In February 2024, a group of eight Japanese publishers travelled to the Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, to participate in the book fairs in Vilnius and Riga and to explore the rich literary scene of this region. In this talk event, four of the tour participants share their experiences from the study tour, in which they mastered an ambitious schedule to encounter three countries, which after gaining independency from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s have pursued their identities as young and dynamic democracies. The Baltics are not only intertwined by their complex histories, but also by the fact, that their citizens are among the most passionate bookworms in Europe.
The talk event is moderated by the book critic Sukezane Watanabe.
Polish poet Krystyna Dąbrowska is the EU fellow in this year’s Kyoto Writer’s Residency; Yasuhiro Yotsumoto is a Japanese poet, who has been living in Europe for long years and who has developed a broad and vivid creative network with poets from all over the world.
In the European Literature Festival 2024, they will appear together in an event, in which they will read from their poetry and talk the potential of poetry in our current times.
Prior to the event, they shared their views about the “Haiku Spirit” and their approaches to writing poetry today.
Yuki Nagae is a poet who explores the possibilities of expanding the realm of poetry to the physical and virtual space. She was influenced by the Lithuanian poet and filmmaker Jonas Mekas and maintains strong ties with the Lithuanian literary scene.
Milena-Michiko Flašar is an Austrian-Japanese author, who writes about Japanese social phenomenona, such as hikkikomori or kodokushi in German language. In the interview, she traces her life between the two cultures from her childhood days to the present.
