This year the festival has the honour to introduce and give a taster of two international poets, reading from their own collections.

First up is a central figure of contemporary Flemish poetry, Tom Van De Voorde. Of his seven published poetry collections only Kärlek och jord (2013) has been translated to Swedish. Van Voordes latest work Din tygndkraft min fjäder (2022), will have just been published in Swedish.

Kärlek och jord was nominated for the award of Best Poetry Collection in Belgium and has been described as an unusual, alarming exploration of nature and society. It is poetry which doesn’t flinch in taking a stance against the cruelty of our current political systems.

Since 2013 he has been one of the poet laureates at the Versopolis project, a European platform for emerging poets supported by the creative industry program of the European Union. Apart from working on his own poetry, he has also worked as essayist and translated renowned American poets such as Wallace Stevens and Michael Palmer and is considered an expert on contemporary American poetry.

Najlaa Eltom is a poet, author, translator, song writer and activist. She was born in Sudan but has lived and worked in Sweden for over a decade. She became part of the literary scene in North Africa during the early 2000s and debuted with the poetry collection The Doctrine of Thinness (2007) in Cairo and has since published Det sista andetagets rang (2015), Evigt brott med örhänge (2019) and Hastighetens melodier (2021).

As a female author in a literary tradition dominated by men, Eltom has grappled with the gendered struggles of voice, individuality, taboo, image and expectations that so many women before her have.

All the literature Najlaa Eltom read growing up was written by men. Therefore she too wanted to be a male author. “When I grew up I realized that I didn’t have to deny my identity as a woman and author. My identity is stronger now and I am able engage with the discourses of being a female author. I have tried finding a balance, but it is difficult.”

Here both poets Tom Van de Voorde and Najla Eltom will read their own poetry.