Where Voices Meet : Guernsey Arts seeks a poet for Transpoesie 2026
As Brussels’ leading poetry festival Transpoesie returns for another year, Guernsey Arts is back again with the opportunity for an Islander to represent the Bailiwick of Guernsey on the global stage.
A unique opportunity is now open for a local poet or poet-performer to take part in Transpoesie: Where Voices Meet, an international initiative led by EUNIC Brussels. This is the fourth year that Guernsey Arts has participated, thanks to collaboration with the Channel Islands Brussels Office.
The opportunity means travelling to Brussels to participate in the festival, with travel and accommodation provided. Previous participants have included : Trudie Shannon, Lupin Vivian and Rowan Carteret.
This year’s edition explores the intersections of language, space, and poetic resistance, with a strong emphasis on translation as a creative and transformative practice.
The Brief : How to Apply
Guernsey Arts are seeking a poet based in the Bailiwick of Guernsey whose work engages with one or more of the following themes:
● Translation as a creative practice
● Local histories, ecological knowledge or community memory
● Geography, displacement, or peripheral territories
● Multilingual practices, code-switching, accent or linguistic friction
● Experimental, performative, or oral approaches to poetry
● Minor, endangered, migrant, hybrid, or “unofficial” languages
● Situated voices and untranslatable experiences
Transpoesie is interested in voices that are authentic, innovative, and thought-provoking. This is an opportunity to contribute to a wider European dialogue on language, identity, and cultural exchange through poetry.
Applicants are asked to submit an example poem and cover letter to info@arts.gg by the 15th May, explaining how their poetry fits the theme and what this opportunity would mean to them.
Testimonials from Past Participants
“In 2023, through the Arts Commission, I had the wonderful opportunity of participating in the Transpoèsie festival in Brussels. Poetry has always been a vehicle for truth, for love and hope, for sadness and pain for joy, laughter and appreciation. My experience of Transpoèsie confirmed this for me in every way. The event was brilliantly organised and we took our poetry to the Brussels community and its visitors, in a host of different venues, from old factories to shopping malls and
libraries. We truly engaged with the public. To have had this opportunity, to feel one, with the other participants was truly a gift that I will never forget. To meet with people I would never have done in any other part of my life was both enriching and inspiring.”
Trudie Shannon, 2023 Representative
“Transpoésie is truly a writing opportunity like no other, and I had a wonderful time at last year’s event in Brussels. The most important thing Transpoésie offers is the chance to meet other poets. Not only is it an honour to be invited to engage with writers from across Europe and the EU, but also a great opportunity to talk to poets from all backgrounds. Language preservation, appreciation, and representation are important values at Transpoésie, and my experiences at the festival have inspired
me not only to experiment with multilingual poetry in my own practice but also to begin learning our own language, Guernesiais. Following the poetry festival, I have attended more events than ever before. Publishers’ fairs are a new favourite of mine, allowing me to meet small and independent publishers and discover new and
interesting poets. Before Transpoésie, such opportunities felt entirely alien to me; I wouldn’t have known what each event entailed or how to get the best out of them, something I’ve been lucky to enjoy ever since. Transpoésie really was the spark I needed to drive my writing forwards, develop my craft in new and exciting ways, and to take the leap into the intimidating world of publication."
Rowan Carteret, 2025 Representative
