Word Express is being organised by UK-based Literature Across Frontiers in co-operation with Delta Publishing in Istanbul, Profil Books in Zagreb, Helicon in Tel Aviv and the National Book Centre in Bucharest, Entefktirio in Thessaloniki, and other partners based in twelve countries in the region.
Approximately fifty young writers and translators from the South East Europe region will eventually be involved in the project, exploring the region’s cultural, social and political legacy and meeting their counterparts from the participating countries.
The writers will form three groups, each of which will go on a different train journey through the Balkans. Along the way they will take part in a series of readings, debates and translation workshops in the cities where their trains stop: Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia, Skopje, Sarajevo and Thessaloniki.
All three groups will join together in Thessaloniki before embarking on the last leg of their journey, which will take them to their common final destination: Istanbul.
In collaboration with the literary magazine Entefktirio, we are organising two exciting events in Thessaloniki with the Balkan writers and poets participating in Word Express, who will share with us the experiences they have gained through this unusual train journey. Both events have been designed and developed by the writer Chris Chryssopoulos.
