Poets

Anja Zag Golob is a Slovenian poet, editor at VigeVageKnjige publishing house, columnist and translator. So far, she has published 4 independent poetry collections, for which she received 3 awards and 4 nominations. The collections have been translated into 4 languages, and individual songs or cycles into a couple of others. She regularly publishes magazines and is a guest at readings at home and abroad, and lately she has also participated in cross-genre projects (improv music, painting) with her poetry. She lives and works between Ljubljana and Maribor.

Harri Hertell poet, cultural manager, DJ, and organizer of poetry events. He has published seven books of poetry, a non-fiction book about performance poetry, and four spoken word recordings. Hertell’s recent poems have dealt especially with parenthood and with Western people’s relationship to nature. His first poetry book for children will be published in Autumn 2022. His poems have been translated into several languages, and he has performed in many European countries. He also works as a performance poetry instructor. Hertell was awarded with Uusimaa Art Prize in 2021. He has also founded the Helsinki Poetry Connection collective in 2008.

Barbara Korun was born on 23 May 1963 in Ljubljana, she graduated in Slovene studies and comparative literature at the University of Ljubljana. After graduation, she was employed as a professor at Ljubljana high schools for 18 years, at SNG Nova Gorica she took care of public relations for one year, as a lecturer and dramaturg she worked at SNG Drama for three years, she is currently self-employed in culture as a poet for the twelfth year.

For her first poetry collection, Ostrina miline (1999), she received the prize of the 15th Slovenian Book Fair for the best debut. She is followed by the poetry collections Zapiski iz podmizja (2003), Razpoke (2004), in 2010 she received the Golden Bird Award for the poetry cycle Monologi, and the Veronika Award for the collection Pridem takó (2011). Her next poetry collection, Čečica, disturbed by love (Čečica, turbata d’amore, 2014), was created as part of the Topolovo Station / Stazione di Topolò project. The sixth collection, Vmes (2016), was nominated for the Veronika Award. Her latest, seventh collection, Idioritmija, was published in 2021 by KUD AAC Zrakogled Koper and the Art Association Hyperion Koper and was nominated for the 2021 Jenko Prize.

In 2004, she directed Lenče Ferenčak’s monodrama Gospa Judit, adapted from Ivan Cankar. Together with the percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, in 2006 she recorded the CD Vibrato tišine with the poems of Srečko Kosovel.

Márton Simon is a poet, translator and slam poetry performer. He studied aesthetics and literature, and will receive his MSt degree in Japanology in 2023. He has been publishing poems since 2004, and has published four volumes of poetry: Songs for 3:45 AM (2010), Polaroids (2013), Fox Wedding (2018) and At Night in the Kitchen I Wanted to Talk to You (2021). His debut collection was translated to English by Timea Sipos and was published by the Offending Adam Press in the US. He was awarded with various literary prizes and fellowships: Móricz Zsigmond Scholarship (2011), Horváth Péter Literary Scholarship (2019), and the fellowship of Visegrad Literary Residency Program (2017). His poems were translated to German, Polish, Danish, Turkish, Bulgarian and Arabic too. He lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.

Natalia Karjalainen is a Helsinki-based stage poet. Her texts explore the beginnings and endings of friendship, and the laws and theatrics of class. She has also worked in a community theater as a lighting designer and a dramaturge. Currently, she is also involved with the Helsinki Poetry Connection association and produces poetry events.

Riikka Simpura has written the poetry collection Painottomuus (’Weightlessness’, 2022). She works as editor-in-chief in Tuli & Savu, a poetry magazine mainly focused on contemporary and experimental literature.

Venla Maijanen (performs by the name Helmi Valkee) has written poems since she was little and she started to write songs 8 years ago. She graduated as a songwriter in 2022. She makes sad ukulele music and likes to write about big feelings softly as a feather. She shares her poems in TikTok and Instagram and is currently writing her first poetry collection. Helmi Valkee has so far released one song called Lasinukke, what translates to Glass doll. She releases three singles during the spring and a Purkka (Gum) – named EP in June 2023.

Eltti Oskar Kinnunen (Runopoju by stage name) is an activist, soft boy and one of the founders of Queer Poetry Night. In their poems they deal with e.g. climate crisis, trans experience, solidarity and different forms of love. Kinnunen graduated high school in 2022 and has since  acted in a play called KOKOUS in Helsinki Student Theatre and organized monthly Queer Poetry Night events in Helsinki. An important part of his journey as an artist has been exploring intersections of community and art.

Aatos August Ketvel is a young Helsinki-based stage poet and a performing artist. They have performed for years around Finland and self-published several records of musically accompanied records of their poetry. Ketvel writes politically charged poetry about gender, cinema and the rot of fruit and performs with in an intense, passionate way.

