What an awesome ride it has been, and we still have three more countries to go! We met on Sunday to do a photo shoot in a playground in Riga. Although we were discriminated because of our age and refused to go  jumping on the trampolines, we still managed to do some really good pictures in the sunny park. In the evening w ehad the chance to taste traditional Latvian grass soup, since lovely Silvija Tretjakova had invited us to her home for dinner.

The first reading was in the Ziemelvalstu skola (Nordic school). They teach Finnish and Swedish at their school and had invited also the pupils of Estonian school to meet us. I was q... Read more

As I write this, I can feel the excitement (or should we call it panic?) building up. The Poetry Ride starts already this Sunday! What am I going to wear? And maybe even more importantly, how is it going to be? Will there be any public at the readings and what will they think about us? How will the participants get on with each other? Well, the last one shouldn’t be any real risk, as all of them seem to be so friendly and nice. But still, forming a new group always means that you have to come out from your comfort zone.

Last year poetry rider Igor Kotjuh wrote an excellent article in Eesti Ekspress where he compared Poetry... Read more

Last week I visited Riga and met many Poetry Ride partners. We are working in close cooperation with the Latvian Center for Childrens Literature (http://www.lnb.lv/en/for-librarians/consultative-work/the-childrens-literature-centre) and their very nice and hospitable director Silvija. I happened to be there just in time to attend a launch party for a book called Latvian Children’s book illustration at the turn of the century. It is a book definitely worth checking out if you are interested in illustrations.

There were ... Read more

Making a tour aimed for kids is a bit different from organising events for adults. One great thing about children is that they seem to be quite eager to offer their own contributions to our programm. I have never had a situation, where 50 adult fans of certain poet would express their wish to sing some songs in honor of their idol (although I am pretty sure that it will happen sooner or later in Poetry Ride). However, we will have a girl’s choir singing songs with lyrics written by Leelo Tungal when she is coming to perform in her hometown Tallinn along with other poetry riders on 17th of May! Isn’t it nice! All thanks to the E... Read more

We have had a period full of all kinds of challenges, but now things are looking rather sunny again. It is quite a puzzle to make the everyone’s timetable go together; there are four poets, one comics artist and several local partners. Everyone is busy, as people usually are. But somehow we have once again managed to make a timetable for the tour. I can’t understand how it is done, although I do it every year. The process included drinking a lot of coffee and some hair-pulling, that much I remember.

The poetry riders are performing in Riga on 14th and 15th May. From there we will take a boat to Stockholm to perform ... Read more

We are always looking for new challenges here at the Poetry Ride headquarters, so this year we decided to really come out from our comfort zone. We wil have a completely different target audience than previous years. They will be more critical (or at least really open and honest in expressing their thoughts) but on the other hand, you can fit more of them in the same space. As you may have already guessed, I am talking about children here. Educating the younger generation to love poetry is an important task. Those language-playing little kids of today will, if everything goes right, be the poetry lovers of tomorrow.

I have been... Read more

Oh how I miss my dear Poetry Riders! Our ride together is over but it certainly left its mark on all of us. The experience was so intense that it will take a long time to absorb it all.

But first of all I want to thank the city of Liepaja and and the city library for making us feel so welcome! We certainly felt that we were long-awaited guests, and I will definitely visit Liepaja again if I ever have the chance. The reading was in Fire Bar, which is both relaxed and decorous at the same time and therefore the perfect place for our Riders. It was so nice to hear all the warm comments from the public, it was the perfect ending for... Read more

Landing in Visby on Sunday was like landing into paradise. Or at least close to it. We were not the only guests in the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, and among the other guests there were 7 poets from China. It turned out they are not only poets, but great cooks as well! And it is always so welcoming to come into a place where people are waiting for you and have been preparing for your arrival.

Our group had grown bigger on the road, as Swedish-Latvian poet and translator Juris Kronbergs joined us for our readings in Sweden to be the host of the evening and to read the translations into Swedish. The Visby reading was... Read more

We are on the road! The Poetry Ride 2011 started from Helsinki on Saturday, and as I write this we are heading to Visby. Fortunately not on a push-car though.

We performed in Café Mascot in an event organised by Runokuu, which is the only literary festival in Helsinki and a cooperation festival of Helsinki festival / Helsingin Juhlaviikot. Big thanks to Laura and other Runokuu staff! We were really happy to have two of our translators there performing with  their poets; Jukka Mallinen who has translated Igor's poems, and Varja Arola who has done translations of Valts's poems via Estonian language. It is interesting t... Read more