The welcoming by our
hosts, the British Council and the Norwich Writers Center, was well organized. Immediately
after arriving at the campus of the University of East Anglia (15 min outside
Norwich) spring started: The loans got fresh and green, daffodils began to
blossom, birds choirs intonated their newest compositions and lots of happy
rabbits fearlessly jumped over the campus hills… no joke.
All guests were accommodated at the nice Broadview lodge having a really broad view on the gentle landscape around the campus. In the evening, after poetry readings by local poets at the modern wooden side hall of the Norwich cathedral, we had our getting-to-know-dinner at the same location. I was shocked to meet so many crazy literature activists like me: festival makers and project managers, most of them authors or publishers themselves, from all over the world. In our discussions I learned that we really share the same obsessions, problems and hopes, no matter if we come from Brasil, Bangladesh, Canada, the Caribbean, Japan, Malaysia, India, Uganda, Egypt, Israel etc. (Its always too less money, too much pressure from political and commercial sides and too much burocracy…)
The schedule was fully packed: 4 days we listened to the presentations of our colleagues and to several readings and discussions presenting newest British literature nearly all around the clock: New poetry and fiction, translations and new forms of presenting literature were discussed. It was always a lot of information and a flood of impressions but never boring. Sometimes the fast-talking enthusiasm of the British made it hard for a non-native speaker to follow all those ambitious and very engaged contributions. I was looking for interesting new writers as well as for new forms of presenting literature - and I found it. For the novelists Anjali Joseph and Yvette Edwards, for instance, we might soon find German publishers. And I hope I will be able to invite poets like Emily Berry or Kei Miller soon to Berlin. Maybe a Translation Slam or a Literary Death Match really keeps what its title promises and we can do it in Berlin too? (By the way, many events were live-streamed or are podcasted on the British Councils webside see above.)
The contacts with my colleagues will surely lead to new cooperation. Good food, good talks and the sophisticated and charming moderation of Chris Gribble from the NWC and his colleagues made this meeting work in a nearly perfect way. Getting in direct contact with colleagues from all over the British Council’s universe is definitely helpful and extraordinarily pleasuring for me. Thanks Rachel Stevens for your always kind assistance. Dear Susie Nicklin, your table-talk-theory that English novels are internationally so much more successful than German novels because they are so much better is worth a further discussion. Thank you, British Council! But unfortunately the program was so interesting and packed that we missed most of the extremly beautiful spring presentation that you prepared for us outside...
All guests were accommodated at the nice Broadview lodge having a really broad view on the gentle landscape around the campus. In the evening, after poetry readings by local poets at the modern wooden side hall of the Norwich cathedral, we had our getting-to-know-dinner at the same location. I was shocked to meet so many crazy literature activists like me: festival makers and project managers, most of them authors or publishers themselves, from all over the world. In our discussions I learned that we really share the same obsessions, problems and hopes, no matter if we come from Brasil, Bangladesh, Canada, the Caribbean, Japan, Malaysia, India, Uganda, Egypt, Israel etc. (Its always too less money, too much pressure from political and commercial sides and too much burocracy…)
The schedule was fully packed: 4 days we listened to the presentations of our colleagues and to several readings and discussions presenting newest British literature nearly all around the clock: New poetry and fiction, translations and new forms of presenting literature were discussed. It was always a lot of information and a flood of impressions but never boring. Sometimes the fast-talking enthusiasm of the British made it hard for a non-native speaker to follow all those ambitious and very engaged contributions. I was looking for interesting new writers as well as for new forms of presenting literature - and I found it. For the novelists Anjali Joseph and Yvette Edwards, for instance, we might soon find German publishers. And I hope I will be able to invite poets like Emily Berry or Kei Miller soon to Berlin. Maybe a Translation Slam or a Literary Death Match really keeps what its title promises and we can do it in Berlin too? (By the way, many events were live-streamed or are podcasted on the British Councils webside see above.)
The contacts with my colleagues will surely lead to new cooperation. Good food, good talks and the sophisticated and charming moderation of Chris Gribble from the NWC and his colleagues made this meeting work in a nearly perfect way. Getting in direct contact with colleagues from all over the British Council’s universe is definitely helpful and extraordinarily pleasuring for me. Thanks Rachel Stevens for your always kind assistance. Dear Susie Nicklin, your table-talk-theory that English novels are internationally so much more successful than German novels because they are so much better is worth a further discussion. Thank you, British Council! But unfortunately the program was so interesting and packed that we missed most of the extremly beautiful spring presentation that you prepared for us outside...
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