euskalkultura.eus

Donostia-San Sebastian.  On Tuesday, April 23, Sant Jordi Day will be celebrated in Catalonia, and in the rest of the world, the International Day of the Book.  For the occasion the Euskal Etxea in Barcelona has organized Literaldia, a festival of Basque literature to publicize the work of Basque writers among Catalans, for years.  It is also driving new initiatives such as a literature contest via Twitter that was such a success last year, they decided to do it again.

The contest is open to everybody through four categories:

•  #mikroipuina: stories in Basque of 140 characters or less.
•  #ipuintzarra: a collective tale in Basque.  Each one can add a sentence of less than 140 characters.
• #mikroconte: In Catalan, micro-narrations of 140 characters
• #megaconte: Also in Catalan, a collective story that will be created by individual contributions of 140 characters.

The deadline to submit stories in either Basque or Catalan is April 26.  The first tweets have been written by prominent authors such as Quim Monzo in Catalan and Harkaitz Cano in Basque.  Winners in each category will receive a set of books.

In Sydney, a poetry recital and book exchange

In Australia, the Basque club in Sydney told us about a simple but effective way to celebrate Book Day.  The club is asking for volunteers to participate in a poetry reading, in Basque, that will take place at Gure Txoko from 1:00-2:00 p.m. on Sunday.  Organizers are hoping that many members will participate in this beautiful event.

Following the reading, there will be a meal in the fronton followed by a book exchange.  Organizers are asking those interested to come with a book to exchange with another member.  This is a fun and entertaining way to talk about literature and the favorite books of folks at Gure Txoko in Sydney.