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Welsh Author Abroad the Word Express

Welsh writer Owen Martell will embark on a train journey with a difference in October 2009.

The 32-year-old author will be among 20 European writers who will travel by rail from the Balkans to Istanbul in Turkey as part of a unique literary project called Word Express.

The journey will take up to 10 days and the rail writers will stop in a number of cities along the route to meet local authors and poets, and to take part in readings, debates and translation workshops.

When they arrive at their final destination on Friday 30 October 2009, the Word Express writers will present a selection of the work created during their journey at the Istanbul International Book Fair.

“This project brings together a range of fantastic elements – trains, nights trains, journeys which take more than a day and the chance to visit countries which I know enough about to know that I want to know more,” said Owen Martell who sets off from Sarajevo train station on Wednesday 21 October 2009.

“I’ve never been part of a group of writers before and the idea of ‘collaborative writing’ can seem scary at times. But it will be fascinating to travel by train with other authors – we’ll all go through similar experiences no doubt but we’ll also be able to draw on our own individual experiences and countries.”

“It’ll be interesting to read the writing which comes out of the trip and I’m looking forward to meeting writers from other countries and getting to know more about their work and their backgrounds,” added Owen who was nominated for the prjoect by Wales Literature Exchange.

The project is organised by the Literature Across Frontiers network, in cooperation with Delta Publishing in Istanbul, Profil Books in Zagreb, Helicon in Tel Aviv and the National Book Centre in Bucharest and other partners based in twelve countries in the region.

“In a region marked with past and present conflicts, Word Express aims to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries and bring new literary voices of the region to the fore,” said Alexandra Büchler, Director of Literature Across Frontiers which is based alongside Wales Literature Exchange at the Mercator Institute, Aberystwyth University.

“We hope to create opportunities for exchange and dialogue by establishing a network of young writers, translators, literary magazines and venues in twelve countries in South-East Europe and connecting them with the UK. Some fifty young authors and translators will be eventually involved in the project, exploring the region’s cultural, social and political legacy and meeting their colleagues from the participating countries.”

Countries involved in the project include Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The authors’ work will be translated into the languages of the region and published in literary magazines in each of the participating countries.

Word Express is co-financed by the British Council and Literature Across Frontiers (supported by Culture Programme of the European Union), with kind support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, the Scottish Arts Council and Wales Arts International.