Simo Nieminen is a rapper and a producer,working under stage names Gynä ja Suurimot. Rhythm, sound and playful language are the key components of his poetry. Nieminen has a master’s degree in literature from University of Jyväskylä, and he is specialized in creative writing and rap therapy. Social artistry and school collaboration are important pieces of his profession. At the moment Nieminen is a full-day community artist in Sastamala region.

Emma Leppo is a Helsinki-born spoken word artist and community organizer. Movements, connections and organizing for change are the things that fascinate her in poetry and in life, as well as rhythm, consolation and turmoil felt in the body. She creates, writes and studies in Turku.

Tihana Smiljanić completed studies at the Faculty of Philology (General Linguistics). She works in content marketing. Awarded at the 2021 First Book competition of SKC Kragujevac for the collection “When It’s Sunny Again”. Her poems have been published in online literary magazines such as Libartes, Afirmator, XXZ magazine, Astronaut, and in the anthology PPM Enclave Tajni grad.

Stevi Kalombo. Photographer who passionately communicates his self-expression through poetry. Stevi Kalombo, also known by his artist name Stesiuy, creates memorable moments for readers or listeners where various thoughts begin to sink into emotions. The topics cover a variety of subjects about himself, society, and cultures, where I bring my own message from the bottom of my heart.

Education: Vocational qualification in media and visual expression.

Kati Hiltunen is a Finnish poet, who has a Masters degree in Communication and Cultural Antrophology. She was teaching poetry and creative writing at JYU University. She published 2 poetry books: Kotini on tuntematon manner 2020, Kulttuurivihkot engl. My home is an unknown land and Tämä ei ole henkilökohtaista, Kevät 2023, Kulttuurivihkot
engl. This is not personal.

Kirsikka Vaahtera. University of the Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy, Writing program.

2022 – (ongoing) Viita Academy School for Authors, The Adult Education Centre of the Tampere Region, Literary Art.

2020-2022 Editor-in-chief, magazine Larus of scout group Tampereen Lokit.

2015-2019, 2020 Tampere Arts-Oriented Senior Secondary School.

2015-2018 Viita Academy’s basic education in literary arts for children and young people.

Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało – born in 1979. poet, author of novels, plays and children’s books. Author of an anthology of short stories, as well as curator of the International Storytelling Festival. Nominated for the Gdynia Literary Award for Spamy miłosne [Love Spam], winner of the PS IBBY award for Lato Adeli [Adela’s Summer] (Book of the Year 2019). Nominated for the Hestia Literary Journey Award for her novel Po śladach [Following the Tracks]. Editor of Czech Neighbors, translated by Zofia Bałdyga. Translator of Ukrainian poet Hanna Osadko (published by Borderland). Editor and co-founder of the social-poetry magazine Zak. Her plays have been staged at the Polish Theater, the Szaniawski Drama Theater, the Capitol Musical Theater, the Grotowski Theater (as part of MFO), among others. Dzień dobry wszyscy umrzemy [Good Morning We’re All Gonna Die] has been adapted from the Teatroteka series. Doctoral student at IBL PAN. Member of the research team of the Women’s Archive of the IBL PAN. For the past three years she has been leading interdisciplinary humanities seminars in Wroclaw. Academically, she deals with camp in new Polish poetry.

Barbara Klicka – poet, novelist, curator of literary and cultural events. She made her debut as a poet in 2000, in 2012 she published a book [same same] (Mikolov Institute) nominated for the Wroclaw Silesius Poetry Prize. In 2015, the book [Nice] (WBPiCAK) was published, for which she received the Silesius and the Gdynia Literary Award. In 2017 she wrote the stage poem Elementarz, which was staged at the National Theater in Warsaw, directed by Piotr Cieplak. In 2020, she published the novel Zdrój [Sanitorium](WAB Publishing House), which was nominated for the Gdynia Literary Award and the Conrad Prize and translated into six languages. In 2021, she published the poetry book [allel ] (jot Publishing House). She is a regular columnist for Dialogue. She has curated and/or co-curated many artistic and literary ventures, including the New Secret Detective project, the Podlasie SlowFest festival (2017-19), and the European Poet of Freedom Festival (from 2019). She has also worked as an editor for the quarterly magazine on Jewish literature and art Tsvishn. For many years she co-created the largest Polish online library WolneLektury.pl. Since 2022 she has been a member of the chapter of the Gdynia Literary Award.

Bartłomiej Majzel born in 1974. poet, radio journalist, traveler, literary reviewer, music critic and long-time organizer of art events. For over 20 years an employee of the Ars Cameralis Cultural Institution in Katowice, where he co-created one of the first interdisciplinary festivals in Poland, the Ars Cameralis Festival, being responsible for literary and musical events. Among other things, he co-created the legendary poetry event which has been held for 25 years in Katowice under the name Poetic Confluence Na Dziko. In 2020, he created the international interdisciplinary festival series Space of the Word in Zagłębie Mediateka in Sosnowiec. He has published 5 volumes of poetry. Among other awards, he received the Four Literary Columns Award and was nominated for the Passports of Polityka. He has published in many Polish and foreign magazines and anthologies. His poems have been translated into English, Welsh, Swedish, Italian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, among others. He has represented Poland at many international literary festivals in Slovenia, Luxembourg, Wales, England and Ukraine, among others. He is a co-founder of the NaDziko Poetry Troupe. For 16 years he hosted the author’s music program Karawana on Radio eM. He has collaborated with Program 2 of Polish Radio.

