Day Two of the Poetry Conference

Today, I got up early and had my shower and was ready with about 40 minutes to spare, so I posted my blog entry for yesterday and worked a bit on reworking some parts of my paper. When I started to come downstairs, I saw that Petra had put a new pair of pantyhose on the top step for me. (I had asked her where I could pick up some for relatively cheap during our chat last night, and she ended up having an extra pair in her drawer that was the size and color I needed, which I didn't know.) I was downstairs by 8:30 for my breakfast of toast and raspberry jam, and left with Petra by 8:55. She was able to get a "VIP" spot right next to her shop today, with no chance of a parking ticket! So, I was off to the library (with my camera today).

I arrived early at the library and had some time to take pictures around the grounds. It was beautiful today (no rain!), and I got some nice pictures of the ducks, the patio where we can eat lunch during the week, and some pictures of the outside of the castle. When some of the others arrived, we toured some of the new exhibits that were opened last night. A castle makes an incredible museum, it turns out, with all of it's towers, nooks for reading and pictures, and multiple levels that enable people to spread out in a relatively small space. I've posted some pictures here of the exhibit designed to honor and remember a famous German author and illustrator.

At 10:00, the conference began, so we went upstairs to hear a discussion on the topic of whether children's poetry is worth publishing today, in terms of the possibility of a poet being able to make a living writing children's poetry. This discussion was with a German publisher and a German editor, so we listened to the translation through our headphones. The next presentation was another series of short biographies of poets around the world, with a few of their poems being read. Perhaps the most interesting was the poem presented from poet Shintaro Tanikawa, of Japan. The presenter was Japanese and discussed the use of word play and double meanings of some of the characters within the poem. The poem was also projected on the screen, so it was interesting to see the Japanese characters while the speaker read the poem in Japanese. Other poets mentioned in this session were Douglas Florian, a US poet, and Maurine Mahy, of New Zealand (her style is similar to Shel Silverstein). There is a picture here of Johan presenting his poem.

We then had a coffee break, with cookies and cappuccino, espresso, and alfredo again today. I have a picture here for you to see the alfredo that I had today. If you look closely, you might be able to see the pretzel on the side of the mug.

After our coffee break, there was a presentation by a phenomenal Dutch children's poet and illustrator, Ted van Lieshout. His work is more surreal and abstract, which seems to be a theme among European illustrators. One of the things that I've noticed during this conference is that the European culture as a whole is less afraid to present less than cheerful, and sometimes downright gloomy, images and text to children in poetry. This seems largely dissimilar to the US culture as a whole, although these certainly exist in the US in certain segments of the literary and artistic culture. Van Lieshout presented the idea of not creating illustrations for the text, but of writing the text and then finding images to go with it, as he did with one of his works. He simply went through his portfolio and found images that he felt went with the overall rhythm, theme, or mood of the text. He uses all manner of techniques, including collage and computer generated or altered images.

For lunch today, we had peppers stuffed with couscous and chopped veggies with a creamy tomato sauce. There was also red cabbage that was spiced with cloves and cinnamon, multiple salads, pasta, German dumplings, and bread. There was not dessert with today's lunch, but I suppose the cookies during the coffee break sufficed.

After lunch, there was a presentation from the Austrian collaborative group, Gerda Anger-Schmidt (poet) and Renate Habinger (illustrator). This pair was quite dynamic and has worked together for over 25 years. They seem to compliment each other well and were thoroughly entertaining to listen to, even with the English translation by headphones. There are some images of Habinger here illustrating some of her techniques. After their presentation, there was another presentation by the library staff on more poets from around the world. At the end of this presentation, there was another short coffee break with yummy chocolate and orange filled cookies, and then back for the last few sessions of the day.

The most interesting presentation of this last session was from Lionel Le Neouanic, a French poet and artist. He primarily uses mixed media for his illustrations, and often reworks famous pieces from artists such as Picasso, Degas, Monet, and others. He typically creates the images first and then develops the story from those, saying, (in rough translation) "I am almost the translator who translates the picture into text." The last discussion of the day was a sort of debate regarding illustrating classical poetry and presenting classically adult poetry to children. This raised a lively question and answer portion with the audience at the end of the day.

I left the library shortly after six to come home. I picked up a yummy cream cheese pastry as a snack for dinner, since lunch was so filling, and discovered that the bakery in Grafelfing puts pastries on sale after 5:00, so I purchased it for .65 E instead of the regular 1.25 E. I love finding new deals! When I got home, I chatted with Petra a bit about the weather in Salzburg for the weekend (mostly more rain), and asked her to put a few things in the laundry with her laundry this weekend. Currently, the cat is sleeping on my bed while I pack my bag for Salzburg. I'll leave early in the morning to catch the 7:10 train to be at the Haptbanhof station by 7:45ish. We'll be in Salzburg until Monday evening.