Trafika Europe: new flagship literary programme

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 Each quarterly online issue of Trafika Europe will focus on a different European country or culture, presenting new, unpublished works from a variety of writers.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 London in June. It was a charity event for the European Roma Rights Centre, Europe’s largest NGO for Roma human rights advocacy. Besides readings by such notable UK poets as George Szirtes and David Morley, this gala event featured a roundtable discussion on issues of Roma identity hosted by Nick Thorpe, BBC correspondent for Central Europe, and a concert by world roots-reggae singer Brina. A brief highlights video of the event can be seen here:

“Trafika Europe is an attractive way to get to know our neighbouring cultures, to find inspiring new voices and see how much we have come to share,” Singer adds. “To have this conversation in culture, rather than politically, is a great joy and privilege. We are just entering one of those periodic stages in European development where there is again an openness, a willingness to explore mutual culture in new ways. Fostering a more shared identity through culture is a most enjoyable, and most lasting way toward greater unity. So it’s an exciting time to be exploring this.”

Dazzling Spark will keep you posted on this co-operation as it develops, and welcomes you to check out the Trafika Europe website.