with German poet Jan Wagner| presented by EUNIC
Piazza British Library, 27 April - 19 May
Free Launch Event, 3 May, 6.30pm (booking essential, limited capacity)
This bright yellow ‘poetry jukebox’ will be hard to miss when it appears on the Piazza of the British Library from 27 April-19 May before touring to other venues nationwide during 2016, including the Ledbury Poetry Festival (1-10 July) and at the Durham Book Festival (16 Sept-16 Oct).
A joint project by Piána na ulici (Pianos on the Street), The Poetry Society, and the European Literature Festival,
the Poetry Periscope includes recordings of poems from 30 European cultures, placing poetry grandees such as Titos Patrikios (Greece) and Friederike Mayröcker (Austria) alongside upcoming names such as Irish-language poet Doireann Ni Ghriofa. Poems will each be available in their original language and a recorded English translation.
The Poetry Periscope (known also as Poesiomat or Poetry Jukebox) originated in the Czech Republic and is now being introduced across the world. In 2016 it will be in UK, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, USA and Poland.
We are thrilled that German poet
Jan Wagner's Essay on Midges has been selected to be part of the programme.
Check out the
free launch event at the British Library on Tuesday 3 May 2016 before it sets off on tour around the UK. Hosted by poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan, with live readings of poems from across Europe, the launch event will include UK poets Richard Scott, Gabriel Akamo and Charlotte Higgins, and special guest readings by Michal Habaj (Slovakia) and others.
Multi-award winning German poet Jan Wagner, born in 1971 in Hamburg, lives and works in Berlin. His first book of poems Probebohrung im Himmel was published in 2001. Following works include Guerickes Sperling (2004), Achtzehn Pasteten (2007), Australien (2010) and Die Eulenhasser in den Hallenhäusern (2012). In 2015, Jan Wagner received the prestigious award of the Leipzig Book Fair for his recently published volume of poems Regentonnenvariationen.
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