International Poets-2021

Ataol Behramoglu

Ataol Behramoğlu was born in Çatalca near İstanbul. He graduated from the University of Ankara , Department of Russian Language and Literature.. His first two collections of poems, published in 1965 and 1970, were acclaimed  as the manifest of the new generation in the contemporary Turkish poetry.   Between 1970-1974 he lived in Paris, London and Moscow. In Paris he met With Pablo Neruda and Louis Aragon. Fragments of his poem “One Day For Sure” was published in Les Letters Françaises edited by Aragon.In 1975 in İstanbul he edited the monthly literary journal “Militant” which emerged as an important and influential journal during the two years of its publication. At this period of 70’s the other collections of poems came out: “Neither Rain…Nor Poems”, “During the Siege”, “The Epic of Moustapha Suphi”, “Quatrains”. A selection of Behramoğlu’s poetry was translated into Greek and published as his first poetry book abroad, along with a laudatory attention of Yannis Ritsos(1981). Was arrested in March 1982 along with the other executive members of the Turkish Peace Association and kept in a military prison until November of the same year. He was awarded the Lotus Prize by the Afro-Asian Writers Union while in goal in 1982. On Novembre 1983, at a session of the Turkish Peace Association trial which he did not attend, he was sentenced to 8 years hard labour followed by 32 month internal exile. He had to flee from the country to Paris where he stayed until 1989 when the sentence was dropped. During this period external exile he participated in several meetings in many countries of world(from Australia to Finland)to read his poems and lectures  to the Turkish another audiences. In 1986, in French language the Turkish literary and cultural magazine “Anka” has began to be published under his direction.  Ataol Behramoğlu is a Russian Language and Literature professor  and also has his column as a literary and political commentator in the daily “Cumhuriyet”.since acouple of years. Besides his widespread popularity as a poet and writer in his country, he is an eminent translator of the works of Russian poets and writers as Pouchkine, Lermontov,Chekov and Gorky. His poetry has been translated into many languages.and awarded a number of  national and international prizes including the Lotus Prize(1982) Pouchkine Prize(2008), Mihai Eminescu Prize(2016), European Homer Prize(2016) and others…

2-Bas Kwakman (b.1964) is Managing Director of Poetry International Rotterdam, organiser of the annual Poetry International Festival, and of Poetry International WEB, one of the most important international websites on poetry. Bas Kwakman was educated as a visual artist and teacher of Art History and worked as an independant artist for several years. After his studies Marketing and Management for Art and Culture he became an organizer in the field of arts: visual arts, contemporary music, and literature. Bas Kwakman worked as a Project-Manager and Marketing Manager for the two major Art Foundations in Rotterdam. In 1996 he co-founded a magazine and publishing house for Literature and Visual Arts and in 2003 he started working for Poetry International as Managing Director and programmer of the yearly Poetry International Festival. The Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam is for almost forty years one of the leading festivals on international poetry in the world and is the main international meeting place for poets, poetry-professionals, and poetry lovers. Besides the festival, Poetry International is the central organization of Poetry International Web (www.poetryinternational.org), a worldwide website on international Poetry with editors in more than 45 countries, that publishes a quarterly magazine on the web www.poetryinternational.org

3-Doris Kareva is Estonian poet, essayist, and translator. She has published several collections of poetry and 11 books in translation. Her poems and essays have been translated into some 20 languages. Kareva’s texts have been often performed in collaboration with musicians, composers, theatre directors and choreographers. Her literary awards include two Estonian State Cultural Awards and the Order of the White Star. Since 1974, Doris Kareva has published poetry, essays, and poetical prose as well as translations of world classics. Among other prizes, she has received State Culture Awards in 1993 and 2005 and her poetry has been translated into about twenty languages. She is currently working as an editor in a literary magazine Looming in Tallinn. The peculiarities of Kareva’s poetry are refined and selected vocabulary, an intertwining of euphonic attraction and silence, a perception of the world as at once miraculous and tragic, and subtle intonation. She is considered one of the best representatives of metaphysical and linguistically sensitive “pure lyrics” in the last decades of the 20th century.

