The First Batch of Books Arrive!

The search is going well. I have created a list of every recognised country in the world (all 197 of them) and split the list into continents. I began with Africa and have managed to find books for most of the countries. For others I have emailed various poets, bookshops, translators, organisations etc., that I have come across online and remain hopeful that they will be able to help.

I haven't yet found books from the following countries. If anyone can recommend one then please get in touch: Zambia, Togo, Mozabique, Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Equitorial Guinea and Egypt.

One of the best publishers for poetry books in translation that I've come across is Shearsman Books. Through their website I was able to tick off 15 countries. They had an excellent choice so I was able to choose books that excited me rather than just picking books because they happened to represent a country. I won't reveal all of the titles yet as I'm hoping to entice you to come back each week to see what books I'm reading but if you fancy taking a look at their online bookshop yourself then I can highly recommend it: https://www.shearsman.com/

Currently, every spare moment I have is spent seeking out poets and books. It's been an overwhelmingly large project to take on and the quickest books I've settled on have still taken a good 20 minutes of decision making before they've been added to the list. Already I have found myself gaining a little insight into the poetry communities of the places I'm looking up and I'm looking forward to that continuing. It is my hope that I will finish this list and that once my challenge is complete it will act as a useful resource for others who share my interest in world poetry. I don't know how many people this applies to but so far my poetry friends have been incredibly generous in their enthusiasm for this project so perhaps it is wider reaching than I first imagined...

I hope that next time I check in with you the list will be largely finished (I'm now at 70% of all countries accounted for) and then I'll be able to start the reading!

Thanks for your interest so far.

ELJ x