The European Literature Network needs you!
For over ten years, the European Literature Network has been championing European literature in the United Kingdom. From incredible events bringing together authors, translators, readers and publishers from France to Georgia to the Low Countries, to our active and original website, the Riveter magazines celebrating the best writing from Poland to Romania, Switzerland and the Baltics, we are immensely proud of our achievements. We want to continue rolling out the red carpet for European Literature - and for this, we need your support.
From the outset, the goal of our director, Rosie (The Riveter) Goldsmith, was to promote ‘riveting’ writing from across Europe and to make it accessible to bookshops, universities, libraries and festivals – to everyone across the UK for free. For ten years we have achieved this. Then Brexit happened, Covid came and we lost our core funding, but we believe that never has ELNet’s positive and professional networking been more necessary. However, we can’t do this with empty coffers. In order to continue sharing and promoting Europe’s outstanding literature and culture in the UK in our unique way, to support our specialist team of ELNeters and to keep the United Kingdom’s connections with Europe strong and fruitful, we need money. There are still many Riveters to publish, new partners and contacts to meet, events to celebrate, and an abundance of new European writing to discover – the show must go on!
With your help, we can continue our work, as well as building on the all-important idea of networking - offering a space, physical and online, for authors, translators, readers and publishers from all over Europe to collaborate, to showcase their writing and share their love for literature.
We are therefore seeking donations and sponsors. We would be grateful for any donation, small or large, to help us to continue the work we are so passionate about - for you, for Britain and for Europe.
What do we do?
Riveting Writing!
At ELNet, we are incredibly proud of our ‘Riveter’ magazines, available to everyone for free, in print, and online. In the last ten years, we have published expertly curated magazines of literature from Poland, Russia, The Balkans, the Nordic countries, Switzerland, Germany and Romania, along with a very special edition of the Riveter magazine that brought together Queer writing from across Europe. The latest, our 9th edition, focuses on all things Dutch and was launched just last week in collaboration with the British Library. This star-studded evening of celebration was a sparkling cabaret of live art and music and readings and discussions with featured authors and translators.
Each Riveter magazine is passionately researched and compiled by the ELNet team, along with a special guest editor. This results in fantastic magazines featuring outstanding European writing. The Riveter’s biggest goal is to share and promote literature in translation and literature yet to be published in English from across Europe. As you can see, we have already worked to bring together and promote literature from many European shores, however, there is still so much great writing out there that we want to bring to you – for free!
Read all of 'The Riveters' online here
Order hard copies of the Romanian and Dutch 'Riveters' here
Events
Here is just a taste of some of the brilliant events ELNet held in 2020…
Romania Rocks was a month-long Romanian literature festival held in Autumn 2020 in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute London. The festival brought together Romanian and British writers, poets, translators, publishers, illustrators and musicians, with over ninety artists participating across thirty incredible events. Readings, performances and discussions centred around fantastic Romanian literature, and some of the biggest global literary names appeared at the festival, including Elif Shafak, Norman Manea, Deborah Levy, Ian Rankin and Ben Okri. Festivities ended in style with a brilliant finale: a live rock concert from the lead singer of Publika. We filmed and recorded everything and made it available for free on our YouTube Channel. It was a truly triumphant festival, and we are incredibly proud of it. With your support, we could organise many more special events and festivals like this. Explore the Romania Rocks Festival here
In December 2020, we collaborated with Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council, and the Swiss Embassy in London to create the first-ever UK-Swiss Publishing Book Fair. This was a day-long, online event that consisted of panels with authors, translators, publishers and literary festival directors, and covered all aspects of the UK-Swiss book trade. The idea was to promote Swiss writing in the UK and encourage more translation and publication. The finale of this fantastic day was the launch of 'The Twelve Nights', by Urs Faes, translated by Jamie Lee Searle. If our crowdfunding campaign is successful, ELNet could continue to produce many more ‘firsts’, uniting authors, translators and publishers from across Europe. Explore the UK-Swiss Publishing Day here
Our French Book Week, held in the summer of 2020, was a feast of all things French. Once again it was held entirely online (as a BBC broadcaster my media skills have come in handy this past year!) and aimed to promote French literature in the UK. On Monday, the focus was on French authors, followed by ‘Translator’s Tuesday’, and reviews of French literature on Wednesday. Thursday focused on French poetry, followed by French publishers on Friday. The week was filled with brilliant articles, new research, seminars and interviews. Explore the French Book Week here
Our show-stopping catalogue of Riveters, events, reviews and more can be found on our website. Help spread the word about our campaign and the great work we do, by sharing your experiences with the European Literature Network using the hashtag #ELNetneedsyou
How do your donations help?
#ELNetneedsyou ! Your donations mean the survival of ELNet!
The money we raise from a successful Crowdfunding campaign will help us in many important ways. For one, it will support the publication of The Riveter magazine - we have four issues planned over the next two years, riveting writing from Italy, Spain, the Balkans and Turkey. We also hope to raise enough money to give our very active website a much needed revamp and – last but very much not least – we’d like be able to pay the ELNet team for all the hard work they do, currently pro bono. In this way ELNet can continue to hold its fantastic events, continue to bring together creative minds from across Europe and continue sharing outstanding European writing.
Now, more than ever, we believe it is essential to maintain our close links with Europe, its languages and its literature.
With your kind donations, you can help us reach our target.
Share this campaign across social media using the #ELNetneedsyou and help us reach our target!
If you would like to get in touch, please use the contact form found at the top of this page. The European Literature Network team will be happy to answer any questions you may have and looks forward to hearing from you!
To say thank you...
To say thank you for your donations, we are offering some fantastic prizes that have been kindly donated by some of the brilliant literary organisations, authors, and publishers we have worked with over the years.
Our star prize, however, is a stay in Rosie 'the Riveter' Goldsmith's Italian house. This stunning mountain-top home is located in the Garfagnana area of Northern Tuscany. This idyllic location is the perfect space for a writer's or artist's retreat, perhaps the ideal setting in which to translate your next novel? The house is large and comfortable, sleeps six and has a terrace. Receivers of this prize must arrange their own travel to the location. If you would like any more information, please get in touch.
*Please note we can only deliver rewards to UK addresses.