It was a pleasure for me to host this highlight of the series of events at the Young Writers day AtTheFringe. Members of Young Writers LAB shared their work with an attentive audience packed in to Töwerland. The many facets of YWL were represented with collaborative poems, international callers, and the variety of voice, language and style that is YWL.
We opened with a collaborative piece written during our April residency, culminating in Vifast Berglund’s uplifting contribution.
"Jag sitter på våggen och ser allt
De ser inte jag ser
Men jag ser allt, och det är ändå för lite Jag vill se lycka och allt gott i vårlden
Istället ser jag bara några personer som vågar ta steget
Kiva in och ha roligt
Det borde finnas fler som vågar
Vågar kliva in och bara ha det bra"
Carl Sjögren had the audience on the edge of their seats with a gripping extract from one of his short stories. Inês Lampreia has been working intensely with Raneem Jneid who read a moving, tear-pricking piece in Arabic, translated into English by Inês.
In June Kultivera published a collection of short poems by some of the children in Kulltorpsskolan near Gnosjö. Joke and I read out a couple of pieces from this collection, Skogspoesi.
Finally we were able to link a video call to Welsh members of our YWL group, Words over Water. Ianto Williams read three poems including this group’s first collaborative poem Our Woven Journeys.
"No handles to guide you,
the wind beating a Samba.
When we travelled it was dark, silent,
the road was quiet, but I was not
silent in my head."
Tayler Walters read two very touching poems, one about Dementia and the other about her experiences of being fostered.
It was exciting to hear young writers read their own work, but the highlight was for them to meet up with each other and other Swedish and international writers, and this is summed up in the words of Evalina from YWL’s group Sagolandet:
“I’m looking forward to making my writing more alive and colourful, and learning new writing techniques”