A grand reading in Ljubljana, some amazing talent in the city I’ve been visiting for nearly 20 years now. In 2019 the European Poetry Festival will leave the UK a fair few times, always in its design to be moveable, to bring the collaborative model of the Camarade to cities across the continent and expand the connections between poets doing interesting work. That’s what this event did, connecting people in Slovenia who might not get to read together alongside a solid cohort of outsiders.
This EPF new wave started on January 12th with this event co curated with Muanis Sinanovic and bringing 20 poets together. It was a really relaxed and playful show. Many of the poets were new to me and its rare that an event mostly in a language I don’t speak holds my attention entirely, as this did. The event was in a beautiful venue too, Skuc, a gallery that’s been around for nearly 40 years, in the shadow of the castle.
I collaborated with the Norwegian poet Morten Langeland, whom I met last year in Macedonia, and we presented short research poems about the other poets reading on the night, which trod a fine line between satire and self-referentiality. All the videos are at the link below