In September 2014, the Biuro Literackie Publishing House inaugurated the European Literary Ports project in Riga with the Riga Poetry Readings (Poetry Days) event. The guest list included Jacek Dehnel, Roman Honet and Ryszard Krynicki. The event also featured a display of comic books from the Comic by Poem contest. On the occasion, the Port project’s rapid return to Latvia was announced. And, as promised, on 29th November the present European Culture Capital is to host a presentation of the works of Tadeusz Różewicz.
At the September event the artists from Poland were enthusiastically received by the audience gathered at the NicePlace Mansards bookshop, who repeatedly asked about the publication of Polish authors’ works in Riga. The first response to this demand is to be an event dedicated to a poet whose work shouldn’t be omitted when speaking about contemporary Polish poetry – Tadeusz Różewicz.
The event in November is to be a presentation of The Różewicz Basin, a documentary film by Artur Burszta and Jolanta Kowalska featuring Polish poets speaking about what they owe to Różewicz’s work, how they interpret it and how they determine the poet’s position and role in Polish and world literature. The film is also interesting due to the fact that it contains archival materials and videos for the poems read by actress Kinga Preis.
The Latvian audience will be presented Różewicz’s works selected and translated by Ingmara Balode – a poet, translator and editor of the biggest Latvian literary and philosophical portal, 4 Satori. Balode also prepared the translations of poems by Polish poets for the September event. Moreover, a reprint of Różewicz’s The Card Index will be presented in the European Culture Capital 2014, and the meeting will be accompanied by a conversation with the participation of Artur Burszta and Latvian connoisseurs of Różewicz’s poetry.
The event will take place on Saturday 29 November at 16:00 at the NicePlace Mansards bookshop. The meeting is co-organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riga. The event dedicated to Tadeusz Różewicz will be realized as part of the European Literary Ports project with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The Biuro Literackie Publishing House has further activities planned for 2015.
Source: organizer's materials, ed. szm, November 2014