The Cúirt International Festival of Literature is offering young Albanian writers the opportunity to take part in a project that promotes literature in lesser known languages.
The festival itself has been held annually since 1985 and it consists of a number of events that take place over the course of a week, with participation from Irish and international authors. It includes literature in the form of poetry, fiction, spoken and musical performances, multimedia events, theatre, and visual art as well as offering a range of events and workshops.
This year, Cúirt is a part of a new initiative called “Read Me I am Yours” along with two other European literary organisations- The Vilenica International Literary Festival in Slovenia, and the Festival of World Literature in Croatia.
Young writers from all over Europe have been invited to submit their work for consideration. The work can be of any genre but the writer must be under 35 years old and from a country that is participating in the Creative Europe Programme. As well as Albania, other Balkan countries included in the initiative include Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece.
Those that are chosen to take part in the Programme after submitting their work will be able to go on a tour of the three festivals, spending a total of 10 days in Galway, Ljubljana and Zagreb both this year, and in 2020. During this time, the writers will be able to network with other writers, as well as publishers, translators, and established writers and authors. Furthermore, they will be encouraged to make plans for future projects and to collaborate with others from every corner of the continent.
The Festival in Galway, Ireland will run from April the 8th-14th and those wishing to apply for consideration need to send their application by no later than February 18th 2019.
More details and an example of the application can be found here, and samples must be sent in PDF format to [email protected].
This is a truly unique opportunity for talented, young Albanian writers to have an opportunity at getting their work known internationally. In a country where it is considered as difficult to pursue a meaningful or lucrative career in the arts, competitions like this can provide a much needed boost to prospective writers. In addition to this, showcasing literature in the Albanian language, as well as having it translated and made available to others, provides writers with the chance to present another side to their home country- one that many may not be aware of.
