Opportunity for a Jersey poet to represent the Island at Transpoesie 2026

The Creative Island Partnership, CIP, is inviting applications from Jersey-based poets to represent the Island at Transpoesie 2026, an international two day poetry festival taking place from 17 to 19 September 2026 in Brussels.  Hosted by the European Union National Institutes for Culture, EUNIC, Transpoesie brings together poets, translators, and audiences from across Europe to celebrate languages, place, and cultural exchange.

To apply, poets should submit their name and samples of their work to Creativeisland@gov.je by 9am on Monday 30 March. Applicants need to be living in Jersey, over 18, and able to travel unaccompanied. They should include examples of their work. Applicants meeting the criteria will be reviewed by the CIP team, with a recommended candidate put forward for final selection by the Ministerial team.

The successful poet will receive:financial support from the Government of Jersey to attend the festival opportunities to perform a maximum of three of their poems at festival events in Brussels exposure and international networking, joining poets and translators from across Europe About Transpoesie 2026 – Theme: Language and Place Transpoesie celebrates poetry as a meeting point of languages, territories, and communities. It highlights translation as a creative act that enables local voices to travel while remaining rooted in their culture. This aligns with the festival's wider ethos of fostering attentive listening, shared imagination, and collaboration across diverse linguistic landscapes. 

In their Government of Jersey blog describing the impact of the experience, 2024 representative Dr Adam Perchard said: “Representing Jersey in Brussels at the international poetry festival, Transpoesie, was an extraordinary, transformative experience. I met and exchanged ideas with some incredible poets from across Europe – poets writing in more than a dozen languages about war, trauma, healing, feminisms, injustices, culture, history, and the gaps between meaning and unmeaning. It was a joyful, fiercely stimulating time."