Café Amsterdam
Café Amsterdam is a project that has already been organized in a number of countries around the world. This October it will also take place in Istanbul, at the same time celebrating the 400 years international relations between The Netherlands and Turkey. The event takes place in collaboration with the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Netherlands Consulate General in Istanbul.
For the project, 8 authors will come to Turkey, where together with Turkish and international authors they will participate in events in venues in both Istanbul in Izmir. These venues will be decorated like a traditional Amsterdam Cafe. In addition, a special booklet will be published for the event containing texts of participating authors.
The Dutch authors that will take part are Herman Koch, Kader Abdolah, Laia Fabregas, Gerbrand Bakker, Douwe Draaisma and Bibi Dumon Tak.
In addition to authors, the Dutch band Sonja van Hamel & Friends will also perform during some of the events, thereby bringing a wonderful, café-like atmosphere to it all.
Manchester Letters
Manchester Letters features an online correspondence between UK author Jenn Ashworth and Turkish author Nermin Yildirim. Between June and November 2012, they will be sharing insights into their working lives; discussing current works in progress, sources of inspiration and how their social and political environments impacts on their creativity.
Jenn and Nermin will also be taking part in live events as part of the Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival on Monday 1st October and the Manchester Literature Festival on Saturday 20th October 2012.
Manchester Letters is a partnership project between Literature Across Frontiers and the British Council, ITEF-Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival, Manchester Literature Festival, and has been generously supported by the Garrick Charitable Trust.
For more information, and to follow the letter exchange, please visit http://www.manchesterletters.com
Writers Unlimited on Tour
This October, Writers Unlimited on Tour will visit
The mission of Writers Unlimited/Winternachten, is to connect writers with each other and with audiences, across borders of cultures and countries in an annual event in
Winternachten also visited ITEF in 2009 and 2010. This year’s participating authors are Adriaan van Dis, Antjie Krog, and Rodaan al Galidi.
For more information, please have a look at: http://www.winternachten.nl/
The Tramlines Project
The Tramlines Project connects the cities below through writers’ residencies during which they explore the city by tram and write a short story in response the experience and encounters along the way. The project will result in new collaborative work which discovers hidden corners of each city, engages with local communities and daily commuters, and promotes the idea of alternative urban tourism using public transport, ultimately creating an alternative literary guide to each city in the form of a digital application offering a new perspective on landscapes, both familiar and unknown.
The project is coordinated by Literature Across Frontiers in cooperation with Comma Press (UK) and local partner organisations:
Gudran Association for Art and Development and El Cabina venue (Alexandria)
Barcelona Centre for Contemporary Culture (Barcelona)
Passa Porta House and Passa Porta Festival (Brussels)
Latvian Literature Centre and Prose Readings Festival (Riga)
FRA Bookstore and Cafeand Literary Academy(Prague)
Croatian Writers Association and Festival of European Short Story (Zagreb)
Kalem Culture and Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival(Istanbul)
LAF, Comma Press and Manchester International Literature Festival (Manchester)
Ministry of Stories
The Ministry of Stories team is invited to ITEF to organize workshops with students during the festival.
A total of four events will be organized, which start with a talk in front of 75 students, 25 of whom will participate in the workshop as designed by the Ministry of Stories. Thus, 300 students will be reached in 4 events during 4 days in 4 different schools.
The workshop aims to familiarize students with creative writing and the joy of sharing via literature.
The Ministry of Stories is a creative writing and mentoring centre for young people in East London. They use storytelling to inspire young people from 8-18 in the belief that writing unleashes their imagination and builds confidence, self-respect and communication. In addition, the Ministry of Stories mentoring centre has a shop where they sell products related to fear and horror stories – just like the theme of this year’s ITEF – Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival.
For more information about Ministry of Stories, please have a look at the following website: http://www.ministryofstories.org/
FABISAD
For this year’s edition of ITEF, FABISAD’s authors will organize a fantasy event in KargArt, on the Asian side of Istanbul. FABISAD is an organization established in October 2011, bringing together artists in the field of fantasy, science fiction and horror, as well as editors, publishers and producers contributing to the development of the field.
Following, and as part of the event, we will organize an ITEF-FABISAD party in KargArt.