About the poets
Patrizia Valduga
Patrizia Valduga was born in Northern Italy in 1953. She is now living in Milan. During her visit we can expect poetry about being a woman. Her poems are seeking, often with an erotic content and with religious references. Patrizia Valduga has been called provocative, almost vulgar. When she is on stage, her physical appearance is at the same time fragile and strong. This fragility, though, contrasts with her strong and stubborn glance. She let her marked collarbones show and always insists on wearing velvet gloves. This is a character you can’t miss out on!
Ataol Behramoğlu
As a representative of a new revolutionary current in Turkish literature, the prominent poet, translator and author Ataol Behramoğlu (b. 1942, Çatalca) definitely is worth experiencing. First and foremost Ataol Behramoğlu is a social critic, and clearly his engagement in cultural and political activities has had a radical influence on his epic poetry. Ataol Behramoğlu debuted with a collection of poems in 1965, while his second book of verse “One Day Definitely”, published in 1970, with its elements of surrealism and symbolism, has been reprinted many times until today. Also, he has been an executive committee member of the Turkish Peace Association, which got him arrested in connection with the Turkish military coup d'état in 1980.
Jesper Sternberg
Jesper Sternberg (b. 1973) is a Danish poet based in Copenhagen and Berlin. He started as a conceptual literary street artist and has been active on the literary scene since 2001. Last year Sternberg published "Stone Age Poems", in which he reflects on hunting, sociality and survival in a tentative and entertaining tone, often exploring whether it is possible to communicate in poem form. Sternberg is now a member of the poetry collective Supreme Surgical (Øverste Kirurgiske) and the poet band T/S STERNDOLPH. His previous publications include "A point overrun by nothing" (2011), "Radical people and homes in a neighbourhood long since exploded" (2010) and "Buddha with dog" (made in a collaboration with Peter Laugesen).
Kristiina Ehin
Kristiina Ehin has an M.A. in Comparative and Estonian Folklore from the University of Tartu, Estonia, and has spent a year on an uninhabited island on the north coast of Estonia as nature reserve warden, writing her fourth poetry collection “Kaitseala” (“Protected Area”, 2005). Kristiina Ehin does poetry, fairytales and plays. She is a journalist, a dance teacher and a storyteller; a women of the modern and contemporary Finno-Ugric culture, which reflects a deep and airy spirituality as well as an old sense of eclipsed wisdom. Her poetry glows in the sense of continuity with Estonia's ancient musical heritage and her reverence for nature. Kristiina Ehin celebrates womanhood in her poetry, drawing up all strings of love in her characteristic honesty. Kristiina Ehin is a poetic prism and founder of the 1st International full moon poetry festival in Estonia.
Laura Garavaglia
Laura Garavaglia (b. 1956, Milan) is an Italian poet with a degree in human geography from the University of Milan. She has received several literary prizes for her poetry – latest for her collection of poems “Farfalle e pietre” (“Butterflies and rocks”) published in 2010. Her poems have been published in various anthologies.
Laura Garavaglia is deeply engaged in the literary environment in Como, where she has lived and worked for many years; in 2011 she was the co-organizer of the literary festival “Parolario” in Como. She is the chairman of the cultural association “La Casa Della Poesia di Como” with the purpose of disseminating poetry in the area of Como and she is currently working at the cultural section of the Como newspaper “L'Ordine” – to mention a few.
Peter Poulsen
The Danish poet Peter Poulsen (b. 1940, Frederiksberg) brings you around the world with his poetry; he brings you into the music of jazz, social environments and political relations. He brings you into the wonders of nature, death and everyday life. Common for his work, though, is the casualness, tenderness and humour with which he expresses his poetry.
Peter Poulsen debuted in 1966 with the poetry collection “Udskrifter”. The ongoing list of published work has grown long ever since, and in 2010 his latest collection of poems “Rulleteksterne” was published. He has received various prizes, and at the same time he is one of Denmark’s heavyweights in the field of translation. He has translated poetry of world famous poets such as Charles Baudelaire and Jorge Luis Borges.
Urszula Koziol
“What am I, a flowing existence in an uncertain Between?” This is a question, among others, that the Polish poet Urszula Koziol (b. 1931, Bilgoraj) intends to answer in her poetry. The modern world of chaos, war and racing technology are all themes that catch the interest of Urszula Koziol. However, Urszula Koziol searches for whatever is beneath. Human behaviour as well as the ambiguities and contradictions in everyday life are paramount in “In the Rhythm of the Roots” – a collection of poems with which she had her breakthrough in 1963. Urszula Koziol expresses herself with a unique sensibility, and with concision and intensity as well. She studied Polish at the University of Wroclaw, and was the editor and monthly contributor at the literary magazine, Odra, until recently. Her work furthermore includes novels, short stories and plays for both theatre and radio.
