Dr. Krastev begins his introduction to Young and the Old (1907) with the thought that "in recent years" Bulgarian literature has undergone significant changes. Taking this fragment from the text of the criticism, we can say that even now, more than a century later, literature continues to change. It is superfluous to repeat, but in fact change is an intrinsic and integral part of the life of literature. It becomes a tradition to organize events that seek to show the promising polyphony of reading, draw attention to the writer, the work, but no less to the reader.
It would not be wrong to say that in Veliko Turnovo lately the readers of contemporary literature are honored. The TAM Reading Studio appeared where, since the end of 2014, poets and prose writers have met with fans once a month.
The format is the work of Severina Plachkova, PhD student in Renaissance literature at Veliko Turnovo University. Its partners are the TAM Club and the VT EVENTS organization.
photo: TAM Reading Studio / Rene Karabash ||
The guests of the readers' studio were Ivan Dimitrov, once as a poet (with guitar), the second time as a novelist with Sofia Duet, Peter Chukhov, Lilia Yovnova, as well as Rene Karabash and Augustine Gospodinov. Apart from Bulgarian authors, the studio also pays attention to translation works. During the month of Scandinavian culture, together with translators Rositsa Tsvetanova and Marin Bodakov, in one of the editions we met the poetry collection "Cow and Birch" by Heli Laxonen.
The first edition of TAM Reading Studio, on 18 October 2014, cannot be mentioned when Maya Angelova, poet and teacher at Veliko Turnovo University, presented "We According to the Attic" by Ivan Landzhev and "Vlad" by Vladislav Christ. Part of the program of the edition was our meeting with "Germany" - the new poem by Vl. Hristov, only a day earlier.
A poetry workshop was also organized to turn the readers into co-authors. In the workshop, everyone had to write a verse to one of the two poets presented and pass on a sheet folded so that it was not visible. Completely new poems have appeared.
photo: TAM Reading Studio
Thus, with the first edition, the studio showed that it wanted to hear (and hear) the voice of the reader, that it intended to turn book presentations into dialogues, that it was trying to find an up-to-date form for meeting authors and works. Each edition has a different appearance and creates a new context for communication about a particular book or individual work.
Different from each other (and from the rest) are both editions called "No Poetry". The first of these was on 20 March 2015. Writers were invited to leave their texts in a box that remained closed until the evening of the event.
The condition was that the texts be poetic without the names of the authors. Participants read, discussed and discussed other poems. The authors, hidden behind the veil of anonymity, dared to be read and heard the audience.
In the second edition of "No Poetry" from October 30, participants had to tell an important story to them about a favorite subject while listeners wrote poems about what was being told.
Another was the direction of the latest (so far) edition of TAM Reading Studio. Readers read, shared and shared their favorite love poems.
The guest of the next issue is yet to be announced, but undoubtedly those who once were there know that a literary evening is coming, which could not happen elsewhere.