Jakub Kornhauser – born in 1984. poet, essayist, translator, editor, literary scholar. Co-founder and employee of the Avant-Garde Research Center at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University, assistant professor at the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University. He has published a number of books of poetry. Author and editor of more than a dozen scientific monographs, as well as books of essays. Editor of many anthologies and studies. He has translated into Polish books by Dumitru Crudu, Gherasim Luka, Henri Michaux, Gellu Naum, Miroljub Todorovic, and most recently Claudiu Komartin’s Cobalt. Deputy editor-in-chief of the scholarly journal Romanica Cracoviensia, editor-in-chief of four publishing series (avant-garde/revisions – UJ Publishing House; Romania Today – Universitas; wunderkamera – Mikolov Institute; Latest Roman Literatures – scriptum). Winner of the Wislawa Szymborska Award (2016) for Drożdżownia [The yeast factory], Significance Award (2021) for Premie górskie najwyższej kategorii [Mountain Premières of the highest category], nominated for many other awards (Gdynia Literary Award and Wislawa Szymborska Award – twice, European Poet of Freedom, Orpheus Award).

Joanna Bociąg – born in 1989, graduate of Polish philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (UAM), artist, cultural animator, editor, winner of the XXV J. Bierezin Competition, author of the book Boję się o ostatnią kobietę [I’m afraid of the last woman] (2020). For several years associated with WBPiCAK Publishing House in Poznań, currently Secretary of the Board of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation and the Wisława Szymborska Award.

Maciej Bobula resident with one foot in Poland, the other in Denmark, a peasant-novelist, author of books in verse and prose.

Magdalena Kicińska – editor-in-chief of ‘Pismo. Magazine of Opinions’ and vice-president of the Pismo Foundation. She is a reporter and the winner of the Grand Press 2017 in the “interview” category. She is the author of the books: “Pani Stefa” (Czarne, 2015), “Means of Transport” (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2019) co-author (with Marcin Dziedzic) of the book “Now ’43. Fates” (Wielka Litera, 2018). In September 2021, with Agnieszka Jucewicz, she published the book ‘House in a Bottle. Conversations with Adult Children of Alcoholics’.

Patrycja Sikora – poet, writer. Born in Wieruszow in 1989. For her debut volume Instrukcja dla ludzi nie stąd [Instructions for People Not From Here] (WBPiCAK 2020) she was nominated for the 2020 Polityka Passports. Multiple winner of poetry slams. Published and translated into languages. Editor of the literary quarterly Strona czynna  [Page Active], the anthology of poems Jak długo będziemy musieli i Biji Rojava!. [How Long Will We Have to and Biji Rojava!]

Urszula Zajączkowska – poet, writer, Prof. SGGW, works at the Independent Department of Forest Botany. She studies the growth, anatomy, aerodynamics and biomechanics of plants. She is also a video artist, and the  author of three books of poetry (‘Atoms’, ‘Minimum’, ‘Sand’) and one book of essays ‘Sticks, sticks’. She is a columnist for ‘Dwutygodnik’ and lives in Wołomin.

Małgorzata Lebda (born 1985) grew up in the Beskid village of Żeleźnikowa Wielka. She is author of six books of poetry, including the award-winning volumes Matecznik (Stanisław Barańczak Scholarship) and Sny uckermärkerów (Gdynia Literary Award 2019). Her latest volume, Mer de Glace, was awarded the Wisława Szymborska Prize and reached the final stage of the Silesius Poetry Prize. Her books have been translated into Serbian, Italian, Ukrainian, Czech and Slovenian. She is an academic, columnist, cultural animator and an  ultramarathon runner. In September 2021, she ran – as a poetic-activist gesture – a distance of 1113 kilometres, running from the source of the Vistula River to its estuary on the Baltic Sea. She is working on her prose debut. She lives in Krakow and increasingly often elsewhere.

Radmila Petrović grew up in Stupčevići near Arilje. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, where she also completed her master’s studies. As a laureate of the 42nd Lim Poetry Evenings, she published the collection of poems “Miris zemlje/Scent of the earth” (Dom kulture “Pivo Karamatijević”, Priboj, 2014), and as the winner of the 22nd Poetry Competition “Desanka Maksimović” the collection “Cellulose Rock and Roll” (SKZ and Valjevo Gymnasium, Valjevo, 2015). She is represented in anthologies, domestic and international magazines. She participated in numerous festivals and poetry readings throughout Europe. Her third collection of poetry, “Moja mama zna šta se dešava u gradovima/My Mum Knows What is Happening in the Cities”, published by PPM Enklava in early summer of 2020 and sold over 9,000 copies, was shortlisted for almost all local poetry awards and in the finals of the regional “Stjepan Gulin” award. The same collection was published in Macedonia in two editions, and German and Polish editions are being prepared. Her poetry has been translated into English, French, Greek, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Hebrew, Albanian, Bulgarian and other languages. She participated in writing residencies in Skopje (Reading Balkans), Berlin (S. Fischer Stiftung), Vienna (Q21), Prishtina (READ) and Sofia (Traduka).