Pablo Llambias
The Danish multi-talent Pablo Henrik Llambias was born in 1964 near the city of Aalborg, Jutland. He has studied trombone at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Film and Media Studies at the University of Copenhagen, and holds an M.A. in theory and communications from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Llambias has taught creative writing at the University of Southern Denmark and the National School of Creative Writing in Copenhagen, where he currently presides as headmaster. Llambias started his career as an author in 1996 when he published “Hun har en altan” and has recently published a collection of sonnets entitled “Monte Lema” (2011). In it, he writes about his experiences as a teacher in an honest, self-disclosing style using autobiographical material to ponder phenomena such as art, love, illness and anxiety.
Ursula Scavenius
Ursula Scavenius (b. 1981) holds an M.A. in comparative literature and italian language and culture from the University of Copenhagen and is currently a student at the National School of Creative Writing in Copenhagen. Earlier, she has worked as a freelance writer at the Danish magazine for architecture “Byggeri & Arkitektur”. She has had poems published in the literary magazines “Apparatur” and “Hvedekorn” and is a regular participant in recitations. About her writing, Scavenius herself says, that she does not want to write literature that merely entertains. Rather, she seeks to engage her reader by challenging rules of style and genre in her poetry.
Christina Kullmann
It is a fragmented version of everyday life, that we find in the Swedish poet, Christina Kullmann's (b. 1975) latest collection of poems “Människor och Verksamheter” from 2010. The poems are written in a condensed style with a scarcity of words. They capture seemingly trivial, everyday events and connect them to wider existential issues concerning meetings, breaking up, moving, growing older just to name a few. “Människor och Verksamheter” is Kullmann's second collection of poems, the first one being her debut “Print” from 2009. Prior to her writing career, she has worked as a visual artist exhibiting at galleries throughout Sweden. She has a degree from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts and has completed the Biskop-Arnö seminar in creative writing. Furthermore, she has been published in the new nordic book series, “Noord”, together with contributions from the Danish writer Lars Skinnebach and Sigurd Tenningen from Norway.
Adda Djørup
Adda Djørup (b. 1972) is a Danish author and poet with a BA in literature from the University of Copenhagen. She is known for her impeccable and accurate language and her ability to sense and observe - often served with a little humour on the side. She scrutinizes and seeks the boundaries between fantasy and realism, and is not afraid to immerse herself in great existential topics. She debuted in 2005 with the collection of poems “Monsieurs Monologer”. Her first novel “Den mindste modstand”, published in 2009, was more than well received by the readers and it, furthermore, received the EU literary award in 2010. It primarily reflects over the joy of the thinking – with no other purpose than the very act of doing just that. In 2011 she published her second and latest collection of poems, “37 Postkort”.
Majse Aymo-Boot
Majse Aymo-Boot (b. 1974) is a Danish author and poet – and a graduate from the National School of Creative Writing in Copenhagen in the year of 2000. She is currently the editor of the literary publishing house “Basilisk”, and her poems have been published in the magazine “Ildfisken”, which at the moment is launching the literary experiment “Lædersvinets Kulturbibliotek”. Majse Aymo-Boot debuted in 2001 with a collection of poems “Venner og bekendte”. Recently, “Ødelæggelsen 1-11” was published – a collection of 11 pieces of poetic prose, reflecting over as well as judging today's lifestyle and society, each in a highly original manner. Majse Aymo-Boot serves her poetry with little sentimentality; on the contrary, she is honest, blunt and firmly masters an intense language.
Tóroddur Poulsen
The Faeroese poet, musician and visual artist, Tóroddur Poulsen, was born in 1957 in Tòrshavn. Since his 1984 début, “Botnfall”, he has published more than 20 collections of poetry. He often employs a humourous, provocative and experimental style of writing, which has earned him the nickname “the black punk poet” back home. Tóroddur Poulsen moved to Copenhagen in 1995 where he currently lives and works and several of his texts have been translated into Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and German. With his unique interdisciplinary combination of poetry, music and performance art, we are in for a treat when Poulsen pays a visit to the Copenhagen International Poetry Festival.
Ulrike Almut Sandig
Apart from her career as a poet, Ulrike Almut Sandig (b. 1979 in Großenhain, Saxony) has studied journalism and has an M. A. in Religious Studies and modern Indiology. In 2001, she co-founded the literary projects “augenpost” and “ohrenpost”, in which she and the songwriter Marlen Pelny spread poetry in the public space by flyers, free postcards and by taping poems onto construction fences. In 2005 she debuted with the collection of poems called “Zunder”. Since then, she has co-edited the German literary journal, “Edit”, and received her diploma from the German Creative Writing Program in Leipzig, where she currently lives and works. Ulrike Almut Sandig writes poetry, prose and radio plays and several of her texts have been translated into English, French, Polish, Turkish, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Hindi.
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