Nora Ikstena, Liāna Langa and Margita Gailītis, on Friday May 1st, 2015. As Ambassador Jānis Mažeiks noted in his introduction, we were “both legally… and culturally in Latvia” for the evening, and a bilingual approach greatly enhanced the readings throughout.
Trafika Europe – Four Takes was a great evening of works in translation from Danish, Czech, Bosnian and Armenian. In this, our first New York City event, four excellent literary translators presented and discussed their latest work, at Word Up Community Bookshop, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
John O’Brien, Founder and Publisher of Dalkey Archive Press, has joined the Trafika Europe Board of Advisors. Dalkey Archive is regarded by many as the leading publisher of avant-garde fiction and literature in translation in English-language. Since its inception in 1984, Dalkey Archive has amassed a remarkable body of talent; its not-for-profit stance has allowed the freedom to experiment and showcase works of notable quality and formal excitement independent of commercial considerations.
At Trafika Europe, we’re inspired by Dalkey Archive’s ceaseless dedication to finding and keeping accessible gems of literature from many cultures. It is hard to overestimate the value of such rare and fine initiatives, for which Trafika Europe has greatest affinity. We’re grateful to John O’Brien and pleased to welcome him to our advisory board; we certainly look forward to the enriching conversation it brings to our project.