Veronika Dintinjana. Poet, translator, surgeon. The best author of the Urška Young Literature Festival 2002; knight of the Poetry Tournament and winner of the 6th Ljubljana Poetry Slam in 2008, when she won the prize for the best debut novel at the 24th Slovenian Book Fair for her book Rumeno gori grm forsycij. In 2017, her second book of poems, V suhem dok, was nominated for the Veronika Award of the City of Celje and for the Critic’s Sieve, awarded by the Society of Slovenian Literary Critics, and the Society of Slovenian Writers awarded her the Jenka Award for the best poetry collection of the last two years. As part of the KUD, Kentaver has been organizing regular poetry readings and the Mlade rime festival for 16 years, which act as a platform for the poetic voices of young and not-yet-established authors. Until 2016, Mlade rime took place in the autonomous zone of Metelkov in Menza pri Korit, from 2016 to 2020 in Modre koto in the premises of the former Rog bicycle factory, and from 2020 to today at Vodiko’s homestead. For KUD Kentaver, she organized and led a poetry workshop for young poets for two years in a row. He mainly translates American and Irish poetry. Her translations of selected poems by Louise Glück (MK, 2011, 2020, 2021), Denise Levertov (KUD Kentaver, 2014), Ciaran O’Driscoll (KUD France Prešeren, 2013) and essays by Ursula K. Le Guin ( KUD Apocalypse, 2007). Unpublished songs from Pablo Neruda’s legacy were published in collaboration with Christi Dintinjana. 2018 at Cankar’s publishing house with the title I touch your feet in the shadow.

Dejan Koban. I started writing poetry in 1996. Only then read. In 1997, I published my first collection of poetry, Tebi, within my high school, then SŠTP. I read my poems for the first time on a school day, in Spanish fighters, in front of six people. I had indescribable nervousness. I am deeply ashamed of this collection. Then, in 1998, after a year of reading poetry collections by at least fifty authors, I wrote a so far unpublished book entitled Pobesenla pračešno čistih sozl. Then I wrote seven more books until 2008, some I lost and some I threw in the trash. In 2008, I self-published the book Butterflies under pressure. Then came Arrangements (LUD Šerpa, 2013), Frequencies of hollow spaces (LUD Šerpa, 2016), Klastrfak (LUD Šerpa, 2020) and the most idiotic autobiography in the world and beyond (NUZ Ignor, 2020). Next year, a book called pre_več will be published by the Goga publishing house, which will contain 55 songs-tattoos. MY songs have been translated into fifteen languages, and I have performed all over Slovenia, Croatia, BiH, Serbia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Luxembourg and Ireland. As an interpreter of my own texts, I work in the sound poetry collective nevemnev, with whom we released an album entitled Čisto malo ljudi in 2018. Since 2017, I have been one of the editors of the collection of poetry books, Sončnica, vsa nora od dlave, which is published by the publishing house Hiša poezija. My books have been selected three times for the festival of poetry criticism, Pranger. In 2016, I won the title of Knight of Poetry for the poem Lajanje, at the Poetry Knight Tournament of the Pivec publishing house in Maribor. I organize and lead the informal art cooperative Ignor and the festival of the same name, I co-organize the poetry slam Mismo tu!, I organize late-night poetry readings Mating dragonflies in the dark. At the end of 2021, I founded a publishing house exclusively for poetry called Black Box. So far, the publishing house has published nine collections of poetry, recently the book Trgetanje, written by Pino Pograjc and edited by me, won the prize of the 38th Slovenian Book Fair for the best literary debut of the year. I work and live in Ljubljana.

Ana Svetel. After finishing Second High School and Conservatory of Music and Ballet Maribor, Ana Svetel graduated in 2012, and in 2016 she obtained her master’s degree from the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, UL. Between 2016 and 2022, she was employed as a young researcher, and since 2022 she has been working as a researcher and assistant at the same institution. He also collaborates in research and teaching with the UL Innovation and Development Institute and the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her areas of research are anthropological studies of landscape, environment, light and darkness, weather, remoteness, atmosphere and language, regionally she focuses on Northern Europe and the Slovenian Alps. She is the co-president of the Working Group of Young Researchers at SIEF, a member of the editorial board of the SED Herald Library and the Svetovi magazine. She has co-edited numerous anthologies and co-organized several domestic and international anthropology summer schools and research camps. For her work, she received the 2022 Emerging Scholar award of the research network OnSustainability.

