Book presentation "Wars in words"

The publication “wars in words. Krieg und Poesie. writing war” grew out of a publishing project on the topic of war and its effects on art and culture. After some difficulties in the initial development process, the editors of ZeLT - European Center for Literature and Translation decided to transform the project. “It all started when ZeLT sent me a digital review of Sabine Gruber's charity matinee 'Nacht und Dunkel bis zum Halse/With the Night the Darkness at the Throat' from February 2023, and I thought it would be nice to be able to flip through these pages and read these words on paper as well. It was the beginning of a journey to the publication that would arrive at the end of 2024 and which, due to various developments, turned out to be more challenging but also more exciting than expected,” explains Kunigunde Weissenegger, publisher and co-founder of franzLAB.

The publication reflects on cultural dialogue as a tool for reflection and understanding in times of political challenges. “The central question is how we, cultural actors, poets, translators, publishers, and organizers living outside theaters of war, can relate to current war events and whether art or poetry has the possibility to contribute to peace and be a tool of knowledge in the face of the power relations that determine our world. Poetry has the possibility to contribute to peace and to be a tool of knowledge in the face of all the events and power relations that determine our world-even against the background of an increasingly nationalistic development, not only in Europe,” explain ZeLT's Greta Maria Pichler and Alma Vallazza. The publication contains poems by Yevgeniy Breyger and Kholoud Charaf and a transcribed conversation between the poets and journalists Daniela Prugger, Emran Feroz and moderator José F. A. Oliver-part of the performance reading curated by ZeLT, which took place on Sept. 2024 as part of Transart.

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