From 6 to 11 June 2023, ten young poets from the Caribbean participated in the 40th edition of the Poetry Market (Marché de la Poésie), held in the heart of the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. This presence was possible thanks to the support of the UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, funded by the European Union.
The young artists were given the opportunity to showcase their work and interact with key players and representatives of the poetry literary industry in France and Europe, in a year when the literary event brought together representatives of 500 publishing houses and magazines and nearly 200 poets, as well as 50,000 people from the public.
During these days, I have had the opportunity to connect with publishers, translators, journalists who have been interested in my work, which will certainly help to boost my career as a writer.
The Caribbean poets participated in public readings, with specialised interpretation, professional meetings, talks on their literary styles, and shared with the audience their life stories and the main challenges they must overcome as creators from the Caribbean so their works may have a greater outreach.
It has been an extraordinary experience to connect with other poets from the Caribbean and discover that, despite having different styles, our poetry shares common themes and perspectives. This creates opportunities for networking and collaboration within our region.
Featuring poetry as a reflection of the region’s cultural richness and diversity, the literary event presented the Caribbean as “guest of honour region” for the first time through the work of its emerging poets, selected from among 256 candidates through an open call for applications.
Poetry has always helped to build bridges. The French public knows very little about Caribbean poetry and we have seen during these days that there is a lot of interest in the work and talent of these young poets in France.
This initiative resulted from a collaboration between the UNESCO Transcultura programme and the Centre for Information, Research, Creation and Artistic, Literary, Scientific and Technical Studies (CIRCÉ), which organizes the Poetry Market, aimed at promoting access to new markets for young creators from the Caribbean.
