By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
In the 30th Year, 39 Writers
At the London Book Fair, Hay Festival announced the names of 39 children’s and YA writers from across Europe, aged 40 or younger, who will participate the first Aarhus 39 International Children’s Literature Hay Festival on October 26-29. This festival will take place in Aarhus, Denmark, the 2017 European Capital of Culture.
This is in addition to the Hay Festival’s 30th anniversary activities which were announced earlier this month.
As part of this new Aarhus 39 event, each of the 39 writers will produce a short story under the theme of “journey,” and will be published in a two-volume anthology edited by Daniel Hahn. Each volume will be published in English (by Alma Books) and Danish (by Gyldendal).
Illustrators will also contribute to these anthologies, and the English language editions will be launched on May 26 at the Hay Festival Wales.
Some of the 39 writers engaged in Hay’s Århus 39 project for October.
The Aarhus 39 Writers
- Ævar Þór Benediktsson – Iceland
- Alaine Agirre – Spain
- Aline Sax – Belgium
- Ana Pessoa – Portugal
- Andri Antoniou – Cyprus
- Anna Woltz – Netherlands
- Annelise Heurtier – France
- Annette Münch – Norway
- B. R. Collins – UK
- Cathy Clement – Luxembourg
- Cornelia Travnicek – Austria
- David Machado – Portugal
- Dy Plambeck – Denmark
- Elisabeth Steinkellner – Austria
- Endre Lund Eriksen – Norway
- Finn-Ole Heinrich – Germany
- Frida Nilsson – Sweden
- Gideon Samson – Netherlands
- Inna Manakhova – Russia
- Jana Šrámková – Czech Republic
- Katherine Rundell – UK
- Katherine Woodfine – UK
- Laura Dockrill – UK
- Laura Gallego – Spain
- Ludovic Flamant – Belgium
- Maria Parr – Norway
- Maria Turtschaninoff – Finland
- Michaela Holzinger – Austria
- Nataly Savina – Latvia
- Nina Elisabeth Grøntvedt – Norway
- Peder Frederik Jensen – Denmark
- Salla Simukka – Finland
- Sandrine Kao – France
- Sanne Munk Jensen – Denmark
- Sarah Crossan – Ireland/UK
- Sarah Engell – Denmark
- Stefan Bachmann – Switzerland
- Stefanie de Velasco – Germany
- Victor Dixen – France
And there have been events in the past in association with UNESCO from Hay using the figure 39: Africa 39, Beirut 39, Bogota 39 and—offering special confusion to the pattern—Mexico 20 (not 39).
During the Aarhus festival in October, the 39 writers are to be invited to spend four days there visiting schools.
There’s more information on the plans here.