In this year I got the opportunity to represent Hungary at the 2nd International Forum of Young Poetesses, in Baku. Unfortunately – because of “technical issues” – I failed to visit the capital of Azerbaijan although, I was able to get in touch with those young – under the age of 35 – poetesses, who have been (or almost been) to the windiest city of the World.
Organizers and participants in the International Mugham Center of Azerbaijan, in Baku
Before I get into what Meeting - the new column of the Literary Centrifuge (Irodalmi Centrifuga) - is, or why I think, that it is an important series, I would like to share a few thoughts about the event, that was organized in Baku.
The International Forum of Young Poetesses is an international project implemented by the „Great Silk Way” International Youth Union. The denominator of the GSW, the more than 8000 kilometers long „Silk Way” has linked East and West over centuries. Therefore the main objective of the organization is to connect the countries/places of the ancient trade route again, to give chance to the young artists who are living on these areas to build relationships and start „literary dialogues” to each other. (In addition the GSW organizes meetings of young businessmen, too.)
The first forum was held on 26-28 April 2013. The project was awarded as The Best Cross-Border Project 2013 in the category of “Culture”.
In last year 20, on 12-15 March 2014 twenty-two participants were received by the Azerbaijanis. The invited countries were: Albania, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Singapore, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
When Árpád Kollár, the president of the Young Writers’ Association (Hungary), raised that I could give my application for the appeal, it came to my mind that we know very less about the big part of the listed countries’ poetry, young poetesses. I have already seen the possibility of a new column, which speciality is – besides what I mentioned – that we could recognize not just the young authors’ works and life history, but their favorite books or places, their thoughts about the “women-literature”, too.
The introductions will follow each other fortnightly and the writings will be available both in English and Hungarian languages. In order to keep the international nature of this column.
Boglárka Debreceni
