About
What does writing poetry have in common with walking in the city? In translating poetry, what lost paths, dark alleys and chance connections are encountered? How do these change the maps by which cities are known and by which new poetries may be discovered? Metropoetica is a collaboration of women writing and walking in different cities across Europe in response to these questions.
Metropoetica started in 2009 with workshops in Kraków and Ljubljana focusing on translation and writing in response to urban spaces. Alongside these events, the poets are working collaboratively online and exploring different aspects of their own cities on foot through experiments such as following directions sent by other participants. This September the poets are meeting again for a workshop in Riga.
The contributing poets and translators include Ingmara Balode (Riga, Latvia), Julia Fiedorczuk(Warsaw, Poland), Sanna Karlström (Helsinki, Finland), Ana Pepelnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Zoë Skoulding(Bangor, Wales), Sigurbjörg Thrastardottir (Reykjavik, Iceland), and Elzbieta Wójcik-Leese (Kraków, Poland).
Metropetica is a Literature Across Frontiers project, supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union, Bangor University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK).
Metropoetica News
Out now: the Metropoetica book
Metropoetica is now a book! You can now find poems, images and essays from each of the poets as well as work made collaboratively in the streets of several European cities. Published by Seren, it can be ordered here for £9.99 from the Seren website.
Metropoetica in Wrocław
Watch Inside Outside - a film from the Metropoetica poets, shot at a performance in the streets of Wrocław in April 2011
Metropoetica in Riga
"We walked in the wide streets, in the pale grey light. We watched the city, photographed it, filmed it, wrote about it, and watched it looking back at us through closed windows, reflections in passing trams and the inscrutable eyes of statues..." Responses to Riga from the poets - now available online