Article
Poetry Week, 29 January - 4 February 2015
‘Love began with song’
June 26, 2014
All week long, readers spending at least 12.50 euros on poetry collections at their local bookstore also will receive the ‘Poetry Gift’, a book-length work called Giro giro tondo: An obsession, composed by this year’s selected poet, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. A writer of poems, novels, short stories, columns, essays, criticism, plays and song lyrics, Pfeijffer previously has been nominated for the VSB Prize; won the C. Buddingh’ Prize for his collection of the square man; and received high acclaim and several award nominations for his novel La Superba, a monument to his adopted city, Genoa, Italy. (Several of Pfeijffer’s poems can be read in English translation via his Poetry International profile page.)
Students can also encounter Poetry Week in the classroom – during the week and throughout the year. Ideas and tips for planning poetry lessons are now available to educators via ‘Poetry Week at School’.
Poetry Week is a Dutch-Flemish cooperative initiative from the Poëzieclub (Amsterdam), the Poetry International Foundation, the VSB Prize, the Poëziecentrum (Ghent), the Turing Poetry Contest, Stichting Lezen (Flanders), Stichting Lezen (Netherlands), Wintertuin, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Flemish Literature Fund, Boek.be and the Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book.
‘Love began with song’ is the theme of 2015’s Poetry Week, an annual celebration of Dutch and Flemish poetry co-organized by Poetry International. From the medieval troubadours to our contemporary writers, poets have sought and discovered infinite ways to sing of love’s complexities – even going as far as to explore, in the words of Dutch poet Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, ‘what it means to spell love upside down.’
Poetry Week will kick off on 29 January 2015 with Poetry Day and will feature hundreds of poetry-related events and activities throughout Belgium and The Netherlands. Highlights of Poetry Week include the presentation of the VSB Prize, the highest Dutch-language poetry prize; the Herman de Coninck Prize, for the year’s best Flemish poetry collection; the Turing Poetry Contest, which is open to public and judged anonymously; and the week’s festive conclusion, the Poetry Ball. All week long, readers spending at least 12.50 euros on poetry collections at their local bookstore also will receive the ‘Poetry Gift’, a book-length work called Giro giro tondo: An obsession, composed by this year’s selected poet, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. A writer of poems, novels, short stories, columns, essays, criticism, plays and song lyrics, Pfeijffer previously has been nominated for the VSB Prize; won the C. Buddingh’ Prize for his collection of the square man; and received high acclaim and several award nominations for his novel La Superba, a monument to his adopted city, Genoa, Italy. (Several of Pfeijffer’s poems can be read in English translation via his Poetry International profile page.)
Students can also encounter Poetry Week in the classroom – during the week and throughout the year. Ideas and tips for planning poetry lessons are now available to educators via ‘Poetry Week at School’.
Poetry Week is a Dutch-Flemish cooperative initiative from the Poëzieclub (Amsterdam), the Poetry International Foundation, the VSB Prize, the Poëziecentrum (Ghent), the Turing Poetry Contest, Stichting Lezen (Flanders), Stichting Lezen (Netherlands), Wintertuin, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the Flemish Literature Fund, Boek.be and the Collective Promotion for the Dutch Book.
Translator: Mia You
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