Transpoésie

Join us for this year’s celebration of poetry and linguistic diversity in Brussels!

EUNIC (EU National Institutes for Cultures) Brussels invites poets to voice the hopes, strives and fears of people living in Europe nowadays for TRANSPOESIE 2025 Turbulent Times.

TRANSPOESIE 2025 Turbulent Times voices the fears but also the hopes of the current generation, the urgency to change but also the urge to seek cover and question what is. How does contemporary poetry react to the times we are living? Poets from 16 European countries will voice each the current mood in their own language. Expect to be connected with languages from the four corners of the European continent.

Since 2011, TRANSPOESIE has been an annual poetry festival organized by EUNIC Brussels, a cluster of cultural institutions and embassies engaging in cultural relations in Belgium. TRANSPOESIE is an international poetry festival, marking the European Day of Languages, celebrated each year on 26 September. The festival hosts a series of events (readings; debates, public writing sessions) showcasing original poems in their native languages. Curated by Philip Meersman, expert on experimental poetry, immersive audience experience - performance festival curator - artistic PhD researcher AP University College and performance poet working with XR.

Margarida Vale de Gato

Margarida Vale de Gato (Portugal) is the author of the poetry collection Mulher ao Mar (2010), and of its successsive expanded editions, Mulher ao Mar Retorna (2013), Mulher ao Mar e Grinalda (2018) e Mulher ao Mar e Corsárias (2023). She has also published the poetry books Lançamento (2016) and Atirar para o Torto (2021, shortlisted for the Oceanos, PEN, Poetry DST and Casino da Póvoa poetry prizes). Recipient of the 2012 Alberto de Lacerda Translation Award, she translates French and English authors like W. B. Yeats, Edgar Allan Poe, Henri Michaux, René Char, Nathalie Sarraute, Lewis Carroll, Jack Kerouac, Sharon Olds, Alice Munro, Marianne Moore, Kathy Acker and Vladimir Nabokov.

She is Associate Professor in the English Department of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, where she teaches in the areas of American Studies and Translation, having earned, in 2008, a PhD with a thesis on the reception of Edgar Allan Poe in modern Portuguese poetry. As a full research member of ULICES (University of Lisbon Centre of English Studies), she published several essays within her research interests, such as Edgar Allan Poe em Portugal (2009), Translated Poe and Anthologizing Poe: Editions, Translations, and (Trans)National Canons (co-edited with Emron Esplin, respectively in 2014 and 2020).Represented in international online fora such as Poetry International and Lyrikline, she is also the co-author, with Rui Costa, of the play Delisgar e Voltar a Ligar (To Switch Off and On Again, 2011).

Ciprian Măceșaru

Ciprian Măceșaru (Romania) is a writer, cultural journalist, photographer and musician. He has written numerous volumes of poetry, prose, essays, and diaries. As a writer, he is published by the most important publishing houses in Romania, but also in Ireland (Blue Max Review), France (Le blues roumain - Éditions Unicité) or Hungary (Szépirodalmi Figyelő). He is invited to participate in literary events in his home country and abroad. His prose and poems have been translated into several languages, and he has published in important magazines in Romania, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Slovakia. The Irish composer Gráinne Mulvey composed the work ‘Don’t Walk’ based on his lyrics, which premiered in Dublin (2013). He wrote the libretto for the chamber opera ‘În trup / In the body’ (music: Diana Rotaru), a winning work of the UCIMR CAMERA Project (2017). As a photographer, he has had several exhibitions, but has also illustrated several books. He was a drummer in the bands Toulouse Lautrec and Hotel Fetish.

Nika Pfeifer

Nika Pfeifer (Austria) is a poet and writer working between German and English. Her work bridges sound, image, and text. She performs across Europe and is part of Versopolis. Recent books: TIGER TOAST (2024) and TUCSONICS (2022).

Sveta Grigorjeva

Sveta Grigorjeva (Estonia) is an Estonian choreographer, dancer, poet and critic. Her productions include “TEKHNE” (2020) and “FAKERZ” (2021), “Dances to Sleep, Dream and Resist” (2022), which was awarded the best dance performance at the 2023 Estonian Theatre Awards. She is also one of this year’s laureates of Sirp, Estonian Cultural newspaper. She has published three poetry collections: “Who is Afraid of Sveta Grigorjeva” (2013), “American Beauty” (2018) and “Frankenstein” (2023). As an artist, she is interested in the Spinoza-like “we still don’t know what the body is capable of” reset and often in the possible subversive nature and potential of the expressive body and text. Grigorjeva has danced in her own and others’ works in Estonia and abroad. In 2022, he received a second master's degree from the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and in the fall of 2023, he began doctoral studies as a junior researcher at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.

