Friday 25 April
Dutch-language poets in the Poëziecentrum and the KANTL
Mark Insingel (Belgium) (1935) made his debut in the sixties, the heyday of experimental literature. His first collection, Perpetuum Mobile was the first book of concrete poetry in Dutch. Insingel considers himself an avant-garde writer. Writing, for him, is an attempt at production in a society of mere reproduction. Hence he aims to create autonomous literature, in collections such as Modellen (1970) and Posters (1974). Insingel has a large number of publications to his name, of which the most recent - Niets (2005) and Iets (2007) - are a quest for the intangibility of love, its whys and wherefores.
Tonnus Oosterhoff (Netherlands) was born in Leiden in 1953 and is a poet, prose writer and essayist. He made his debut in 1990 with Boerentijger, which won the C.Buddingh' prize. He was awarded the Herman Gorterprijs for De ingeland in 1994. His first novel, Het dikke hart won the Multatuli prize in 1995, and (Robuuste tongwerken,) een stralend plenum won the Jan Campertprijs in 1998. His collection Wij zagen ons in een kleine groep mensen veranderen was published in 2002 with a CD-ROM and was awarded the VSB Poetry Prize the following year. Ware Grootte, his most recent collection of poetry, was published in January 2008 by De Bezige Bij.
Vrouwkje Tuinman (Netherlands) (1974) published her first book of poetry, Vitrine, with Nijgh & van Ditmar in 2004, followed by her novel Grote acht in 2005. Besides writing, she organises literary events, writes columns, publishes anthologies and reads regulary at festivals and literary evenings. Vrouwkje was awarded the Hollands Maandblad Poëziebeurs for 2003/2004 and was nominated for the Libra Prijs, the Debutantenprijs and the Selexyz Debuutprijs. In 2005 she was given the CCS Cronestipendium by the city of Utrecht. Her new collection, Receptie, came out in January 2008. She has also written new lyrics to Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals on commission from Janine Jansen and the Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival. She is currently working on new prose entitled Buurvrouw, to be published this autumn.
Peter Verhelst (Belgium) began his literary career as a poet, but also writes prose and drama. His first collection, Obsidiaan, where Verhelst's obsession with destruction emerges, was honoured with the Province of West Flanders' Prijs voor Letterkunde and the Paul Snoekprijs. Verhelst believes in self-destructive art, in works so perfect that they remove the need for themselves. After his debut, he published another five collections culminating in his claim in Verhemelte that he had destroyed poetry. Nonetheless, he brought out Alaska in 2005, and an untitled poem from this collection was awarded the Gedichtendagprijs. Verhelst is also a celebrated novelist: Tongkat was awarded both the Jonge Gouden Uil and the Gouden Uil.
Stijn Vranken (Belgium) is a man of many parts. As co-founder and current frontman of De Sprekende Ezels, he combines a heady mix of poetry, music and stand-up comedy in his monthly show. He is also a co-founder of Stichting Zondag! and presents Open Podium, a forum for young talent in Antwerp. He is a columnist for Zone 03, the weekly 'Nachtdichter' in Week-Up magazine and writes scripts for the show De Nieuwe Snaar. In 2003 he was awarded the Antwerp city poem prize, and a year later he won Poëzie 2004, a poetry performance contest organised by Ontroerend Goed and Les Nuits Tout Court. His first poetry collection, Vlees mij was published by Meulenhoff/Manteau in January 2008.

Saturday 26 April
International poets in the Minardschouwburg
Eduard Escoffet (Spain) is an ideal representative of the new generation of Catalan poets. His work is influenced by mediaeval texts, avant-garde literature, textualism, sound poetry and polypoetry. He has no interest in publishing his work, being in favour of oral transmission (partly for ecological reasons). He works with his voice, computers and projections. For five consecutive years, he organised the international Proposta festival of polypoetry in Barcelona.
Rozalie Hirs (Netherlands) has studied piano and voice from age 12 and 17 respectively. After a degree in chemical engineering, she began studying composition and classical voice in 1991. She received a Fulbright fellowship (1999-2000) for studies at Columbia University, and received her DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) degree from Columbia University in 2007. Her electro-acoustic composition Pulsars (2006, 2007 rev.) received the distinction 'Recommended work' at the 11th International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (IREM) in 2007. The CD Platonic ID (Attacca 27107, Amsterdam2007) contains the compositions Platonic ID, Book of Mirrors, article 0, article 1 to 3 and article 4. Her first poetry book, Locus, was published in 1998 by Querido, with her second book Logos and her third book Speling appearing in 2002 and 2005 respectively. A new book of poetry is forthcoming in 2008.
Leevi Lehto (Finland) published his first book of poetry Muuttunut tuuli (Changed Wind) in 1967. Several more poetry books followed, but he is particularly well known for his Google Poem Generator. He has translated around 40 books, including work by Louis Althusser, Arthur C. Danto, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Quattari, Jean-François Lyotard, Roland Barthes, George Orwell, William Golding, Joseph Skvorecky, Ian McEwan, Stephen King, Akio Morita, Ulrich Beck and Alexander Dubcek. In 1994, John Ashbery's Flow Chart was published in his Finnish translation as Vuokaavio.He now shares his time between writing, translations, and organisational work within the Finnish poetry community. He is the chairman of Nihil Interit, a poetry society, and member of the editorial team of Tuli&Savu, a poetry quarterly.
Unfortunately Maggie O’Sullivan cannot attend the festival for personal reasons. She will be replaced by the singer Ghalia Benali who will perform a selection of Middle Eastern poetry.
Maggie O'Sullivan (United Kingdom) was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1951 to southern Irish parents. She is a poet, artist, editor and publisher, who has performed and published her work nationally and internationally since the late 1970s. She worked for the BBC in London from 1973 to 1988, specialising in arts documentary films. Her most recent publications include red shifts (etruscan books, 2001), In the House of the Shaman (Reality Street, 1993, reprint 2003), Palace of Reptiles, all origins are lonely and eXcLa (with Bruce Andrews). She lives in Yorkshire, where she lectures and presents creative writing workshops in a wide range of educational and community settings.

Photo © Jemi Samyn 		Ghalia Benali grew up in an extremely artistic family in southern Tunisia. From her earliest childhood, she was surrounded by all kinds of music and poetry: French chansons, Egyptian and Indian musicals, melodies from Syria and Iraq, the ‘tartil,’ or sung readings from the Koran, and the poetry of Oum Kalsoum. Her singing is highly expressive and deeply sensual, in a voice that will linger on your skin.
She will be accompanied on the ud by Moufadhel Adhoum. He was taught by Abderrahmane El Mehdi, a famous master of Arabic music. He studied at the National Conservatoire of Tunisia and the Conservatoire of traditional Tunisian Music. He has performed at a range of festivals in Europe and North Africa.
a.rawlings (Canada) is a poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist who has presented work throughout Canada and the U.S. In 2001, she received the bpNichol Award for Distinction in Writing. In 2005, angela hosted the poetry documentary series Heart of a Poet, and also produced the successful Patron’s Pick Toronto Fringe show On the Money. Her first book-length collection of poetry, Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists (Coach House Books) has received various awards and was selected by the Globe and Mail newspaper for its list of the top 100 books of 2006. A stage adaptation was premiered at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto in November 2006. A ‘lepidopterist,’ by the way, is someone who studies or collects butterflies.