Word Express

Word Express is a new project for literary exchange, coordinated by the UK-based Literature Across Frontiers in cooperation with Delta Publishing in Istanbul, as part of the EU-supported Literature Across Frontiers programme and of the British Council’s Creative Collaboration Programme which aims to enrich the cultural life of Europe and its surrounding countries and to build trust and understanding across communities by generating dialogue and debate. In a region marked with past and present conflicts, Word Express aims to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries and bring new literary voices of the region to the fore.

In 22th of October 2009, twenty young writers from South-East Europe and the United Kingdom will embark on a train journey with a difference. Travelling in three separate groups, the writers will set out from Sarajevo, Bucharest and Ljubljana as part of a literary project called Word Express. Before reaching their final destination Istanbul in 30th of October, they will stop in a number of cities along the way to be meet local writers and give readings, and eventually write about their impressions of the places they visit and the people they encounter. The Word Express writers will arrive in Istanbul on 30 October and will spend five days meeting their Turkish colleagues and presenting their work in several venues.

Some fifty young authors and translators will be eventually involved in the project, exploring the region’s cultural, social and political legacy and meeting their colleagues from the participating countries. The participants come from the following countries: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and the United Kingdom – and their work will be translated into the languages of the region and published in literary magazines in each of the participating countries. They will also have the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects combining writing with video and film art, photography and music, to be showcased in the second stage of the project in 2010.