On the 10th of October I went by bike to the little village called Kattrup on Danish Jutland. It lies between Horsens and Århus as you might have checked out on Google Maps already. I was over there for two months, I just came back before the holidays. I worked on my new novel as I wrote about in my previous blog. I wrote as well that the subject of the blog might shift a little towards a bit more of a literary character. But you might have guessed that by reading the title.
The house of the family where I stayed.
I dived into the Danish literature as much as I could. I’ve learned the language in the years passed on such a level that I can have a conversation and I understand most of what is written down. But I don’t know a lot about the literature.
Even more I would like to get into contact with fellow poets and writers to gain knowledge about the literature through them, so to speak. That’s why I wrote an e-mail to the Aarhus Literatturcenter with the question if they could help me with that. And they could! I got a mail by the prose poet Carsten René Nielsen that he would make a hike on the coming Saturday and if I wanted to join him.
And that I did. We had lovely weather and chatted non-stop during our walk of twenty kilometers around Århus. He would like to help me with translating some poems of mine into Danish. He knows other people in the literary field he would like to introduce me to. Already I’m working on some translations of his work into Frisian.
Carsten René Nielsen
Quite soon afterwards I met Tomas Dalgaard, who’s organizing an open stage at Løve’s Bog- og Vincafé in Århus. I had the pleasure of performing there two times. Both evenings were very different in terms of the performing poets. Super hyggeligt between all the books and the mood lights. Tomas has the dream that everybody has to have something with poetry. If you are attending such an evening, you already have the idea that he is fairly far in realizing that dream.
Tomas Dalgaard
I’ve got another gig coming Sunday. In that way I meet some more poets. I would like to interview and film some of them in order to make short introductions to Århusian poets. I’ve already had a veteran from the Danish literature, Annemette Kure Andersen, and the young, fresh but very skillful poet, Mads Mygind, in front of the lens.
Mads Mygind
There is happening a lot literarywise in the city, which is just still Cultural Capital of Europe before Ljouwert will take over next year. I’m curious to find out how it will turn out with us and how many projects will be left over in the years to come. Carsten René Nielsen is positive about this year in Århus. It did the city good and there have been a couple of great projects. It brought something in motion that will still echo long after Århus isn’t Cultural Capital anymore.
So I’m sucked into a for me completely new literature in which I knew only Hans Christian Andersen and some crimewriters. It’s very interesting to expand one’s borders to a new language and to discover a new literature.
It peddeljend pear 