The Third Shore - Women's Fiction from East Central Europe

Photos by Marijuana Gheorghiu

Brandon Books will launch The Third Shore, a vibrant and innovative anthology from East Central Europe, where distinctive new women's voices have emerged and are available in English for the first time. Edited by Agata Schwartz and Louise von Flotow this is a rich compendium of fiction by 25 women from 18 different nations, from Lithuania to the Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Albania and Slovenia. The stories deal with love & desire, illness & death, motherhood & war, feminism and patriarchy.

Alexandra Buchler of Literature Across Frontiers will be in conversation with two of the authors. Carmen-Francesca Banciu has written 3 novels and 4 collections of short stories as well as radio plays. Born in Romania where she was banned from publishing for five years, she has been living in Berlin since 1991. She is the recipient of numerous prizes and fellowships, including the Arnsberg International Short Story Prize. Nora Ikstena belongs to a strong generation of Latvian female prose writers. She has published seven books and currently works as editor at the literary magazine "Kargos" and writes columns for the Latvian daily "Diena".

Carmen-Francesca Banciu's participation is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London.

SPIT-LIT FESTIVAL

Celebrating Women's Writing

Presented by Alternative Arts

2-10 March 2007

TOYNBEE STUDIOS, 28 Commercial Street E1

(Aldgate East tube)

Tickets: 020 7247 2584 (£6 / £4 concs)