Virtual coffees and dance sessions: RE-CONNECT

From November 5th to 7th, participants of the CELA project gathered during RE-CONNECT, an online event packed with workshops, lectures and less formal events. The online conference was very well organised by Wintertuin. As the grand finale of the event, the literary professionals of CELA organised a public open mic.

Updates and workshops
The RE-CONNECT weekend started with an introduction meeting where we were introduced with the new website, promotion materials and with some updates regarding the CELA project. After that, Friday was reserved for workshops that included the following contents: How to sell yourself and your work (guidelines for authors, translators); How to self-edit; Money mindset in the field of literature; How to write a good pitch; The publishers perspective: independent vs commercial publishing (presented two views on publishing, promotion, distribution, editorial work; advantages and disadvantages of being independent or commercial publisher). The first session of workshops were concluded with virtual coffee time and some online dancing.
In the evening, two more online workshops took place about online performance (practical advice on how to perform online) and how to enjoy poetry (reading selected poems and discussing them).

Saturday Night Live!
Saturday was all about different brainstorm sessions. In the one that I was participating in, we discussed the objectives we have as participants of the CELA project. This sparked some interesting questions regarding the relationship between authors and translators, what are the roles and tasks of literary professionals and their relation towards authors and translators. We also gave some ideas about more interactive ways to be included into the CELA project, which would be an additional value to the promotion of the participating authors and translators.
This day concluded with a Performance night that really embraced the quantity and quality of the CELA project. We could listen to translators reading their translations of poems, extracts of novels, and short stories that were written by participating CELA authors! They really did a great job with being creative with the interpretations of the work.

As a new literary professional within the project, I was impressed with how much enthusiasm and energy was present. I found a lot of useful information and guidelines to develop my work further, and it helped me to think about my role in promoting literature. RE-CONNECT’s main purpose is pretty clear within the name: to reconnect with each other. With all the virtual coffee’s, dance sessions, workshops, and performances combined, this goal was definitely achieved.

This blog was written by Tjaša Primc, literary professional at GOGA