We are pleased to announce an open call for entries for the European Poet of Freedom Literary Award of the City of Gdansk
The City of Gdansk and Instytut Kultury Miejskiej are pleased to announce an open call for entries for the 2020-2022 European Poet of Freedom Award. The Award has been presented to European poets and their translators into Polish since 2010.
The Award aims at the presentation and promotion of contemporary European poetry of outstanding artistic value, which addresses the topic of freedom.
Freedom in the context of the Award is understood very broadly and in different aspects of the notion: as social, political, cultural and moral freedom, as well as the freedom of creation and freedom of speech. This is, in essence, about the courage to step beyond ossified boundaries and the shaping of new poetic visions of the world.
Entries can be sent in by 30 November 2020. From among the entries, the Jury shall select the maximum of six poets who will be nominated for the Award. Books of poetry by the nominated authors shall be translated into Polish and published as a part of the series Europejski Poeta Wolności – Nominacje.
The Laureates shall be announced in the spring of 2022. The awarded Poet shall receive a statuette and a financial award in the amount of 100,000 zloty, while his/her translator – a statuette and a financial award of 20,000 zloty.
Who can be entered for the European Poet of Freedom Award?
Entries for the Award must concern living poets originating from or living in Europe (understood in compliance with geographical criteria) and writing in a European language selected for a given edition of the competition.
Authors can be entered for the Award for their poetic work as a whole or an actual published book of poems.
Languages selected for the 2020–2022 edition
Different European languages shall be selected for each edition of the Award. In the perspective of the next five editions, we aim at taking into account all European languages. This shall provide a chance for works in the ’lesser’ languages, which are very rarely translated into Polish, to be spotlighted as a part of the Award (and the accompanying publication series), and to embrace new important books of poetry from all over Europe. This is because one of the goals of our Award is to extend the library of contemporary European poetry, which will present the diversity of our continent in the fullest possible way and which will contain the most outstanding poetic phenomena.
The following languages were selected for the 2020–2022 edition:
- the Albanian language,
- the Czech language,
- the Estonian language,
- the German language, as well as the Upper and the Lower Sorbian languages,
- the Polish language and the Kashubian language,
- the Norwegian language as well as the Sámi (Lappish) languages and the Kven language,
- the Slovenian language,
- the Ukrainian language.
Therefore, this time only entries for poets creating in the above languages and all their existing varieties and dialects shall be accepted.
Entries for poets other than Polish
Poets creating in languages other than the Polish language can be entered for the Competition only by their translators, who (if a given author is nominated for the Award) shall translate their works into Polish. In the new cycle of the Award, entries may cover both a given poet’s poetic work as a whole (which assumes that the translator has personally selected some of the given author’s poetry) and a single, already published book of poems.
Translators have the right to enter poets for the Award individually or in teams. One translator may enter only one poet in a given edition of the Award.
Entries for poets other than Polish should include:
- a selection of 5-8 poems of the poet translated into the Polish language,
- a biographical note on the entered poet in the Polish language,
- a couple of sentences long recommendation for the entry, with particular focus on the idea behind the Award,
- the translator’s commitment in writing to prepare a selection of the poet’s poems and translate them into the Polish language personally or as a part of a team he/she creates, or to translate a single, already published book of poetry of a given poet (if a nomination is granted),
- contact data for the poet,
- the poet’s agreement in writing (e-mails are acceptable) to participate in the competition procedure and – if a nomination is granted – for a book with a selection of his/her poems translated into the Polish language to be published as a part of the series Europejski Poeta Wolności – Nominacje,
- the translator’s contact data and agreement for his/her personal data to be processed within the scope of the competition procedure.
Entries for Polish poets
The Polish language is among the languages chosen for the current edition of the Award. Poets creating in the Polish language can be entered for the competition by publishing houses and other entities publishing poetry. Every publishing house or other entity publishing poetry may enter one poet.
Entries for Polish poets should include:
- a selection of 5-8 poems of the poet referring to the idea of the Award,
- a couple of sentences long recommendation for the entry, with particular focus on the idea behind the Award,
- a biographical note on the entered poet,
- contact data for the poet,
- the poet’s agreement in writing (e-mails are acceptable) to participate in the competition procedure and – if a nomination is granted – for a book with a selection of his/her poems to be published as a part of the series Europejski Poeta Wolności – Nominacje,
- contact data for the entity submitting the entry and their agreement for their personal data to be processed in the scope of the competition procedure.
Deadline and manner of submitting entries
Entries can be submitted until 30 November 2020.
Complete entries should be submitted to the Award Office, i.e. Instytut Kultury Miejskiej. This can be done either:
- by e-mail to: info@europejskipoetawolnosci.pl; or
- in writing, by post, to the following address: Instytut Kultury Miejskiej, ul. Długi Targ 39/40, 80-830 Gdańsk (with a note “Entry for the EPF Award”).
For entries made via post, date of receipt at the secretary’s office of Instytut Kultury Miejskiej shall be decisive.
Subsequent stages of the competition procedure
From among all the entries, the Award Jury shall select the maximum of six poets to be nominated for the European Poet of Freedom Award by the end of 2020.
The translators who entered poets other than Polish shall be invited to prepare a book of poetry of the nominated author in translation into the Polish language. The translation shall be completed and the selection shall be submitted to the Award Office by 31 July 2021.
In the case of Polish poets, the Award Office, in cooperation with the nominated poet, shall select an editor for the book, who will prepare a selection of the nominated author’s poems referring to the idea of the Award.
The books by the nominated poets shall be published by the end of January 2021.
The results of the competition shall be announced in the spring 2022 during the European Poet of Freedom Festival organized in Gdansk. The Laureate of the European Poet of Freedom Award shall receive a statuette and a financial award of 100,000 zloty. The translator of the awarded poet shall also receive a statuette and a financial award of 20,000 zloty.
If a Polish poet wins the competition, the Jury shall grant an award for the best translation of a non-Polish book of poetry.
The Award Jury
The Jury of the European Poet of Freedom Award shall be composed of Krzysztof Czyżewski (Head of the Jury), Paweł Huelle, Zbigniew Mikołejko, Stanisław Rosiek, Anda Rottenberg, Beata Stasińska and Olga Tokarczuk.
The Award Secretary shall be Andrzej S. Jagodziński.
Additional information
Please send your questions concerning entries to info@europejskipoetawolnosci.pl
A full text of the Rules and Regulations for the Award can be found HERE.
Sample entry forms and statement forms shall be published within the next couple of days.