These days until Sunday, June 23, 2024, will take place in Saint Sulpice square in Paris, the 41st Poetry Market (Marché de la Poésie), one of the most important poetry festivals in Europe, which welcomes thousands of poets, publishers and readers every year. This year, the invited and honored country is Greece, which participates dynamically, with funding from the Ministry of Culture, together with Greek poets, who will present their work to the French public. Visitors to the festival are welcomed in a space dedicated to Greek poetry – stand 415 – organized by the Greek bookstore-publishing house “Desmos” (Librairie-éditions grecque “Desmos”).
The national participation of the country is prepared by Greek Cultural Center (Centre Culturel Hellénique) the Greek Embassy, ​​​​​​​​”Desmos”, and the Hellenic House (Fondation Hellénique) on the Paris International Campus. The event follows the successful national participation in international book fairs in the first half of 2024, organized by the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Fund, with a professional and cultural program and invited Greek authors, translators, academics, intellectuals, etc. (London International Book Fair, March 12-14, 61st Bologna International Children’s Book Fair, April 8-11, Paris Book Festival, April 12-14).
The selection and program was compiled under the supervision of the organizers of the festival, Yves Boudier and Vincent Gimeno-Pons, with the collaboration of a group of translators and critics and with the help of the Department of Letters of the Ministry of Culture, which informs The organizing committee of the festival of all the French translations of the works of Greek poets made for the French market in recent years.
From Greece, the poets Dimitris Angelis, Anna Griva, Katerina Iliopoulou, Lena Kallergi, Efthymia Panagiotou, Thomas Tsalapatis, Yiannis Stigas, Thanasis Hatzopoulos, Dimitra Christodoulou, and Titika Dimitroulia, professor of Theory and Practice of Translation at the University of Athens, joined. literary critic, translator, Stamatis Zochios, researcher at the Greek Folklore Research Center of the Academy of Athens, professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, writer, translator, Cleo Mavroidakou, director of the poetry series of “Desmos” publishers, translator and Sissy Papathanasiou, writer, translator, director of the Directorate of Letters of the Ministry of Culture of Greece.
Events include poetry readings in Greek and French, a tribute to the great Greek poets of the 20th century, presentations and discussions about the Greek poetry scene and meetings of Greek poets, as well as concerts by Greek poetry set to music and a musical theater performance based on the works of Greek poets.
The organization Greece honored the country at the 41st Poetry Market in Paris it gained more weight because this summer the spotlight is on the French capital where the Olympic Games are organized and it has already aroused the interest of the French press with many reports in French newspapers