Jan Kooistra

Jan Kooistra (Friesland, the Netherlands) was born on 15 February 1959 in Wâlterswâld, Fryslân. He currently lives in Anloo and works as a Dutch teacher at the Praedinius Gymnasium in Groningen.

Kooistra made his debut in the literary magazine Hjir; he was on the editorial board of the magazine from 1983 until 1998. He joined the poetry collective Rixt in 2018, and various of his poems can be found on their website. He regularly writes poems and reviews for the Frisian literary magazine Ensafh.

Kooistra published five poetry collections. In 1981, his debut collection, Ballads, appeared as a bibliophile edition, and his first real collection, De sulveren apels fan de moanne (The silver apples of the moon) was published in 1984. He mainly writes in a Frisian dialect called “Wâldfrysk”, the language from the area where he was born and grew up. Next publications were Dame fan myn dagen (Lady of my days) in 1992 and Gershipper (Grasshopper) in 1998. His most recent collection of poetry was published in 2014, Blues fan ’e sângrûn (Blues from the sandy soil), by publishing house Wijdemeer. He is currently working on his comeback.

Giuseppe Goffredo

Giuseppe Goffredo (Italy) poeta e scrittore nato ad Alberobello in Puglia nel 1956. Per la poesia ha pubblicato: Fra Muri e Sogni, Torino, Einaudi, 1982; Paesaggi di Maggio, Milano, Mondadori, 1989; Elegie Empiriche. Guerini e Associati, Milano 1995; Alle Porte di Alessandria (poesie 1977-2000), ed. La Mongolfiera, 2003; Contrade Madri di Aprile ed. Lieto Colle, Milano, 2007. Per la Poiesis Editrice sono pubblicati: Canto e oblio, 2010; Nessuna solitudine è più vera dell’azzurro dopo ogni spavento, 2015-2016; Nelle voci del mare perdute, 2019; Cadere nutre la terra. Poesie 1976-2022, pubblicato nel 2024. Per la narrativa: Con i fiori dei mandorli in faccia (romanzo), 2006, Palomar, Bari; Il Cielo Sopra Baghdad. Diario di un viaggio in Iraq, 2006-2012; Verso il mare che tace (romanzo), Poiesis, 2012; Lo sguardo del paesaggio. Un viaggio attraverso il paesaggio italiano, Poiesis, 2015; E’ Alberobello, il patrimonio, la tutela, l’amor loci. Poiesis 2022. Ha fondato e dirige dal 1995 Poiesis Editrice. Ha tenuto numerose letture fra paesi mediterranei ed europei. E’ tradotto in tedesco, francese, inglese, arabo, turco, croato. Nel 1987 gli è stato assegnato il Premio Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Carla Lucarelli

Carla Lucarelli (Luxembourg), a poet, novelist, short story writer, and playwright from Luxembourg, has a background in modern literature, art history, and drama. She’s the author of Aquatiques, Dekagonon, Chantiers du désir, and salztage + zurück.

Sandra Noel

Sandra Noel (Channel Islands, Jersey) is a poet from Jersey in the Channel Islands with a passion for nature and the ocean. Her poems appear online and in print in Anthropocene and others. Sandra’s debut collection ‘Into The Under’ was published in July 2024 by Yaffle Press.

Rowan Carteret

Rowan Carteret (Channel Islands, Guernsey) is a Guernsey born writer. Rowan’s work explores the physicality of mental health, queer identity, and the struggle to forge authentic connections in an ever-changing world. Rowan also founded Word is Out!, a biennial queer poetry zine.

Eelco Couvreur

Eelco Couvreur (The Netherlands) is a writer of prose and poetry. His debut novel 'Totok Terror' (De Arbeiderspers) was released in 2023 and was nominated for the Hebban Debut Prize. He explores how word art can contribute to new representations and undermine colonial systems. Eelco studies poetry at De Schrijversvakschool in Amsterdam, and is working on on 'Bruin Vet', his debut poetry collection and 'Djoemirah', a second novel. His poetry has previously appeared in Deus Ex Machina, Poëziekrant, De Revisor, and Kluger Hans, and online at De Internet Gids. In 2020, Eelco made the shortlist for the Joost Zwagerman Essay Prize. In 2023, he won the audience award at Poëzieslag Amsterdam and came in second at the NK Poetry Slam. In 2025, he was selected for Vers van het Mes, a poetry programme of Perdu and deBuren.

Marcin Czerkasow

Marcin Czerkasow (b. 1981, Poland) – poet, publisher, graphic designer. He writes and also translates literary texts and essays on contemporary art. Author of the chapbook Płonące ciasteczko (Burning Cookie 2006), and books Fałszywe zaproszenia (False Invitations, Wielkopolska Biblioteka i Centrum Animacji Kultury, 2008), Przede wszystkim zniszczenia (The Destruction Most of All, Disastra Publishing 2014), Mountain View (WBPiCAK 2022), for which he received the Gdynia Literary Award (2023), and Belgijskie rozwiązania (Belgian Solutions, WBPiCAK 2024). Founder of Disastra Publishing.

