Celebrations Afoot at Orizont Literar Contemporan (Romania)

With Professor Donald Riggs in Philadelphia, 2011

I was delighted to receive this link today, taking me through to a summary of what has been a truly international rollercoaster of a decade for Daniel Dragomirescu and his colleagues who work tirelessly across languages and genres to produce Orizont Literar Contemporan, the self-styled 'world in a journal'.

This literary magazine, celebrating its 60th issue, has now been in production for ten years, and you have only to read the summary of its history to see how it has evolved, expanded and diversified during this time. There is a huge library of multicultural books and now a Dictionary of writers' biographies.

Thanks to Daniel, Katherine Gallagher and others, I have been associated with the journal for much of its existence. It has been a pleasure to introduce a number of poet friends from Wales and elsewhere through my early Dialoguri interviews, and friends from Suffolk and beyond through other ventures. It has been a wonderful way of making new literary friends, too, from a range of countries.

I am grateful to the teams of translators (see this post by Anne Stewart) who work so hard behind the scenes, ensuring that a poem, for example, can appear in up to three languages, most frequently Romanian, Spanish and English.

Many happy returns to Daniel and his A Team! Here's to the next decade and the next 60+ issues...

Poetry Round-up

Staffin ... Isle of Skye

Time for a quick poetry round-up ...

Due to time away and other commitments I have got behind with my postings, so here is a summary.

• I have been awarded Third-Equal in the Fixed Form Poet of the Year (2014) Challenge for the Metverse Muse (#38, ed. Dr. H. Tulsi, Visakhapatnam, India) competition in Category A. My poems in the international contest were 'Nightmare' and 'Feline Fancy'. My poems, 'Cattle Crossing, Staffin Bay' and 'Winter's Knife' have been published in this issue of Metverse Muse. 

• My poem, 'In the Wake of Prince Madoc', was Highly Commended in the inaugural Disability Arts Cymru Poetry Competition, judged by Menna Elfyn. The poem will appear in an eBook, alongside the artwork I selected as my inspiration. 

• I will be reading my poem, 'Dear Loris', at the Emma Press Launch of the anthology, Slow Things, in London on Tuesday 21 July. 

• My review of Mike Bannister's poetry book, The Green Man (translated into Romanian as Omul Verde) has appeared in Orizont Literar Contemporan, in the May-June 2015 issue. 

• My interview with Professor Don Riggs of Drexel University in Philadelphia has appeared in Made of Words (translated into Romanian as Făurit din cuvinte). Published in Romania under the aegis of Orizont Literar Contemporan.

International Echoes (16): Publications from Romania and Colombia

With Professor Donald Riggs in Philadelphia

Those who speak Spanish may care to read an interview by Luis Benitez from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luis asks Daniel Dragomirescu, editor-in-chief of Orizont Literar Contemporan, about his Romanian literary journal with its popular tagline, 'all the world in a magazine'. The interview appears on a website from Colombia, Red y Acción - and the link is here. 

Speaking of multicultural exchanges, I interviewed Don (through the medium of English) for the Romanian magazine when I was over in Pennsylvania back in January.

Publication Pointer (4): Orizont Literar Contemporan - Antologia (2)

The new Antologia

ALL THE WORLD IN AN ANTHOLOGY

TODO O MUNDO EM UMA ANTOLOGIA

TOUT LE MONDE DANS UNE ANTHOLOGIE

TODO EL MUNDO EN UNA ANTOLOGIA

TOT MAPAMONDUL ÎNTR-O ANTOLOGIE

Daniel Dragomirescu and his editorial assistants in Bucharest have produced the second Antologia Revistei Orizont Literar Contemporan / Contemporary Literary Horizon Anthology. It is 82 pages long and packed with lively literary material from most corners of the globe. The four sections are as follows:

1. Orizonturi Contemporane - including, for example, Peggy Landsman's stroke of sheer brilliance in the form of 'Daniel's Cosmic Suitcase' and Professor Donald Riggs' commentary of the poetry of Marius Ştefan Aldea.
2. Dialoguri Mulitculturale - including Alina-Olimpia Miron in conversation with the editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu, on the subject of whether 'A Good Book is One in Which Most Readers Recognize Themselves'.
3. Orizonturi Poetice - this section features the work of 21 contemporary poets - often in more than one language, largely thanks to the stalwart translation work of the Romanian students linked to Professor Lidia Vianu's MTTLC in Bucharest.
4. Orizontul Prozei - Alex Kudera from the USA heads up the final section with a touching extract from 'The Book of Jay', a memoir about the author's father, the poet Jay Roberts. Magazine Director, Mihai Canuniari's contribution, 'Ocarina De Lut' / 'The Clay Ocarina', is an excerpt about his 'musical evolution' from the second volume of the cycle, 'Man as Grass'.  

Those who know me will know that international poetry is something that I particularly enjoy. I am grateful to the translators for enabling us to appreciate poems in Spanish ('Caracol de Sueno Sobre una Cosa Que Mata' by Luis Benitez from Argentina), in Romanian ('Rigoletto' by Tatiana Rădulescu), and in other languages besides, like French and Italian - and not forgetting English! Three of my poems, 'A Flicker, A Flash', 'On Emily's Moor', and 'Afternoon with Alfred Wallis in St Ives' have been included. My thanks to Iulian Daniel Trandafir and Teodora Gheorghe of MTTLC, Universitatea din Bucureti for their translations into Romanian. My poems appear in Romanian as 'O Licarire, O Fulgerare', 'In Ţinutul lui Emily', and 'O După Amiază Cu Alfred Wallis in St Ives'.   

If you are interested in taking out a subscription to the magazine or would like to buy a copy of the Antologia, you might like to contact Daniel Dragomirescu or leave a comment here on my blog or on the Contemporary Literary Horizon site here. We would love to hear from you!