4-Enrique Alberto Servín Herrera- is a poet, translator, short story writer and cultural researcher from Chihuahua, Mexico.He has published poetry,short story, essays on literature, Tarahumara mythology, aphorism and translations from several European and Mexican Indigenous languages: “Así de frágil” (Poetry, UAZ, 1990); “El agua y la sombra” (Poetry, UACH, 2004);“Cuaderno de abalorios” (Aphorism, Editorial Aldus-UACH, 2015);“Anirúame: Historias de lostarahumaras de lostiemposantiguos” (Gobierno del Estado de Oaxaca, 2015); “Canciones del viento”(Poetry translation: “EekáKusúala”, by Martín Makáwi, InstitutoChihuahuense de la Cultura, 2012);“Mirada Adentro” (Poetry translation: “Behind my Eyes”, by Li-Young Lee, VasoRotoEdiciones, 2014), and others, as co-author. In 2006he was invited to the Distinguished Visitors Program by the United States Department of State. In 2008 he was invited by the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of HenrykWergeland.From 2007 to 2013 he has worked as faculty, at the Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada. Selections of his poems have been translated into English, French, Hebrew, Chinese and Greek. He has participated in many poetry conferences within Mexico and in several international literature conferences in the United States, Canada, Norway, Greece and China. He has been the recipient of the Chihuahua State Prize for Literature (1996); “José Fuentes Mares” National Prize for Literature (2004); “Linda Gaboriau Award” from the Banff Centre, Canada (2014); “Andrés Henestrosa” International Prizefor Indigenous Tales, Legends and Myths” (2015).

5-Frank Keizer(1987Frank Keizer (1987) is a poet and writer based in Brussels and Amsterdam. His most recent book is Ondernormaleomstandigheden (Under normal circumstances), published by Uitgeverij Polis in 2016. His poems have been translated into English, French, German, and Portuguese. He works as an editor for nY, a Flemish journal for literature, criticism & entertainment, and as a publisher for Perdu, a poetry foundation and publishing house in Amsterdam specializing in experimental poetry and poetics. www.frankkeizer.net

5-Gihan Omar: is from Cairo, Egypt. Her Published works is-أنتسيرخلفالمرآة (Walking Behind the Mirror,) July 2013. ديوان – قبلأننكرهباولوكويلهو (Before We Hate Paulo Coelho), Published in 2007. ,ديوان – أقدامخفيفة (Light feet) in 2004, The French Version of “Before We Hate Paulo Coelho.”Several poems have been translated into English, French, Bosnian, Romanian, Korean, Turkish and German in different periodicals and journals from 2007- 2017 According to critics, Her poetry is profound and deep revealing a tortured self in an agonizing time. Omar tries hard to create her own images and poetic style. Though she adopts the prose as a medium for writing, her poems tend to use the internal music which makes her poetry so musical and spiritual she also prefers the confessional tone in her poetry that is why we feel the sincerity of her poems”.

6-Gökçenur Ç was born in Istanbul in 1971 and spent his childhood in a number of Turkish cities. He started publishing his poems in Turkish magazines since 1990. His poetry books are Handbook of Every Book, Rest of the Words,The Only Way of Looking at Thirteen Blackbirds at Once, So Many Words On Your Back, We are in the World So Are  Words, How Nice Everyone’s Here, Dead of Nature, Encyclopedia of ForgottenThings. He has participated, organized and managed many poetry translation workshops in İstanbul, Gümüşlük and Tel-Aviv. His poems are translated into a great number of languages and published in literary magazines. In the Lettres Capitales Project of Eurepean Capital of Culture Marseille, his book in handwriting in French and Turkish has been prepared and published as a single exhibition copy. He is the prime moverandco-director of Word Express (www.word-express.org). He is one of the founders and board members of Delta International Cultural Interactions. He is a member of the editorial board of Macedonian base international literary magazine Blesok. He is the editör in chief of Turkish literatüre review Çevrimdışı İstanbul (Offline İstambul) and Offline Istanbul International Poetry Festival.

7-Yu Jian: Contemporary Chinese poet, essayist, literary critic, novelist, editor,  photographer, documentary filmmaker, and university professor Yu Jian (1954— ) was born and raised in Kunming, Yunnan Province. Arguably the most prolific Chinese-language poet of our time, he is widely recognized as one of the foremost poets of his generation. His numerous publications, which span more than three decades and various literary genres, include the landmark five- volume Collected Yu Jian (Yunnan People’s Publishing, 2004), the four-volume Selected Essays of Yu Jian (Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2010), and more recently Who Is He: Poems 2007-2011 (Chongqing University Press, 2013). Yu Jian’s writings have been translated into fourteen languages, including English as well as major European and Asian languages. Among his documentaries are Hometown (2009) and Jade Green Station (in collaboration with anthropologist Zhu Xiaoyang, 2003), both of which constitute a cinematic expression that allows Yu Jian to extend his poetic, humanistic vision to his ongoing ecological, socio-political, and cultural concerns about life in Yunnan. A regular guest at major poetry festivals, Yu Jian has held lectures and readings at leading universities and literary venues worldwide. He has lived his whole life in his native city, Kunming.

