All posts by Julia Shimura

I am writer and blogeress for CROWD since 2015. Other from that I have published in magazines in German in Die Epilog and kon. Besides writing I engage as a curator and organiser in literary festivals.

Ernesto Estrella (ES/USA): What is that voice?

Ernesto writes poetry, performs in several contexts philosophical lectures, is a publisher and musician and an educator. Polyphony, here and there. He uses a variety of artistic and poetical expressions merging into a reduced room of slight installation-like instances that will show you secretly the mechanics of abstraction. I met Ernesto on a bridge in Berlin, Neukölln.

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Festival Guide: Poetry Moon in Finland

Poetry Moon is a literature festival based in Helsinki, Finland, which will be held from 21st  to 27th August 2015 – this is in two weeks,  crowdies!

What is special about the festival is the diversity of the events and approaches  ranging from events for children to a poetry marathon up to poetry as “fire prevention”. It is a festival aiming at assembling new and other ways of presentation of and participation in literature. Radiophonic collages, creative writing and improvisation or poetry swallowed up by it all: the picture, sound, movement, smell, taste, touch. I would say: get your suitcases ready!

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Robert Perisic (HR): Offroad Reflections.

Croatian Bestseller author Robert Perisic talks about the possibility of a European experience. I met him on skype smoking one cigarette after another in a kitchen you could name anything else but cosy. Right now he is doing a residency program in Macedonia having just recently published his new novel “Area without signal”. That was about two weeks ago. One could think that his nerves are quite frayed after the stress. But on the contrary, it turned out that Robert was very relaxed as we were talking about the European literary scene. Like taking a side trip on an unexpected day off we were walking and thinking while staking out space to think, dwelling in ideas and also trudging through the mud of looking for a definition. Arriba, folks, put your shoes on! What can European literature mean?
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Tibor Hrs Pandur (SI): The medium is the mask

Poet, editor, organizer and founder of the literary platform I.D.I.O.T. Tibor Hrs Pandur from Slovenia talks about the importance of independent publishing. Yet it is only through festivals, music and performance literature that can be enhanced and spread according to contemporary needs. That also touches the politics of literature. And this is also what Tibor writes about. Make the intimate things the agenda and mask them by text.  

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Fast │ Cheap │ Dirty: Anneke Brassinga (NL)

“The grand-dame of poetry in the Netherlands” – Only her nonchalant humor beats her lyric capabilites. And the combination is more than entertaining which she very well proved at Poesiefestival 2015 in Berlin at VERSchmuggel on June 23rd. It was a great improvisation x Oswald Egger. Outside I had the chance to take a few photos of Anneke Brassinga when I met her, smoking.

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Fast │ Cheap │ Dirty: Katarzyna Fetlińska (PL)

I was at Poesiefestival 2015 in Berlin yesterday to see what the selection of Polish authors would bring, and, Lo!, what a pearl I have found. Her name is: Katarzyna Fetlińska, very young and sexy at her performance.

I had the honor to interview her shortly, asking her three questions to which she replied in gestures. Look here:

Continue reading Fast │ Cheap │ Dirty: Katarzyna Fetlińska (PL)

CRY OUT FOR CROWD: Anja Golob (SI)

Copyright: Kaja Avberšek. http://kajakajak.tumblr.com

Cheers to Slovenia! Živijo! Smem prositi za ples? The Slovene author Anja Golob writes poetry, does translations, is an editor, a critic and a dramaturg. CROWD-Scout Linde Nadiani met her in Ljubljana just recently where they had a coffee. Now she told me about her poetry, about the Slovenian literary scene and about her recent publication in German. Let’s dance with Anja Golob.

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Portrait: Steven J Fowler (GB)

This photo of SJ Fowler comes as “Bear as the Bear”. Best wishes to Jack London. Copywright: Steven J Fowler

This photo of SJ Fowler comes as “Bear as the Bear”. Best wishes to Jack London.

By Julia Schiefer

The atmosphere of the “Hay Festival” in 2014 is buoyant and somewhat noisy. One could imagine that outside of the small frame of the youtube picture there could be people passing by, mumbling to each other, going out or in or stay for a while before moving on. Yet, it is poet/artist Steven J Fowler reading out his poems, that the screen is showing.  Approaching the microphone, he says: “Oh my god, I just realized I am in Mexico” and right in this moment a technician appears out of nowhere to fix the height of his microphone as if he wanted to answer: Yes, my friend, here you are. Before reading out his poetry he states in a brutally honest fashion that he thanks “whoever  insane person who decided to invite me” from London to Mexico, who invited a guy who writes poetry. A  guy who is actually very restless about organizing collaborative poetry events with now over “100 events in over a dozen countries”, and has published just recently his sixth book of his own poetry {Enthusiasm}, doing exhibitions, and before he has been a poet actually was a martial artist. Continue reading Portrait: Steven J Fowler (GB)