Versopolis Podcast #36: Experiments in the Poetic Wild

Senka Gavranov’s practice navigates the terrain of the poetic wild, where poems unlearn their traditional shapes to become forms of critical and communal engagement. This unruliness is both a political gesture and a playful reinvention of the medium, demonstrating that breaking form is a direct way to challenge fixed narratives and modes of knowledge production. She is dedicated to demystifying these unruly forms in public workshops by inviting participants into hands on creation, transforming experimental poetry from a distant concept into an accessible, shared experience. This approach tackles core questions of inclusion, proving that chaotic or opaque poems can resonate in everyday life by valuing personal interpretation and collective discovery. She contends that the future of experimental poetry lies precisely in this intersection where radical formal innovation, from algorithmic generation to embodied performance, meets a commitment to participatory access, ensuring the wild poem remains a dynamic and democratic force. 

Senka Gavranov is a cultural worker who bridges arts based research, advocacy for improving working conditions in the cultural sector and for equitable work opportunities for women and persons with disabilities, feminism, as well as European transnational cooperation. As a PhD candidate, she researches indigeneity and decolonization in contemporary experimental poetry in Canada, focusing on the use and treatment of colonial histories, documents and archives in contemporary literary forms and knowledge-production. As an art mediator, she facilitates participatory workshops that demystify poetry, literature and experimental art for general audiences. Her collaborative get-togethers seek to make complex (academic) concepts and experimental art accessible and relevant to everyday life. 

Senka is active in the association kultura natura pARTicip (KNP, Romania). She has established productive, durable working relationships with cultural organizations, artists and activists throughout Europe and Canada. In 2026, she organizes Unfold: Experimental Poetries Then and Now (a summer school of experimental poetry) as a coordinator and facilitator and the travelling festival Synesthetic (experimental art and poetry) as an artistic director. 

She is proficient in several modern languages and has learned five classical languages. Senka is a committed and proud pedestrian.