Ana Svetel has published two poetry collections (Lepo in prav, 2015; Marmor, 2022) and one book of short prose (Dobra družba 2019). The poetry collection Lepo in prav was nominated for debut of the year, Dobra družba for the Novo mesto award, and Marmor for the Veronika award. The first two books were sold out and reprinted. She participated in several literary residencies (Split, Zagreb, Hrisey, Caernarfon, Kubed) and was a guest at numerous poetry festivals in Europe (Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia…) and Slovenia (Poetry and Wine Days, Living Literature). The Society of Slovenian Literary Translators discussed the Good Company at an international translation seminar, Radio Slovenia recorded a series of short radio plays Prevozi based on the stories from the aforementioned collection. Her stories and poems have been translated into more than ten languages and represented in anthologies. He publishes monthly columns in Večer’s Saturday supplement.

Lidija Dimkovska (1971, Skopje, Macedonia) is a poet, writer, researcher of foreign language and minority literature and translator of Slovenian and Romanian literature into the Macedonian language. He has been living in Ljubljana since 2001. She published seven poetry collections, three novels, one diary and a collection of short stories, and edited four anthologies. Her works have been translated into many foreign languages, she has received a number of awards, including Macedonian awards for the best poetic debut, twice for the best prose work and finally for the best poetry collection, the Romanian Poesis and Tudor Arghezi awards, the German Hubert Burda Award, the Albanian-Macedonian the Naim Frasheri prize, the EU prize for literature, the European prize for poetry to Petar Krdu, and in Slovenia the Cup of Immortality – Velenjica. She participated in many literary meetings, readings and residencies around the world. Her books Nobel against Nobel, pH neutral for life and death, Black on white, Hidden camera, Reserve life and Non-Oui, soon also Marginal state, were published in Slovenian translation by Aleš Mustar.

Denis Škofič (1985) is a poet, writer and literary critic. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Maribor in Slovenian language with literature. He publishes for various literary magazines and other print and online media. In 2013, he published his poetry debut, Sprehajalec ptic, with the publishing house Beletrina, which met with an exceptional reception from both readers and critics, and was nominated for the Jenka Prize and a critical review. At the beginning of 2018, Cankar’s publishing house published his second collection of poetry – Seganje, with which he entered the wider list of nominees for the Jenka Award. His short stories were included in the anthology of the Alpe Adria International Festival of Upcoming Literature entitled Vrane, čečkarije in confetti (Litera, 2017) and the anthology Fifty selected short stories by authors born after 1980 (Dialogi, 2019). In 2014, he was a guest of the festival of reflection and translation of poetry – Pranger, and several times he was a finalist of the poetry tournament, which he also won in 2019 and thus became a knight of poetry. In the same year, he was a guest of the Stih u region international festival in Zagreb and a resident in the international project The Ulysses’ Shelter. As part of this project, a trilingual anthology with poems by the participants was also published. He participated in a translation project between Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the result of which was the anthology: Slovenian-Czech-Slovak Poetic Republic (Center for Slovenian Literature, 2020). At the beginning of 2021, the Greek publishing house Thraka published a translation of the collection Seganje, entitled Βουτιές. His poems have been translated into English, Hungarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Czech, Slovak and Greek.

Poet and writer Stanka Hrastelj has so far published three poetry collections and two novels. She received several awards for her literary work, including the blue bird for the best novel (2012), the title of knight of poetry (2007), the award for the best debut novel (2005) and the title of the best young poet of Slovenia (2001). Individual poems and prose passages have been translated and published in over twenty world languages. She is a regular guest of artistic residencies, literary festivals and events in the international space. She is the author of cover words, editor, columnist, organizer of cultural events, moderator, creative writing mentor. Member of the Society of Slovenian Writers and the Slovenian PEN Center. Freelance cultural worker since 2009.

Pino Pograjc, born in 1997, is currently in his final year of studying English and comparative literature at the Master’s level at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. He grew up in Kamnik, where he first read his poems in front of an audience at slam poetry competitions and won several times. It is part of the anthologies Srca v igri and Mimobežnica. In 2022, he became part of the selection jury for the LGBT Film Festival in Ljubljana. In 2022, the publishing house Črna skrinjica published his poetic debut Trgetanje, for which he won the award for the best literary debut, which is awarded as part of the Slovenian Book Fair. In 2023, he joined the international poetry project POT-VOT (Poetry of Modernity – Voices of the Future), with which contemporary poets will visit secondary schools

