All Arc Poets are Olympians

These are the faces of just five of the twenty-odd Arc poets taking part in the Poetry Parnassus celebrations this summer in London and around the country. More than 6000 nominations were received last summer for poets to attend, so we see it as a testament to the quality of the poets we publish that so many were selected.

Those pictured are Tanella Boni (Ivory Coast) Alvin Pang(Singapore), Kristiina Ehin (Estonia), Soleiiman Adel Guemar (Algeria) and Selina Tusitala Marsh (Tuvalu).

Also appearing in June and July will be Eli Tolaretxipi representing Spain; Arjen Duinker, from the Netherlands, Anise Koltz from Luxemborg; Katarí­na Kucbelová representing Slovakia; Taja Kramberger from Slovenia; the unofficial poet laureate of Armenia, Razmik Davoyan; Zeyar Lynn from Burma;
Gerour Kristny, from Iceland; one of our Latvian Six Poets, Kalis Verdins; French Valérie Rouzeau , shortlisted for the Griffin Prize; and more poets featured in The Parley Tree (an anthology of poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World) - Paul Dakeyo from Cameroon, Kama Kamanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alain Mabanckon from Congo (Brazzaville), Abdourahman Waberi from Djibouti and Amina Said from Tunisia.

The fortnight-long poetry marathon begins in London at the Southbank Centre on Tuesday 26th June and ends in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, on Sunday 8th July.

The launch event features poets from The Parley Tree, Zeyar Lynn, featured in Bones Will Crow and Kristiina Ehin

Arc also has a special event featuring more of our poets involved in the week-long celebrations on Saturday 30th July at the Southbank. We'll have the names of participating writers soon.

Other events we know about so far are the Poetry London launch on Saturday 30th July with Valérie Rouzeau (and Susan Wicks reading translations), at 7pm in the Level 5 Function Room at the Royal Festival Hall.

Amarjit Chandan is reading in The Modern Poetry in Translation event on Sunday 1st July.

And then as part of the Parnassus Tour, Zeyar Lynn and Alvin Pang are reading at Ledbury at 1245 on Saturday 7th July. And Paul Dakeyo will be there as part of the evening Parnassus event on the 7th.

We'll post more information up on the blog and then our Events page as we hear...