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Editor's welcome
Welcome to
Trafika Europe
! You hold in your (virtual)
hands a new contribution in literary journal publishing –
some of the best new writing from across Europe, side by
side in English, available free online. What can such a
window say about Europe, both as a whole and in its
vibrant parts?
Our focus for this inaugural quarterly issue is Europe's
northern islands. More than half of the following pages
plumb Europe's exotic north – enchanting and brooding,
shrouded in sea and fog, with a history at once shared yet
slyly remote. We've collected new writing from northern
Scotland (including Gaelic and Scots), and from the Faroe
Islands, Iceland and northern Norway; these pieces are
marked with an asterisk (*) in the Table of Contents, which
by the way you can click on to flip directly to any pieces.
A notable aspect of what's being written today in northern
Europe comes in concurrences of mood and outlook,
reflecting these islands' overlapping geography, languages
and history. One highlight, from the tiny culture of the
Faroe Islands, is a healthy excerpt of Jóanes Nielson's
The
Brahmadells – A North Atlantic Chronicle
. This is the first
work from Faroese ever to receive a major international
publishing contract, so it is the most important news of
Faroese literature in our times. To celebrate its English