Tina Kozin. I was born on February 2, 1975 in Ljubljana. In 2003, I completed my graduate studies at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana, majoring in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory (S). In 2002, I received the Faculty’s Prešeren Award for my first diploma thesis, Fictionality as a Special Form of Modality. I am employed as a broadcast editor in the cultural editorial office of Radio Slovenia; I am the initiator of the founding and co-editor of the book collection Stopinje, which is published within the Literatura literary and artistic association. Between 2012 and 2021, I was co-editor of the book edition Litterae Slovenicae, published by the Society of Slovenian Writers. For my critical work, in 2007 I received the Stritar award for the best young critic, awarded by the Society of Slovenian Writers. So far, I have published three books of poetry: Man with five soles (Litera, 2010, the book was included in the Pranger festival); Noises (LUD Literatura, 2014); Nebo pod vodo (Litera, 2020, Veronika Award for the best book of poetry of the past year, nomination for the Critic’s Sito Award and nomination for the Jenka Award). Recently, I have also been devoting myself to writing scripts and librettos – I am the co-author of the script for the documentary radio play Voice of the Jackal (nomination and special mention at the Prix Italia 2021), the co-author of the libretto for the electroacoustic opera IDEN (nomination at the Prix Italia 2020 festival) and the author of the script for the sound – the poetic event Daljave (presented at the Prague Quadrennial 2019).

Katarina Gomboc Čeh. I was born in November 1993. I am currently a professor of Slovenian and Russian as a young researcher at the University of Nova Gorica, I study general linguistics and I teach Ukrainian in the evening courses of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana. I am author of two poetry collections. Uncertainty despite was published in 2018 by the Javne sludos za cultural activities, namely a year after I won the Festival of Young Literature Urska. The mentor in the creation of the poetry collection was the poet Ana Porenta. It was released in 2020 my second book, a bilingual Slovene-Italian poetry collection We settled in fabrics / Ci siamo insediati nei tessuti. It was published by the Robida collective from Venice Slovenia, where In the summer of 2019, I was a guest at a short literary residency. I published my poetry in several magazines (Poetikonu, Litru jezika, Novébel, …) and on various websites (LUD Literatura, AirBeletrin, …). In addition to poetry, I also write prose, I am just finishing my first novel, with whom I collaborated last year on the project Another Opinion, namely the critic Aleksandra Gacic. I am a regular columnist for Outsider magazine, editor-in-chief of November newspaper, which published in Nova Gorica, and a member of the Society of Slovenian Writers.

Ferenc ANDRÉ (1992, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania) slam poet, literary translator, editor of Látóliterary magazine from Târgu Mureș. In the past 10 years he performed at more than 200 literary events and poetry slams. He is committed to helping emerging talents, he leads alternative literary classes and workshops in Hungarian, Romanian and English. He was the president of Bretter György (today: Bréda Ferenc) Literary Circle between 2014-2018. Between the years 2016-2019 he was the editor of Helikon literary magazine from Cluj-Napoca. He’s the editor of Hervay Könyvek (book series) and hmm-pamphlets (chapbook series). He’s member of Beatwándor, and audio-vizual poetry performance. In  2014 he won the first Hungarian slam poetry championship in Transylvania, since then he recieved numerous prizes for his slam poems, literary work and translations. In 2021 he won the newly founded MasterCard Altotótárs scholarship and the jury prizes of PesText international literary festival. His newest book was freshly published at Jelenkor publishing, titled “kepler horoszkópírás közben letér a pályájáról” (“kepler looses his orbit while writing horoscope”).

Orsolya Fenyvesi (1986) is an awarded Hungarian poet and translator living in Budapest. Her own poetry collections include The Animals in the Mirrors (2013) and Siege (2015), a book of experimental poetry and essays, The spectacle / Commentaries (2018) and Always in the Beginning (2022). Her book for children, AllMagicWood was also published in 2022. Her recent translations are Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (2017, Magvető, Budapest) and poems from Anne Sexton’s Live or Die. Her poems have been translated into English, German, Serbian, Romanian and Turkish.

Mónika Ferencz was born in March 1991 in Budapest. She has been publishing poems in different journals since 2013, and since 2015 has also published translations. Her first volume of poetry, Hátam mögött dél, was published in spring 2017 wherewith she won the Junior Belletrist 2019 Award. Her second poetry book, Búvárkodás haladóknak, was published in 2021.

Anna Vados is a poet and psychologist based in Budapest. She was born in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, in 1993. Her first collection of poetry won the Petri György prize in 2021 and was published by Magveto Publishing in 2022. She represented Hungary at the European Poetry Festival 2021 in London.

Ádám Vajna, born in 1994, is a Hungarian poet. His first poetry collection, Oda (There), came out in 2018 and has received the Makói Medáliák Prize for the best debut. He published his second poetry collection egyébként is, mit akarhatott itt az őrgróf? (So, What Did the Marquis Actually Want?) in 2022. He is currently working on a verse novel about a 19th Century New Zealand ornithologist, for which he was awarded the Mastercard Literary Scholarship. He translates from Norwegian and works as an editor for several literary magazines. He is also pursuing a PhD in Literature, focusing on contemporary Norwegian and Hungarian political poetry.

