Submit your indigenous language poems to Basque PEN

Basque PEN, together with Garabide Elkartea, Erroa Argitaletxea and the Maya Kakchiqel University of Guatemala, is involved in a very special project related to the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019.

They are preparing a book of poems that will show the literary treasure of indigenous languages from around the globe.

In order to do this, they are looking for poets to submit one of their indigenous language works to be considered for publication.

• The poem should not be longer than 50 lines and it should be presented both in the original indigenous language and the translated version (preferably in English, otherwise in Spanish or French)

• Together with the poetic text, the author should send a short presentation (10-15 lines, preferably in English, otherwise in Spanish or French) about himself/herself and his/her community: geographic location, number of speakers, sociolinguistic situation and any other relevant fact. This must be accompanied by a signed declaration accepting the translation and publication of the book.

• The deadline for the collection of the texts is May 15th (however, the earlier we receive them, the better, so that we can start the translation and edition process).

• Ideally, every linguistic community should decide which poem they publish in the collection. Should more than one poem be received, organizers will decide which one suits better for the publication (after consulting experts of the linguistic community, as long as possible).

The book is set to be published late in 2019 and will contain between 60 and 100 poetic texts (depending on submissions.)

Submit your poem to [email protected] or visit the PEN Basque website for more details.