Slovenian poets Miljana Cunta, Stanka Hrastelj (a Versopolis poet!), Gorazd Kocijančič and Aleš Šteger will visit Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal between 25 and 30 April.
Miljana Cunta and Gorazd Kocijančič will first visit Toronto and together with local poet Giovanna Riccio and special guest George Elliot Clarke, Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate, read their poetry at the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields (26 April, 7 p.m.). On the same day, Stanka Hrastelj and Aleš Šteger will have a poetry reading at Ottawa Public Library (26 April, 7 p.m.); joining them at the reading will be by David O'Meara, a three-time winner of the Archibald Lampman Prize and the founding artistic director for VERSeFest, Canada’s International Poetry Festival.
Between 27 and 30 April, Slovenian poets will be guests at the Montreal International Literary Festival Blue Metropolis. There they will meet with their Canadian colleagues, Gillian Sze, Giovanna Riccio, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Pierre Nepveau and George Elliott Clarke, who participated at last year's poetry translation workshop in Slovenia, organised in the framework of 20th Days of Poetry and Wine, the biggest poetry festival in the region. The poets will once again work together at a poetry translation workshop and later hold poetry readings and participate in selected festival events.
Over the last 19 years, Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival has become one of Montreal’s most popular and most frequented literary events. Last year it hosted 235 authors from 10 countries and over 60,000 visitors enjoyed close to 250 events. This year's festival edition is spotlighting Slovenian literature with a special section titled Surprising Slovenia or Étonnante Slovénie, and in addition to the four poets the festival will also host Drago Jančar, one of Slovenia's most acclaimed and translated writers.
The visit of Slovenian authors to Canada is organised by Beletrina Academic Press and would not be possible without the help of the Slovenian Embassy in Ottawa, the All-Slovenian Cultural Committee in Toronto, Blue Metropolis Foundation, Ottawa Public Library, the Library of Parliament and Church of St Stephen-in-the-Fields.
The tour is supported by the Slovenian Book Agency in the framework of their international cooperation programme.