Szilveszter Veszprémi, poet, blogger, community organiser, published his first book of poems in 2022 under the title Helyek, ahol öröm vár, published by Prae. Born in Pécs, living in Szeged since 2015, graduated in 2022 with a Master’s degree in Applied Literature, since then community organiser at Megálló Közösségi Ház in Szeged. He genuinely believes that literature and community organizing would be unthinkable without each other: he has been a member of the Törzsasztal Műhely since its inception, which is now a platform for many young urban literary initiatives, he is one of the founding bloggers of the Eközben Szegeden blog, whose texts are now published on szeged.hu, and he is the moderator of the A jövő olvasóköre, where they meet monthly to discuss the importance of ecological awareness in the context of entertaining literary readings. He is now working on his second book, in which he wants to give voice to the figures of the Roma fairy tale tradition by giving them their own voices through poetic situations.

András Toroczkay. I was born in 1981 october 16^th. I’ve graduated at PPKE-BTK. I majored at Hungarian literature and Communication. In 2006 I won „Arany Vitorla” award of the site called „Dokk Irodalmi Kikötő”. My first collection of poems was called Napfényvesztés (Loosing the sunlight, published by Magyar Napló). It was marketed in 2010. It followed Búcsú Éhestől (Farewell to Hungry, published by Magvető) a collection of short stories in the spring of 2015. After that a couple of month later was published the second collection of poems. It was called A labirintusból haza (Home from the Labyrinth). It was selected on the short list of the Horváth Péter literature award. My first novel – called Boldog emberek (Happy people) – was published in 2021 by the Magvető. It was voted on the list Best 50 books of 2021. Könyves Magazin ranked it #26. My most recent book is a collection of short stories and it’s called Mondd, hogy nem bolondultam meg (Tell me I’m not insane, published by Fisz). Readers can find my works (poems, short stories, children tales) regularly in literature magazines, anthologies, and elsewhere. I also write bookreviews to the weekly magazines (Magyar Narancs, 168Óra, etc.). My major interests are the perception of time and reality.

Ágota Katona was born in Balassagyarmat in 1989 and graduated from the Aesthetics-Hungarian Department of Eötvös Loránd University. Between 2010 and 2017, she was the editor of FÉLOnline cultural magazine. In 2017 she won a special prize at the poetry translation competition of the Hungarian National Library of Foreign Languages. Her first volume: Kezdetben, mégis vihar, 2021, Fiatal Írók Szövetsége.

József Keresztesi (1970) poet, critic, editor. From 2001 to 2007 he worked as an editor of the literary journal Jelenkor, later he was a freelancer, now he is an editor of a publishing house. He was awarded the Déry Prize in 2008 and the Péter Balassa Prize in 2012 for his essays and studies. His book Csücsök won the Children’s Book of the Year Award in 2019 and was included in The White Ravens List. Three of his plays and four of his puppet theatre pieces have been set on stage. He is a member and the lyricist of the musical group Új Anya (New Mother). He lives in Pécs.

Books: Hamisopera (Fake Opera, reviews, 2007), A Karácsondi út (Karácsond Road, lyrics, 2009), Rubin Szilárd – pályarajz (Szilárd Rubin – a monography, 2012), Anabázis (Anabasis, essays and reviews, 2013), Mit eszik a micsoda? (What’s Eating the What? children’s poems, 2015), Meteorkövek (Meteor Stones, essays, 2018), Csücsök, avagy a nagy pudinghajsza (Csücsök, or the Big Pudding-chase, romance for children, 2019), Inverz Ophelia (Inverse Ophelia, poems, 2019)

Miklós Borsik (1986) is a poet and editor, lives in Budapest. Since 2012 he has been a doctoral student at Eötvös Loránd University (literary sciences). He exhibited his drawings under the title Vonalmérgezés (‘Line Poisoning’) in 2014. Between 2014 and 2018 he edited the volume series of the József Attila Kör literary association with Ágnes Balajthy. His book of poems, titled Átoknaptár (‘Calendar of Curses’), will be published in 2020 at Jelenkor Publishing. In 2021 he won the József Attila Literary Grant from Ferencváros.

Valentina Bakti (Valentina Baktijarević), poet, translator, actress, collage artist, libertine, astronaut. Her first poetry book “Između” was published by Antolog Publishers in Skopje, and her second book “Slomiti kosti” by Dibidus Publishers in Belgrade. She is one of the organizers of the Skopje Poetry Festival and hosts a monthly music-poetry night “Vazda bilo” at the art space Kvaka 22. She co-edits the literary and art magazine astronaut.ba and the anthology of love poetry bludnistih.com.

