DEN POEZIE – POETRY DAY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

DEN POEZIE – POETRY DAY IN THE CZECH REPUBLICceska20

  • Den poezie is an annual international and multicultural poetry festival held for two weeks every November around the birth anniversary (16.11.1810) of the great Czech Romantic poet, K.H. Mácha. It is the most widespread poetry event in the country with events now taking place in over 50 Czech cities, towns and villages. Almost all the events are free. This year’s Den poezie runs from 8th – 21st November and its theme is Božská komedie / The Divine Comedy, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the death of the great poet Dante Alighieri.

  • In the 2021 programme there is are two events suitable for an English audience – on Wednesday, 10th November at 6 pm in the library of Anglo-American University, Letenská 1, Prague 1 there will be a reading of new English translations of work by the poets Kateřina Rudčenková and Tereza Riedlbauchová and a discussion with their translators, Alexandra Buchler and Stephan Delbos. The second event is a multimedia performance featuring poets and artists from the US, Iceland, Taiwan and Russia. Or if you would like to read some of your own poems in English, you can join the gathering at the statue of K.H. Mácha on Petřín Hill on Friday 16th November at 19.00 where everyone is free to read.

  • Den poezie first took place on just one day in 1999, and marked the launch of a Poezie pro cestujíci (Poetry on the Metro) project initiated by the festival founder, the Literary and Cultural Club 8 (Renata Bulvová and Bernie Higgins). The festival is now coordinated by the Poetry Society (Společnost poezie), a small group of people involved in literature/teaching who work as volunteers to organise events and promote interest in poetry. Year by year, the length of the festival extended, as more and more organisations and towns participated until it reached its current two-week duration.

  • As well as readings by well-known Czech poets, such as Sylva Fischerová, Petr Borkovec, Petr Hruška etc, thanks to the support of various foreign cultural institutes the festival also features leading poets from abroad. This year the festival will have poets from Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Hungary, Ireland, Palestine, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and many other countries. The festival also celebrates poetry from the Czech Republic in languages other than Czech, e.g. in Lusatian and Romani. Readings are in Czech or in another language with Czech translation.

  • Events are organised by schools, libraries, universities, literary groups, clubs, theatres, museums and individuals as well as by the main coordinators of the festival, Společnost poezie, who organise a central programme and coordinate publicity for all the national events. The regional reach of Den poezie is important and the festival aims to inspire the widest possible involvement, encouraging the celebration of poetry in many forms – not only through readings, but also through music, theatre, art, film and ‘happenings’. We consider one of the festival’s strengths to be its range of participation, from well-known, published Czech and foreign poets to schoolchildren learning to enjoy and create poetry for the first time.

  • In 2016, the festival saw the launch of a new project, Poezie pro čekajíci (Poetry for People Waiting). It involves providing poetry brochures to places where people wait (hospitals, official offices etc.). In 2018 we are launching, along with the Prague City of Literature, a new ‘City Poet’ project, which will appoint a poet annually to serve as an ambassador for poetry in the city. The first Poet of the City of Prague for 2019 will be the great poet Sylva Fischerová.

  • The Poetry Day festival is mainly supported by the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Prague Town Hall and the Czech Literature Foundation. Foreign cultural institutes in the Czech Republic give support by sponsoring the participation of poets from their countries. A number of smaller organisations support us mainly through providing publicity. The festival also receives good press coverage, in local and national newspapers, radio and television.

  • Our deadline for submitting information about events is September each year.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Organiser website: www.spolecnostpoezie.cz
Facebook: www.facebook.com/denpoezie
Twitter: @denpoezie
Instagram: www.instagram.com/denpoezie

Email: denpoezie@gmail.com