Versopolis

Versopolis is an international poetry platform that was created to support young artists and promote their poetry beyond the borders of their home countries. The network has been active since 2014 and has so far involved several hundred poets. Currently, almost 40 literary festivals co-create the project - the European Poet of Freedom was one of the first to support the platform with its participation, a little later „Found in Translation” joined the network.

How do we operate?

Each year, during the IKM literary festivals European Poet of Freedom and Found in Translation, we invite the public to meet foreign poets and poets who are part of the Versopolis network. The meetings take place in different formulas: sometimes they are performative, at other times they are part of a traditional form of moderated conversation.

Successive Gdansk editions of Versopolis are accompanied by premiere volumes of poems by invited poets. Each book is trilingual, presenting works in Polish and English translation and in the original language. The books are available for free distribution and are published by the Institute of Urban Culture. The publications can be downloaded in digital form (PDF) from the European Poet of Freedom website.

Poets and poetesses

So far in the Versopolis series of meetings we have met in Gdansk with, among others: Lyubov Yakymchuk, Pernilla Berglund, Irina Cilyk, Maarten Inghels or Samantha Barendson.

Deadline

Meetings with Versopolis poets usually take place during the literary festivals of the Institute of Urban Culture, i.e. in spring.

Organisers

The publisher of the volumes and organiser of the meetings is the Institute of Urban Culture. The Versopolis network is a partner of the project.