Organised by the Poet's Circle, the 7th Athens World Poetry Festival which runs till 30 September, aims once again to transform the city of Athens into a large poetic canvas with the participation of Greek and foreign poets.
When the Poet's Circle was founded in 2012, it set as its primary goal the continuous and public communication of poetry with the wider public. Within this framework, the Athens World Poetry Festival was materialized, featuring, ever since, the ‘dream team’ of world poetry, with internationally renowned poets from around the world.
Under the aegis of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Athens and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the Festival constitutes a major literary event, which aspires to change the country’s image around the world, making Athens a leading international literary hub, as well as a travel destination for poetry lovers.
During the festival, numerous public events – such as readings, workshops, music, visual arts and more – are hosted at several venues around the city so that poetry becomes a vital part of everyday life, emphasizing on the importance of poetry in difficult times, while also contributing to the extroversion of the Greek poetry, to dialogue between different traditions and the promotion of Greek cultural traditions abroad.
This year, all events will take place in open spaces, with the participation of 60 Greek and 12 foreign poets from 9 countries, among which Christopher Bakken (USA), Alen Bešić (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Metin Cengiz (Turkey), Juan Vicente Piqueras (Spain), Marija Dejanović (Croatia), Marjan Čakarević (Serbia), Ledia Dushi (Albania), Sabrina Foschini (Italy), Nikola Madzirov (Northern Macedonia), Eleni Sikelianos and Alicia E. Stallings and John Tripoulas.
An important moment of the festival will be the announcement of this year’s winner of the "Barbara Fields-Siotis" award, in memory of Barbara Fields-Siotis (1939-2019), a woman who has been throughout her life a dedicated reader, advocate and patron of poetry.
