The European Camarade - November Friday 20th 2015 at Free Word Centre

A mini-festival of European poetry in collaboration, in the heart of London. Nearly two dozen poets from across the continent presented brand new collaborations in the literary and avant-garde traditions to a sold out audience of nearly 100 at Free Word Centre. British poets wrote these works with visiting writers from Slovakia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Austria, Hungary, Norway and more, firmly rooted in 21st century poetic practise, in one of London's hubs for modern literature. 

Featured:
Michal Habaj (Slovakia) & Christodoulos Makris (Ireland / Cyprus)
Katarina Kucbelova (Slovakia) & Karen McCarthy Woolf (UK)
Gabriele Labanauskaite (Lithuania) & Camilla Nelson (UK)
Luke Allan (UK) & Christoph Szalay (Austria)
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir (Iceland) & Richard Scott (UK)
Endre Ruset (Norway) & SJ Fowler (UK)
Ville Hytonen (Finland) & Colin Herd (Scotland)
Kinga Toth (Hungary) & Kim Campanello (US)
Erlend O. Nødtved (Norway) & Christopher Stephenson (UK)

The event was introduced by Rosie Goldsmith of the European Literature Network.

The Camarade series explores collaboration exclusively between poets, taking the form of events which pair writers to produce and premiere new collaborative poems or artworks, to be performed live.  The European Camarade will pair European poets from outside of the UK with British counterparts, featuring some of the most dynamic poets & textual artists working across the contemporary European scene, this event will evidence the cross continental dialogue so prevalent in the avant-garde and literary scene. 

Supported by Literárne informačné centrum Slovakia (LIC - The Centre for Information on Literature), The Freeword Centre, European Union National Institutes for Culture - London, The European Literature Network, Lithuanian Cultural Institute, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, The Balassi Institute, the Austrian Cultural Forum, The Royal Norwegian Embassy London, Embassy of the Slovak Republic.

Bios:

Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir is a poet and journalist. She is one of the founders and current directors of Meðgönguljóð (Partus Press), a grassroots literary organisation and publisher of poetry based in Reykjavík, Iceland. www.medgonguljod.com/en-valgerdur-thorodds

Cristine Brache is an artist and poet. She lives and works in London, England.

Kimberly Campanello was born in Elkhart, Indiana, and is a dual American and Irish citizen based in Ireland and the UK, where she lectures at York St John University. Her poetry pamphlets and collections include Consent (Doire Press, May 2013), Spinning Cities(Wurm Press, 2011), imagines (New Dublin Press, 2015), Strange Country (The Dreadful Press, 2015) and MOTHERBABYHOME (zimZalla, 2016). www.kimberlycampanello.com

Gabriele Labanauskaite is calling herself text producer, as she combines poetry, drama, essay and other texts with interdisciplinary arts, mixing her roles from writer, performer, organizer and interpreter. www.avaspo.lt  www.galdrama.lt

Colin Herd's books include too ok (BlazeVOX, 2011), Glovebox (Knives, Forks and Spoons, 2014) and Oberwildling - with SJ Fowler (Austrian Cultural Forum, 2015). He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at University of Glasgow.  www.colinherd.com

Richard Scott has been a Jerwood/ Arvon poetry mentee, a member of The Aldeburgh 8 and a winner of The Wasafiri New Writing Prize. His poems have been published in Poetry Review, Poetry London and BUTT Magazine.  http://richardscottarvon.tumblr.com/

Erlend O. Nødtvedt, born 21.10.84 in Bergen, Norway. Poet. Bibliography: Harudes (Aschehoug 2008), Bergens beskrivelse (Aschehoug 2011), Trollsuiten (Aschehoug 2014). Received the Bjørnson Award for young writers in 2012, The Bookstore Award for young writers in 2015, together with Endre Ruset and Lars Petter Sveen, and vas voted as one of the ten most promising norwegian writers below the age of 35 at Norsk Litteraturfestival - Sigrid Undset-dagene 2015. 

Endre Ruset, born 24.10.81 in Molde, Norway. Poet and critic. Bibliography: Ribbeinas Vingespenn (Gyldendal 2001), Kims lek (Gyldendal 2005), Prosjektil (K.Ø.S 2012), Noriaki (Flamme 2014), Elsket og savnet (2014). Received the Bjørnson Award for young writers in 2006 and The Bookstore Award for young writers in 2015 together with Erlend Nødtvedt and Lars Petter Sveen. His poetry is translated to several languages. 

Christodoulos Makris is a poet, editor and independent curator based in Dublin. His most recent book is The Architecture of Chance(Wurm Press, 2015). He is the poetry editor of gorse journal. Web: http://yesbutisitpoetry.blogspot.com Twitter: @c_makris

Michal Habaj is a poet and a literary scientist. He was born in 1974 in Bratislava. He studied Slovak Language and Literature, and completed his doctoral studies at the Institute of Slovak Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he currently works. He is the author of the monographs Druhá moderna (The Second Modernism, 2005) a Model človeka a sveta v básnickom diele Jána Smreka (The Concept of the Human and the World in the Poetry of Ján Smrek, 2013) and co-author of the Slovník diel slovenskej literatúry 20. storočia (Dictionary of the Works of Slovak Literature of the 20th Century, 2006) and Slovník diel slovenskej literatúry 19. storočia (Dictionary of the Works of Slovak Literature of the 19th Century, 2006). His books of poetry include: 80-967760-4-5 (1997), Gymnazistky. Prázdniny trinásťročnej (The High School Girls. The Holidays of a Thirteen Year-old Girl, 1999), Korene neba. Básne z posledného storočia (The Roots of Heaven. Poems of the Last Century, 2000), Básne pre mŕtve dievčatá (Poems for Dead Girls, 2004), Michal Habaj (2012) and Caput Mortuum. Poemata posthumanismi speculativus (2015). Under the pseudonym Anna Snegina he published books of poems Pas de deux (2003) and Básne z pozostalosti (Poems from the Inheritance, 2009). His poems are part of the book of photographs by Dorota Sadovská Emergency Entrance / Núdzový vchod (2009). He is one of the co-authors of the experimental poetry project Generator X: Hmlovina (Generator X: Nebula, 1999) and Generator X_2: Nové kódexy (Generator X_2: New Codices, 2013). He is also one of co-authors of the international project The European Constitution in Verse (Brussels, 2009). His poetry has been included in multiple anthologies and collections.  

Christopher Stephenson was one of the organisers of Leeds' controversial spoken word night LETTERBOMB. He currently runs Stranger Press which publishes contemporary, innovative writing and artwork in traditional and experimental/unusual ways. His work has been included in the Other Room Anthology 6 and the No Spy Zone Anthology from Peter Barlow’s Cigarette Press. Collections include Holes (Arthur Shilling Press 2010), Revenge of The Mirror People (Stranger Press 2013), Napoli Metro Bad Dream Sequence (Blart Books 2013) and No Ideas But In Things - with Stephen Emmerson (Dark Windows Press 2013). His Project Constellations -  an unclassified Psychedelic Research subject/patient/agent file from an alternative future was recently published by zimZalla. strangerpress.com @strangerpress

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