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Reading in Nicosia (and related activities)

Following the announcement of the line up of the poets that will take part in Poetry Parnassus, the British Council in Cyprus, in association with the University of Cyprus, has invited me to visit the island for a reading in Nicosia and some related activities.

It will be a short visit, lasting barely more than 48 hours. The reading will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 15 May. The venue is the Home of Cooperation, a "shared space for intercommunal cooperation and dialogue" situated in Nicosia's UN buffer zone. My reading will be preceded by a screening of the short film Poets in No Man's Land, produced by Stephanos Stephanides of the University of Cyprus and the filmmaker Stephen Nugent, which documents a week-long poetry and translation workshop in Nicosia's 'no man's land'.

A whole host of media activities has also been arranged for me, including TV, radio and press interviews, in English and in Greek, as well as possibly a visit north of the divide for a press event there.

It all seems a bit much, but I'm going with it... I'll be posting links to most of this, where possible, in due course. It all starts with a live interview on CyBC Radio 2 tomorrow Friday 11 May at around 18.30 local time (16.30 British/Irish time), during the English language programme Round and About. You can listen to CyBC Radio 2 here.

Below is the invitation to Tuesday's reading.



British Council Cyprus and the Department of English Studies, the University of Cyprus

cordially invite you to a poetry evening on Tuesday 15 May at 7:30 pm at the Home for Cooperation, Buffer Zone, Nicosia (opposite Ledra Palace) focussing on readings by Christodoulos Makris, the poet who will represent Cyprus at London Southbank’s ambitious project ‘Poetry Parnassus’, a festival gathering of 204 poets, one from each Olympic nation, as part of London’s Cultural Olympiad and the London 2012 celebrations.  The readings will be in English.

There will also be a screening of a 20-minute documentary film Poets in No Man’s Land produced by Prof Stephanos Stephanides, University of Cyprus (starting at 7:00 pm).

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