Julieta Valero

Julieta Valero (Madrid 1971, Spain) has been awarded with the IV RNE-R3 Poetry Award for Los Heridos Graves, Ausiás March Award and XXII Cáceres Poetry Award for Autoría. Que concierne was one of the best poetry books of the year according to El Cultural and ABC, Los tres primeros años by El Mundo, and her first novel Niños aparte by El País and nominated for the Lectures Plurielles Award. She has just published No obstantísimas. Translated into Italian, German and English, she is director of the José Hierro Poetry Center Foundation.

Biró Sára

Sára Biró (Hungary) was born in 2001 in Târgu Mureș (Romania). She is currently living in Budapest, studying Hungarian literature and theatre studies. Her poems have been published in several journals in Transylvania and Hungary (Műút, Szifonline, Látó, KULTter, Nincs, etc.). She is currently preparing to publish her book.

Simonas Bernotas

Simonas Bernotas (b. 1993 in Kaunas, Lituania) is a poet, translator, and publisher. He lives in Vilnius. He holds an MA in Intermediate Literature Studies from Vilnius University. Bernotas poetry collection Reivas (Rave, published in 2019) earned the Best Debut prize from Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. His second poetry collection Pasakų parkas (Park of Folktales, published in 2023) was nominated »Book of the Year 2023«, was shortlisted as one of the twelve most creative books in Lithuania and won the Young Yotvingian Prize.

Olena Herasymiuk

Olena Herasymiuk Hera Kyiv, Ukraine Writer, veteran, paramedic, public figure Books: Deafness The Execution Calendar The Prison Song Link to book Awards: Jury Prize, European Slam Poetry Championship (2024) Finalist, Taras Shevchenko National Prize (2020) Laureate, Taras Melnychuk “Prince of Dew” Award (2024) Top 30 under 30 by KyivPost (2020) "Book of the Year" Ranking (2020) BookForum Best Book Award (2020) Laureate, Oles Honchar Prize Nominee, Women in Arts Award Activism and service: Participant of the Revolution of Dignity Paramedic in the volunteer medical battalion Hospitallers Served at the stabilization point in Avdiivka, near Mariupol, Maryinka Co-author of the long-distance medical evacuation vehicles “Kraken” and “Avstriyka” (12,000+ cases) Provided aid to reconnaissance units during the special operation and arrest of Volodymyr Tsemakh, a pro-russian militant connected to the downing of Boeing 777 flight MH17 and other serious crimes Co-initiator of Nedopysani, a commemorative initiative for writers and literary figures killed by russian aggression https://linktr.ee/nedopysani

Honors: For a Saved Life – state award for personal courage in defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and dedicated service to the Ukrainian people Knight’s Cross of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army Poetry portfolio: Tapolsky & Hera – Poetry DJ set (01.06.2025) Watch here Under spring rain (25.04.2024) Watch here Babylon'13 – Father (2023) Watch here Festival Nravytsia (08.2024) Watch here European Slam Poetry Championship, Košice – Semifinal (2024) Watch here Final of the European Championship (2024).

Iñigo Astiz

Iñigo Astiz (Iruñea, 1985) is a Basque journalist and poet. He has published several poetry books, including Baita hondakinak ere (The Remains Too) and Analfabetoa (The Illiterate), as well as one children’s´ poetry book titled Joemak eta polasak (Pames and goems), illustrated by Maite Mutuberria, which was awarded the Basque national literary prize. His poetry has been analysed and anthologised in Basque and Spanish books and journals. He is also the author of a chronicle called Kixotenean (Rikardo Arregi Journalism Prize), and has created the picture-books Haserrea (Anger), Kixkur (Curly) and Zizare ia-ia hegalaria (The storie of the almost flying worm), in collaboration with the illustrators Leire Salaberria and Mikel Valverde.

He has also edited an anthology of Sandro Penna´s poems with his own translations alongside Damaris Pan's paintings, and he has also translated Sylvia Plath´s Ariel and Other Poems into Basque. He has written lyrics for several highly-regarded Basque musicians such as Eñaut Elorrieta, Gari and Jabier Muguruza, and he has also received critical praise for his live poetry performances. (ENGLISH)

Colin Hassard

Colin Hassard is a poet from Banbridge, Northern Ireland. He has twice been Ulster Poetry Slam Champion, was Runner Up in the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing 2018, shortlisted for the Aurivo North West Words Poetry Competition 2019 and was joint winner of the 2020 Cursed Murphy Spoken Word Award.

Colin is a regular poet on BBC Radio, has performed on Sky television, and a two-time recipient of Arts Council NI funding. His debut poetry collection Age of the Microwave Dinner was released in 2021 through Doire Press.