Poetry at the Frankfurt Book Fair

If I could click my heels together and travel to Germany this week, I would! I’ve always wanted to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest trade fair for books, and this would be the year to go because there will be a fantastic poetry pane discussing "Around the world with children’s poems!" with poetry readings in both German and English. The focus is on the challenge of translating poetry-- which would be fascinating. I got word of this from my friends at the International Youth Library (in Munich) which I’ve written about before. The IYL Director, Dr. Christiane Raabe, will be one of the panelists, so it’s sure to be terrific. If you can go, PLEASE share with us! Here are the details.

Around the world with children’s poems!
Conversation and Reading (in German/English)
Thursday, October 13th 2011
15.00 – 16.00
Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair)
Weltempfang – Centre for Politics, Literature and Translation
Hall 5.0 D 963

Participants:
Radek Malý, Czech author of children’s poetry, translator
Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt, author, translator, journalist
Christiane Raabe, director of the International Youth Library, Munich
Chaired by Roswitha Budeus-Budde, journalist

Readers:
Mia Hofmann and Pauline Spatz

Here's the official blurb about the session:
Children’s poetry is a difficult format and hard to sell. And that‘s even before it‘s translated! This panel discussion assesses the opportunities and challenges presented by the genre and asks how easy it is to translate. It also examines the potential uses of children‘s poetry for intercultural communication. The event includes live readings of international children‘s poetry (original and German).

Sponsors:
German Federal Foreign Office
International Youth Library


Image credit: Frankfurt Book Fair



Posting by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2011. All rights reserved.