CALL: MEET ME AT THE LIGHTHOUSE

Description of the call: 3 authors are invited to participate in the official programme of the Festival Meet me at the Lighthouse to be celebrated in the island of Schiermonnikoog (The Netherlands) on 9 and 10 November 2023. 

Opening date: 21/04/2023

Deadline date: 22/05/2023 

CALL ORGANISATION: STICHTING ALGEMIENE FRYSKE UNDERRJOCHT KOMMISJE AFUK (Stichting Afûk), PIC 949467041

Address: BOTERHOEK 3, LEEUWARDEN 8900 AB, Netherlands

Theme for the proposal: Authors will propose works dealing with “island issues” in a literal and figurative sense. Authors could be inspired by sea, stormy skies, and the sense of space and wide views on an island. Apart from the physical aspects of islands there’s also the more metaphorical understanding of an island, addressing issues of identity, inclusion and isolation – and of course language. Furthermore, the festival intends to address current issues, such as climate change, ecology and biodiversity, identity and inclusion – and how and why imagination and inspiration in general, and literature in particular are important in dealing with these issues.

A special program has been organised in collaboration with the Meet me at the Lighthouse festival: Small languages, Big stories. All authors will be participating in this program, which gives them the opportunity to perform and to be part of a panel together with a Frisian author.

Grant: Each author participating will receive a grant of 1000 € as expenses for their participation. These expenses will be paid after their participation in the festival. 

Process of application: submitting CV and letter of candidature to any partner participating in Lit-Up or by email to litupproject@gmail.com.  

Process of selection: after applications closure a committee integrated by representatives of the festival and representatives of AFUK will evaluate candidates and select 3 authors to participate in the festival. 

Once made the selection, authors will receive the invitation to participate in the festival and will sign an agreement with AFUK. In this agreement, it will be registered all the obligations that participants will have with the organiser and with the project following what is stated in the LIT-UP Grant Agreement (101056062)

The Festival: 

Meet Me at the Lighthouse is an intimate, small-scale literary festival on the Frisian Wadden Island of Schiermonnikoog. This will celebrate the second edition of the festival being a new addition to the literary festival field in the Netherlands and Fryslân. The festival will use of different locations on the island for indoor and outdoor activities. The activities consist of readings, literary walks led by poets/authors, performances by authors, round tables, artist in residencies, interviews etc. This is mainly a national festival with a mix of regional, national but in this 2nd edition, due to the collaboration with the Lit-Up project, also international. Literature in the Dutch language especially by young(er) talent is the main focus of the festival. In the first edition, visitors consisted of a mix of inhabitants of the island, people of mainland Fryslân and people from the rest of the Netherlands. Mostly from the north and west.  

Website: Meet Me at the Lighthouse | Meet me at the Lighthouse (mmatl.nl)

LIT-UP project: 

LIT-UP is a Creative Europe project aiming at defining and implementing competitive strategies to empower publishers and authors working with less used languages in front of big players in a global context. Strategies defined will try to help them, via activities and trainings, to compete with real opportunities of survival against big languages and players working in their own markets.

LIT-UP addresses directly to the objective of safeguarding, developing and promoting European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage as it will help the publishing sector working with lesser-used languages to improve their skills, competences and capacity to sell translation rights abroad and to promote works in international markets.

LIT-UP has developed a range of activities including trainings and workshops around Europe to boost liaisons between authors, publishers, public administrations at local, national and European level.

To achieve this networking strength, LIT-UP base this methodology in these three steps:

  • Promote publishers and authors skills and competences
  • Increase their expertise and relationships
  • Develop robust strategies to leverage the market impact

With a duration of 42 months between 1st June 2022 and 30th November 2025 and the participation of 8 partners from 5 EU countries, LIT-UP has received funding from the Creative Europe Culture Cooperation Projects (CREA-CULT-2021-COOP)  

More information in: https://litup-project.eu/