8-Heike Fiedler, born in West-Germany in 1963. She is a Swiss author, multilingual poet, sound and visual artist living in Geneva. She performs her poetry with a laptop, paper, module, real-time-electronics. Since 2000, she has been extensively performing in poetry festivals, music festivals and events for literature readings in Europe and overseas. She gives workshops in the field of poetry and performance writing. She has collaborated with musicians of electro acoustic and improvisation. Several awards from Geneva town and canton for her solo work, as well for the collaborative projects she accomplished. She has many publications in poetry magazines, anthologies, CD’s. Books: langues de meehr (2010), sie will mehr (2013), mondesd’enfa etc…

 

10-Lina Ekdahl,- poet and dramatist, born 1964, lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. Seven Poetry books: Diktsamling 2012,  SpridglädjepåSjömansgården Anette-2007, Vadärdetsomskall utföras-2005, Nuförtiden- 2002, 59 dikter- 1999, Människanpratar- 1997, Frampådagen- 1994; one CD “Dikterochmusik” in 2002. And onebook for children “Vi smular vi härmar en gök” in 2016. She writes also for radio, magazines and newspapers. She writes plays for children/adults and poems for dance theatres. She has read her poems on stage since 1984, not only in Sweden buteven in Cambodia, Croatia, Ukraine, Serbia, Ireland,Colombia, Argentina, Germany and Norway.

 

11-Marc Delouze was born in Paris is a poet, writer and traveller. A first poetry collection was published in 1971: “Memories of the House of Words” (prefaced by Aragon).After his initial success, Marc, refusing “to play the poet”, did not publish for twenty years during which time, he created, in 1982, “The Poetry Forum”, which organizes events, festivals, acoustic exhibitions, readings, etc. and worked and researched new methods of poetic expressions connected with modern city life: street performances, poetry with music, etc. In 2000 he created a new festival in Paris (Montmartre) inviting poets, actors, musicians, dancers, singers, choirs, painters etc… He was also co-founder and literary advisor to the poetry festival – Voices of the Mediterranean – which took place in Lodeve (south of France). He published 20 books. His latest collections: C’est le monde qui parle (The world who speaks), 14975 jours entre… (14975 days between…), Le Chant des Terres (The Song of Lands),Chroniques du Purin (Chronicle of the Manure), Les confitures de la mémoire, (Jams of the memory), L’invention du paysage (The invention of the landscape), he is translated into 20 languages.

 

13-Philip Meersman: Multilingual poet/performer Philip Meersman pushes boundaries of poetry in both written and spoken form, drawing on current affairs, sociopolitical and environmental issues. His poems range from narrative and traditional form, to directives for performance pieces, to concrete studies of sound, individual words and even letters themselves. His work has been performed in more than 11 countries and translated into 13 languages. He is a cofounder of DAstrugistenDA, artiestencollectief JA!,BruSlam, and the president of BAAZ (BelgischeAfdeling van de (Internationale) Academia Zaum). Meersman studied archeology and art history in Brussels and is currently working on a PhD in the Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp where he will seek to perform visual poetry, performance strategies for visual poetry based upon the writings and theories of René Magritte, Velimir Chlebnikov and the Russian Cubo-Futurists.He published at Three Rooms Press in New York his “This is Belgian Chocolate: Manifestations of Poetry”.

14-Selahattin Yolgiden was born in İstanbul in 1977. He started publishing his poems since 2000. His books are: Su Kıyısında Kimse Yoktu (2004) Adam Yayınları, Winner of the Cemal Süreya Poetry Award in 2004, GünGeceyeKüstüğünde – 2007 – İkibinaltı Yayınları ,Winner of the M. Sunullah Arısoy Poetry Award in 2007,Unuttuğum Limanlar – 2009 Sel Yayıncılık, Lacivert Bir Oyunduİkimiz Arasında – 2011 – Kırmızı Kedi Yayınları, Winner of the Arif Damar Poetry Award in 2011,Eve GeçKaldım YalnızlıkBekler – 2013 – Kırmızı Kedi Yayınları, Winner of the Behçet Aysan Poetry Award in 2014,Gittiğim En Uzak Yer Sizdiniz – 2015 – Kırmızı Kedi Yayınları. He is still living in İstanbul with his cats.

