Steven J. Fowler, who participated in the 8th week on our OMNIBUS Reading Tour, shared some of his impressions on the tour with the Literaturehaus Europa.
CROWD Literature’s Omnibus project was a literary tour like few others, running from May to August in 2016, from the far north of Finland to the beaches of the Mediterranean in Cyprus. It lasted twelve weeks, taking over 100 poets from nearly 40 countries by bus through 14 nations in Europe with over 50 events, readings and performances. Unsurprisingly a project operating with such a maximalist ambition required dozens of local partners, aside from its foundational creative of team of Forum Stadtpark Graz, Lettretage, Ideogramma and Nuoren Voiman Liitto, and hundreds of people working hard to make it happen. I had the privilege of being on the latter part of the tour, on the Graz and Belgrade legs.
There are the facts of it. For my own part the experience was as generative, challenging, exciting and memorable as you’d expect, sharing intimate time, bonding closely, with old friends and new, writing, reading, talking and performing. But more than this, it was an experience of overwhelming irony.
You can read the rest of his report on Literaturhaus Europa’s website.