In June, poets from across the world – from Afghanistan to the United States, from Brazil to South Korea, from Sudan to Russia – gathered to attend the 41st annual Poetry International Festival in the City Theatre of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This year, the festival explored the boundaries and relationships between prose and poetry, and also put the spotlight on contemporary poetry from the United States. In addition to showcasing guest poets from around the world, throughout this exciting week we hosted special events about Wislawa Szymborska, Fernando Pessoa, Herman Gorter, the classic Persian love story of Layla and Madjnun, and much more.

1 June PIW 2010 festival issue
Festival blog
POETRY CLIPS - Poetry International Festival 2010
45 video clips of poets reading their work; filmed on location at Atlanta Hotel in Rotterdam.

 Poetry Talk: The USA domain on PIW A discussion about contemporary American poetry between Kate Coles of the Poetry Foundation (PIW’s USA domain partner) and festival poets Christian Hawkey, Katia Kapovich, Michael Palmer and CK Williams.

 Poetry Talk: Hiromi Itō Festival poet Hiromi Itō in discussion with PIW Japan editor Yasuhiro Yotsumoto

 Poetry Talk: Kamran Mir Hazar and Sam Vaseghi
Festival poet Kamran Mir Hazar and PIW editor Sam Vaseghi talking about art in Afghanistan

Visit www.poetryinternationalblog.org and www.poetry.nl for a line-up of poets, blog posts, the festival schedule and more information.

PREVIOUS FESTIVALS

Poetry International Festival 2009
Poetry International Festival 2009 page on PIW
June 2009 issue of PIW: PIW festival issue featuring the 2009 guest poets
Poetry Clips: short video portraits made of the guest poets during the 2009 festival
Photos and festival diary
Online digital poetry laboratory: created for the 2009 festival’s Bits of Poetry event

Poetry International Festivals 2005–2008
Poetry International Festival 2008
Poetry International Festival 2007
Live-streaming events at the 2006 festival
Poetry World Slampionship 2005