Focus on linguistic bridge-building at two-day conference
A symposium took place last week in Athens on the subject of «European Cultural Polymorphism: The Role of Foreign Language Publications.» Sponsored by the Hellenic Quarterly (HQ) magazine, the two-day program also featured two Greek members of the European Parliament, Dimitrios Koulourianos and Mersini Zorba, and much of the discussion and presentations revolved around the EP’s promotion of culture. In addition to the hosts HQ, seven other European countries and publications were represented, including Hungary (Hungarian Quarterly), Finland (Books from Finland), Cyprus (Cyprus Today), Bulgaria (Balkan Media), Estonia (Estonian Literary Magazine), Germany (Kulturchronik) and the Czech Republic (Pritomnost). It was a prime occasion for cultural representatives busy building bridges within their own countries to continue the effort internationally, in this case with other like-minded publications. As cultural expansion through bilingual publishing efforts is a developing concern, this meeting will likely be a harbinger of other such efforts.