Stefan Tićmi (Leskovac) is a writer, screenwriter, and curmudgeon. “I Got Caught by Dolls” (ARTE, 2015) “I am Akiko” (LAGUNA, 2018) “Moss Coat” (LAGUNA, 2020) “There, Within Reach of Pain” (POVELJA, 2020) “Jam on a Cloud” (short film, 2021) The novels “Moss Coat” and “I am Akiko” were included among the 200 best children’s books in the world by the White Ravens magazine, published by the International Youth Library in Munich. Based on the book “I am Akiko”, which was also awarded the “Politikin Zabavnik” prize and the “Children’s Book of the Year” plaque at the Trg od knjige International Festival in Herceg Novi, a play of the same name was created in May 2021 in a co-production between the Festival of Ecological Theater for Children and Youth and the Cultural Center of Pančevo, directed by Milja Mazarak and performed by Sofija Mijatović. The play was also selected as the best play of the festival by the professional and pedagogical jury of ASITEŽ in 2022. An animated short film “I am Akiko” is in production, supported by the Serbian Film Center and the Bulgarian Film Center (prod. To Blink Animation – Vojin Vasović, director – Damir Romanov), and a short film based on Stefan’s unpublished story “Guguto Memeto” was shot in Banja Luka, edited by director Branislav Stošić. He is one of the founders of the former small free library – Omladinski klub Ančiki – with over 5,000 books, whose project was awarded a special prize for enthusiasm by the Tanja Petrović Foundation. He lives in Belgrade

Milica Milosavljević is a poet and critic born in Čačak in 1991. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines and portals, and she has won awards for her work, including the Milutin Bojić Library Prize and the Days of Poetry Festival in Zaječar. She has also participated in literary festivals and events in Serbia and abroad, and her poetry has been translated into several languages. In addition to poetry, Milica writes short stories and literary reviews, and has edited an anthology of contemporary poetry from the former Yugoslavia. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade and works as a lector.

Danilo Brakočević is an actor and poet born in Belgrade in 1994. He completed his undergraduate and master’s studies in acting at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, and also studied theater education in Norway. He later received a scholarship to study intercultural communication at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in China. His poems have been published in literary magazines, and his play “U ljusci jajeta” was shortlisted for the Sterijino pozorje award for original domestic drama in 2019. His collection of short forms, “Sitnice”, won the Skc Kragujevac Award in 2022.

Marija Dragnić is a poet born in Nikšić in 1990. Her poetry has been published in various literary magazines and portals, and she has published several books of poetry, including “Konfabulacije”, “Mi, marije”, and “Treća neuništiva stvar”. She has won awards for her work, including second place at a regional poetry festival. Marija has also participated in literary festivals and events, and has worked as an editor and translator.

Aleksa Krstić is the author of the poetry collection “Boys of the Eastern Block.” He is the laureate of the Young Dis Award presented by the City Library Cacak for his debut poetry collection. His poetry has been published on platforms such as Pages, Astronaut, man-magazine, Lustful Verse, and in anthologies like ” Manuscripts 45″, ” Secret City” the Milo Bošković anthology, and the ” Sunny Side of the Street ” anthology. He is a member of the collective C4, which organizes poetic and musical evenings.

Andela Djokić. The winner of the Timok Lyre Award in 2021, released her debut poetry collection “Fear of Rivers” in 2022. She is a co-author of the film “Poetry in Focus.” Her poems have been published in anthologies like “Secret city” from the PPM Enklava writing workshop, the literary theory journal “Fields” and numerous online portals for literature and culture. She writes both poetry and prose, teaches the Norwegian language, and is involved in music.

Jelena Marinkov is the recipient of the Djura Djukanov Award for the collection of stories “Released Stories,” the “Ball in Elemir” award for a humoristic-satirical story in 2017, and the first prize in the essay competition about Dis in 2020. Her debut poetry collection “Quarantine in Hell” from 2021 was awarded the prestigious Branko Award, and this collection of poems was shortlisted for the Milica Stojadinovic Serbian Award. She is currently a doctoral student in the Serbian Literature module.

Maša Seničić was awarded the Young Dis Award for her debut poetry collection “Ocean,” and in 2019, she published her second poetry collection “Intermittent Like Weekend Settlements.” She is the recipient of the Dusan Vasiljev Award for 2019. She co-curates the Brave Balkans program as part of the Belgrade Author Film Festival, and she is one of the founders of Filmkultura and a mentor in the association’s educational programs. In addition, she engages in documenting through photography and writings. Moreover, she is involved in interdisciplinary publications and projects, one of which is the exhibition “Golden Coast: An Archive-Artistic Journey through the Yugoslav Hotel Complex.”

Bianka Rolando  – born in 1979 to a Polish-Italian family. Visual artist and poet and writer. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. In 2017, she received a doctoral degree in visual arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. Her collection of short stories Rozmówki włoskie, [Italian Phrasebook](2007) was awarded the Young Art Medal in the field of literature (2009), for her poem Biała książka [White Book], (2009) she received the Kazimiera Iłłłakowiczówna Award for the best poetic debut of the year and an honorable mention in the All-Polish Literary Contest “Golden Mean of Poetry” 2010. Scholarship holder of Dachstein:Cult.