Posted by Gordon Kerr on Nov 14, 2013
Canadian-based writer and Dazzling Spark founding board member Melanie Kerr is pleased to be launching her new novel, Follies Past, this month. This wonderful story is written as a prequel to Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The book begins almost a year before the opening of Pride and Prejudice. Readers will find the familiar cast of characters, portrayed as they might have been before they ever came to Netherfield, along with new characters, in a delightful exploration and updating of the original milieu. With a comparable attention to story and use of language, Follies Past is a great and playful addition to our shared literary heritage. Check it out on Amazon, or at the book’s website,...
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Posted by Gordon Kerr on Oct 27, 2013
Dazzling Spark is pleased to announce Trafika Europe, our flagship literary programme to showcase new fiction and poetry from across Europe in fresh English translation. It is the successor to Trafika, a print quarterly published out of Prague and New York, which published new literature from around the world in English. In seven issues, Trafika published the work of over 120 authors writing in over 30 languages, and hosted cross-border events to explore the relation between neighbouring cultures. Trafika specialised in work from emerging writers who were not yet well-known in English. Thanks to its keen eye for new writers, high quality and fresh approach to international literature, Trafika garnered glowing reviews in dozens of periodicals, including TIME-International, the Washington Post, New York Times, the Guardian, El Pais and Le Monde, was interviewed on NBC evening news, and received the honour of a PEN-Translation event in its name in New York City in recognition of its overall achievement. Now Trafika Europe is teaming up with Dazzling Spark to put a frame of Europe around this effort. Besides maintaining an online journal and hosting local events, Trafika Europe plans to host Europe’s first online streaming “literary” radio station – with literary news, readings, events coverage, discussions with publishers, writers and translators, and even “literary” music from across the Council of Europe countries. The hope is to make a meeting point for European cultures, to provide a forum for what is exciting in emerging voices across the continent, and explore issues in our shared literature toward a greater sense of belonging together in Europe. Each quarterly online issue of Trafika Europe will focus on a different European country or culture, presenting new, unpublished works from a variety of writers. Essays, tips, occasional live-streaming readings, and a calendar of events in Europe will round out the site. Trafika Europe director Andrew Singer is also joining Dazzling Spark as Chief Executive Officer; in this capacity he will help develop and manage our other programmes, projects and activities, and liaison among the different parts of the organisation. Mr. Singer brings two decades of experience with literary writing and translation, event hosting, cultural journalism, radio hosting and university instruction now to Edinburgh and to Dazzling Spark. We are so pleased to welcome him on board. “It’s a great match,” Singer says. “Dazzling Spark exists to promote excellence in the arts in service to humanity, to foster meaningful unity, and to support emerging talent toward an advancing civilization. Simply by making a space for it on the European level, we hope that visitors to Trafika Europe can be more informed and enthusiastic about new writing from across Europe. By fostering attraction and reciprocity in literature, we can contribute toward a more open and shared cultural climate across the continent.” Dazzling Spark co-operated with Trafika Europe on its pre-launch event, showcasing Romani literature in English translation, at Conway Hall in...
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Posted by Gordon Kerr on Sep 29, 2013
Dazzling Spark Arts Foundation launched a new literary series with featured author Gaellen Quinn reading from her novel, The Last Aloha, at Serenity Café in Edinburgh, on Saturday, September 14th. This epic tale of US missionaries in 19th-century Hawaii plotting against the royal family for control of the island, with its resulting transcendence, explores complex moral, spiritual and cultural questions relevant for peoples everywhere. When she’s not writing novels, Gaellen Quinn works as a consultant to social economic development projects in such far-flung parts of the world as the Amazon, Cambodia, Tanzania and Austin, Texas. As part of our commitment to more caring and inclusive communities, health and healing, Dazzling Spark is pleased to partner with Serenity Café for this new literary series. Serenity is the UK’s first recovery café, with superb, affordable lunches including vegetarian dishes and other café fare in a congenial family atmosphere, with lots of space, comfort and toys for the kids. Nestled between the Scottish Poetry Library and the offices of the BBC in Edinburgh, this café is a relaxing oasis with rotating menus throughout the week. All proceeds from this series go directly to support the work of the Comas Foundation, proprietors of Serenity Café, helping people recover from drug and alcohol dependencies in this volunteer work community. So if you’re ever in the Edinburgh area, please check this site for future events in this...
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The Dazzling Spark Foundation works to foster arts in service to humanity. It seeks to carry forward a vision of oneness and global civilization through excellence in the arts.