A big splash on the other side of the pond

A series of articles recently released have revealed that Canadian literature is receiving a great deal of admiration and attention overseas. Industry mag, the Quill and Quire has reported that poet Ken Babstock, (whose most recent book of poems Airstream Land Yacht was featured at The Word On The Street in 2006,) has been invited to a poetry festival in Berlin. Invited as well are eleven other poets including Paul Vermeersch, Tim Lilburn, Suzanne Buffam, Karen Solie, and six francophone poets. The delegates will participate in a workshop with 12 German poets, in which they will do translations of each other’s poems with the help of prepared word-for-word literal translations and interpreters. The translations will later be published in a trilingual anthology.

Reported recently in the Toronto Star, for the first time in its history, the Budapest Book Festival has shone a spotlight on Canada and Canadian literature. No non-European country has been featured previously in the event's 14-year history. Six Canadian authors, among them Anna Porter, Joseph Boyden and Sharon Pollock, travelled across the Atlantic to be present for the launch of Hungarian translations of their work. Alice Munro, was also invited but declined the invitation to visit Hungary for the launch of Csend, vetkek, szenvedely, the Hungarian version of her story collection Runaway.

Now is as great a time as ever to visit your local bookstore and pick up something one of your fellow Canadians has written recently. Every year, hundreds of Canadian works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays go into print adding more and more volume to the voice of Canadian literature. Make this year yours to celebrate Canadian literature.

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