What I brought back from Stockholm

Måndag, 16 Maj 2011 10:59

Photo: The winter garden of Finlandsinstitutet

Recently I had a chance to spend a day in Stockholm discussing about the Poetry Ride with our Swedish partners. It is always nice to visit Stockholm and this time was no exception. And I got something great to bring back home!

We spent the morning in the Finlandsinstitutet with Bengt, Aino and Auli and lovely Lena from the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators. We will perform in Visby in 29th of August and I can’t wait to see that beautiful island I have heard so much praise about! The Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators is our partner in Visby, which I am really happy about. Many of the poets who have participated in the Poetry Ride in previous years have also taken part in their poetry festivals. And they seem to have quite fond memories of both the BCWT and their stay in Visby. I have never been there but have already checked all the picture-beautiful travel brochures and web pages and started to dream about lounging in the sun (as if producers ever had time to lounge, but one can dream).

On 30th of August the Poetry Ride will perform in Stockholm, in Finlandsinstitutet. That’s a nice place, they have their own house with a winter garden and a sauna! On top of their popular literature and other events they also have a library and a gallery. Their library really impressed me, I would have wanted to stay there for hours! Check out their homepage  And when you go there to see an exhibtion or read some Finnish books, bear in mind that the restaurant accross the street has some great sandwiches that they serve with soup!

On the afternoon we visited Helen Sigeland from the Arts Council of Sweden and got some new ideas for the tour. The more I speak abot the Poetry Ride the more excited I get, and every person I discuss it with seems to bring some new idea or a fresh way to look at the tour.

The best thing I got from the trip is the Swedish translation for Poetry Ride! May I introduce you Lyrik på väg! It sounds really good, even somebody with seriously underused Swedish skills can tell that ( I am talking about myself now). Big thanks for the translation go to Bengt Packalén from Finlandsinstitutet!