15-Yolanda Castaño, apart from being a poet, editor and a very active culture manager, Yolanda Castaño has been a columnist and has worked in Galician TV during many years (Galician Audiovisual Academy Award as ‘Best TV Communicator 2005’). She has published 6 poetry books in Galician and Spanish (“Depth of Field” and “The second tongue” are her last titles), several chapbooks in Galician, Spanish, Chinese and Macedonian, and a pair of compilations. She is a relevant cultural activist, regularly organizing monthly poetry reading series, festivals, literary and translation workshops, all of them hosting local to international poets (Galician Critics’ Award Best Cultural Manifestation 2014). She was the General Secretary of the Galician Language Writers Association and she has made her contribution to many written media, books, anthologies, conferences and many readings or multimedia poetry performances inside and outside Galicia, including many international poetry festivals and meetings, mostly around all Europe and America but also in Tunisia, India, China and Japan. She has coordinated collective books, art and poetry exhibitions; she has published works as an editor, as well as five poetry books for children and four of translations (from contemporary authors like Nikola Madzirov or Marko Pogačar, among others, into Spanish and Galician). She has been involved in many different experiences of blending poetry with music, performance, dance, architecture, visual and audiovisual arts, and even cookery, being awarded for that too. Part of her work has been translated into twenty five different languages. She held four international fellowships as a writer-in-residence, at the IWTCR in Rhodes (Greece) and in Villa Waldberta (Munich – Germany) in 2011, at the HIP-Beijing (China) in 2014 and at the Castle of Hawthornden (Scotland) in 2016. She received John Carballeira Poetry Award (1997), Premio de la Crítica de poesíagallega (1998), Espiral Mayor Poetry Award (2007)

16- Siân Melangell Dafydd– (Welsh) is an author, poet and translator. Her first published novel, Y TrydyddPeth (The Third Thing; Gomer, 2009) won her the coveted 2009 National Eisteddfod Literature Medal. She writes in both Welsh and English and often collaborates with artists of other disciplines. She was the co-editor of the literary review Taliesin and Y Neuadd for six years. Her second Welsh language novel and a collection of hybrid literature, Spitting Distance, are forthcoming. She works with authors and poets internationally to translate literature between minority languages and is undertaking doctoral research in yoga and writing as parallel practices. Siân works as a lecturer in Creative Writing at the American University of Paris and as a course leader of the MRes in Transnational Writing at Bath Spa University, England. She is currently collaborating with the Malayalam poet, Anita Thampi as a part of ‘Literature Across Frontiers Poetry Connections India-Wales’ (performance).

 

17-Christos Koukis was born in 1979 and he is a poet and a writer. He has published poetry books in Greece, France, Italy and Serbia and poems of his have been translated in eight (8) languages. He has participated in poetry anthologies in Greece and other countries and in several international poetry festivals. He has worked in poetry and culture magazines and has written lyrics for songs. He collaborated in an international project for Documenta 14 Athens. He lives and works in Athens.

18-Hugo Sanchez- Maxico –Sánchez was born in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. He studied Psychology and Literature at the Chihuahua State University.  He has taken part in several Literary workshops and has conducted the “Ali Chumacero” Poetry Workshop, one of the most influential in Northern Mexico. He has been invited to the “Literatura en el Bravo” (in Ciudad Juárez), “Verso Norte” (Monterrey, State of Nuevo León), “Carlos Montemayor” (City of Hidalgo del Parral) and “Lunas de Octubre” (in La Paz, State of Baja California) poetry festivals.  He has published poetry and short story in mgazines such as “Solar”, “Artificios”, “Frontera” and others and is the author of the poetry books “Casas” (“Houses”), “Calle del Retorno” (“the Street of Returning”), as well as the short story collection “La Pelea del Gato” (“A Cat’s Fight”).

 Two Young poets-

19- Zhao Fan, born in Kunming in 1987. Ph.D student of East China Normal University in Chinese modern literature.  publishSONY DSCed a few articles, poems in journals, a chap book of poetry , and translating the poetry of published a few papers and a few translated papers and poems, Just have finished to translate a poetic works by Mi Jiayan（米佳燕）

 

20-Chen Qin Shaofu, born in 1993 in northeast China, now living in southwest China. Began to write poetry in college, now just five years.Chenqin Shaofu and will as soon as publish in Taiwan.