Editorial: June 2011

20 mei 2011 This year, we have an fabulous line-up of twenty poets, from established writers such as Robert Hass (USA), Les Murray (Australia), Admiel Kosman (Israel) and Armando (The Netherlands) to younger poets including Yan Jun (China), Truong Tran (USA/Vietnam), Ann Cotten (USA/Germany) and Serhij Zhadan (Ukraine). The latter two poets, along with Daljit Nagra (UK) and Admiel Kosman, were first featured by domain editors in previous issues of PIW, so we are delighted to be meeting them in person at the festival.

There are diverse poetic riches to explore in this issue of PIW, from the short narrative prose poems of Doina Ioanid (Romania) to Canadian poet Erín Moure’s ‘translations’ (written by a fictional character, Elisa Sampedrín); from Belgian Eugène Savitzkaya’s Nouba, a sonorous French-language poem written in three concurrent columns, to the linguistically exuberant poems of Jacob Groot (The Netherlands).

The theme of this year’s festival, Chaos and Order, will be explored in depth during the festival though readings, interviews and debates. Special events such as ‘The poetics of hubris’, ‘This is me’ and ‘What am I saying?’ will examine how poetry responds to worldwide developments such as financial crises, natural disasters and revolutions as well as to the role of new communication technologies and the ever-growing possibilities of the Internet – and the language that results from it, a language which is becoming increasingly impersonal and yet intimate at the same time.

Other special events will focus on the Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska, the vertical poetry of Roberto Juarroz, the life’s work of Gertrude Starink, The Road to Egypt, and the almost unending quantity of song lyrics by the agitator par excellence and long-time exile Bertolt Brecht. On the opening evening of the festival, the spotlight will be on Poetry from Rotterdam and the writer of the best first collection of Dutch-language poetry will be awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize.

More than ever compared to previous years, the public will have the chance to participate actively in the festival through masterclasses and translation workshops. A special feature this year is the collaboration with the numerous ethnic groups represented in Rotterdam; some of these Rotterdammers will be translating the poetry of those festival poets who write in their own languages.

This year, we’ve built a special PIW festival website, which features not only all the festival poets’ biographies, poems and translations, but also schedules and information about the festival events, including a live-streaming schedule, so that you can follow some of the festival from your computer screen wherever you are in the world.

We’re also delighted to be running a festival blog again this year, featuring interviews and posts by guest poets, Poetry International staff and festival translators. On our PIW Facebook page and Twitter feed we’re currently posting one festival poem a day up until the start of the festival. We’ve also made a festival-themed PIW archive tour, with a selection of poems from our website about chaos and/or order.

As of 14 June, Dutch translations of the festival selections of the guest poets will also be available via the special PIW festival website. Dutch-speaking readers may also like to visit the official Dutch-language website of the festival, www.poetry.nl for further information about the events.

We are looking forward to the coming weeks, and hope that you will join us in Rotterdam or follow the festival online. In the meantime, enjoy the wonderful poems and translations of our twenty talented poets.