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From the field | More literature for your calendar
The sun glints from behind clouds and the table is filled with excited chatter as Tekstin talo’s Executive Director Laura Serkosalo and Project Coordinator Leena Manninen take a seat by the window at Bar tÿpo to discuss the new literary calendar, to be launched to the public in October.
The calendar forms part of a textual culture development project initiated at the start of this year in Tekstin talo. It aims to extend to all of Finland what Tekstin talo has achieved so far in Helsinki: to bring together diverse operators from the literary sector.
“Fantastic things happen in the literary field, but the public don’t always find out about them,” Serkosalo says. The new literary calendar (Kirjallisuuskalenteri.fi) addresses this issue by bringing the public and event organizers together on a single platform that can be accessed via a browser on a computer or smart device. It will provide a comprehensive listing of literary events – such as book clubs, interviews and training sessions – around Finland, freeing bibliophiles from an avalanche of newsletters. “The literary calendar will be a nationwide community for all those who work with or are interested in literature and text,” Manninen explains.
The calendar will provide content in Finnish, Swedish and English. Events can be searched in the calendar using keywords, by location or according to other criteria. Serkosalo and Manninen explain that the search functions were designed based on brainstorming sessions, considering what the project team themselves would want to see. They were also careful to make sure that the calendar feels inclusive for everyone, regardless of their age or areas of interest. By making literary events more visible, Serkosalo hopes the calendar will inspire more people to attend.
The event organizers have also been taken into account. The site is free for all users, user support is available, and organizers can post events and information on a real-time basis. One objective is that if using the calendar frees up resources from other publicity efforts and the threshold for holding events is thus lowered, this will lead to more events being organized.
Securing the vitality of the literary sector is crucial in the present political climate, with its severe cuts to culture. The literary calendar is a spark of hope for the sector. According to Serkosalo, it should be harder to cut funding if activities are increasingly visible. She also specifies that making events more prominent is also important for the organizations operating in the field: “It gives us a boost and helps us feel proud of what we do.” Manninen adds that the calendar will also help event organizers partner up between themselves.
Besides publicizing events and bringing people together through them, the literary calendar aims to promote literary event culture through journalistic content. It will include advance reports, reviews and interviews related to literary events. “The calendar’s nationwide scope is important,” Manninen says, “as the aim is to present text-related and literary events from all around Finland.”
Every time I visit Tekstin talo, I am drawn to the community’s welcoming atmosphere and to the sense of belonging it generates even in my own life. Community spirit is something we could all do with more of. “People need to exchange opinions and feel that they are heard and understood by others,” Serkosalo says. That is exactly what the calendar wants to promote: “connecting people with one another.”
Serkosalo and Manninen’s dreams would be fulfilled if in twelve months’ time the calendar were a household name both in the field and among the public. They also hope that the site will be long-lived. Manninen explains that the objective is to have the calendar become a permanent part of the literary field, living on after the project. As the calendar is launched, the biggest hope for both women is that users will find their way to the site. “I hope that we manage to build such a nice house that it invites people to come in and stay – organizers and audience members alike. Four walls with a roof but no inhabitants are nothing but an empty shell,” Serkosalo explains.
Anna Kallio
The writer is a freelance critic and Sub-Editor of the Runografi poetry portal.