We are so pleased to be able to announce that Bjarni Bjarnason will be speaking about his latest novel, The Reputation which Red Hand Books has just published in English…so if you fancy a fascinating trip to see our Icelandic star he’s on in Berlin on the 9th of September, 2017… For tickets go to the literature festival website ( http://www.literaturfestival.com/tickets) but he’s on in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in the evening and it should be a very interesting evening…(this link is better in German, but we’ve put the English one as well…) http://www.literaturfestival.com/program-en/literaturen-der-welt-en/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord?set_language=en http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt/2017/bjarni-bjarnason-mannord He’s in amazing company as well with an astonishing array of talent from all over the world.. just have a look at the list on this page.. http://www.literaturfestival.com/programm/literaturen-der-welt if you want a bit more info about Bjarni there is also his BlogSpot to check out: http://www.literaturfestival.com/archive/participants/authors/2017-en/bjarni-bjarnason-1?set_language=en What more could you ask for a weekend in September is an Icelander talking in English about his new translation of a novel about living with the afterlife of the financial crash to lovely people in a German Litfest…? Best of luck to Bjarni.
Further to Tom’s adventures amongst the poetic heartlands, hedonists and difficult breakfasts in Montenegro and Croatia follow him as he heads over to Bulgaria to immerse himself in Sofia’s o’er-brimming literary life… Sunday 31 July There’s a long string of coincidences behind my standing in our hallway with a rucsac full of poetry books, magazines and an English-Bulgarian-English dictionary and with a boarding card for the late-night flight from Bristol to Sofia. The short version is that, in 2013, I read part of my one-man show I Went to Albania at the University of Portsmouth. Afterwards a student came down to the front and asked me if I’d ever been to Bulgaria. Less than six months later I was in Sofia as a guest of Vasilena’s family and talking with her artist sister, Marina, about an online project which would surface in January 2014 as Colourful Star – quite possibly the only Anglo-Bulgarian poetry/visual art project on the internet. Since then I’ve taught myself Bulgarian (at least to read and write – my conversational Bulgarian still suffers from my appalling accent), begun translating Bulgarian poetry and plays and – thanks to an ever-expanding circle of Bulgarian friends – somehow…