This summer, Romania-based Moldovan-Bulgarian poet Lena Chilari makes her UK stage debut at the 8th edition of the European Poetry Festival. She will be the protagonist of two spoken word performances in Norwich and Liverpool, created especially for the festival alongside British and European poets.
This marks the second participation supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute in the history of EPF, reflecting our ongoing commitment to showcasing the vitality and diversity of contemporary Romanian literature on the international stage. Don’t miss this bold new voice in European poetry!
Lena Chilari’s participation in the European Poetry Festival is supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute, in partnership with the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in London, who are kindly contributing to the poet’s presence at these events.
PROGRAMME:
Thursday 3 July, 6:30 PM
Dragon Hall, Norwich National Centre for Writing
In partnership with the National Centre for Writing, this evening will feature unique poetry duets and dynamic new works created for the festival. For this event,Lena Chilari will perform alongsideCat Woodward, a feminist lyric poet and lecturer in Creative Writing.
More info about the event HERE.
Sunday 6 July, 2:00 PM
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
As part of the EPF’s tour events, this performance will explore new poetic forms through collaborative performance in a cutting-edge cultural space. For this event,Lena Chilari will perform alongside writer and artistMichael Sutton, editor of Overground Underground magazine and press.
More info about the event HERE.
One of the most innovative spoken word performers in Romania, hailed as “uncompromising and confessional”, poet Lena Chilari (b. 1995, Republic of Moldova) graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University in Cluj-Napoca. Her debut volume, a cup of noviciok in old age(2020), brought her the "King of the Morning" Award of the "Alexandru Mușina" Poetry Debut Competition in Romania. In 2024, her second poetry collection Ludmila overturns the mountains was released by Max Blecher Publishing House. A schoolteacher and organiser of literary events herself, Lena Chilari has, for the past few years, been the protagonist of many events and festivals, including the Transylvanian Literature Festival, the biannual British festival organised by art historian Lucy Abel Smith and writer Bronwen Riley in Romania. Credit photo: Svetlana Vakulovski.
The European Poetry Festival, whose founder is writer and avant-garde artist Steven Fowler, is the biggest consistent celebration of continental poetry in the UK. For seven years as a festival, and a decade as an event series, over 1000 European poets have performed new collaborations across the British Isles. The festival celebrates, in the UK and beyond, the grand resurgence in avant-garde and literary poetry that has marked the 21st century across Europe and it aims to not only innovate what a live poetry experience might be, but to inculcate community and engagement between poets across the continent, as well as between new audiences and complex poetries. At the heart of the Festival is its collaborative model, the Camarade events. Here pairs of poets, visiting or based in the UK, create brand new works for each event, free to innovate. Each event often features multiple pairings, engaging playgrounds for experimentation as well as friendships.
