Presentation of Karavan in English
Karavan
A literary magazine travelling between cultures
Founded in 1992 (then as Halva världens litteratur), Karavan is a quarterly magazine which focuses on literatures from Africa, Asia and Latin America. Being continents whose literary production is currently transforming world literature; Karavan presents some of their most urgent and vital authorships through original translations, interviews and contextual articles.
In close relation to its publishing activity, Karavan organizes literary events, mostly in and around Stockholm, where the magazine has its offices, and occasionally elsewhere. Karavan has also carried out several international projects in collaboration, among them a ten-year translation project between Sweden and India, and recurrent literary residencies and workshops with African women writers. Karavan’s partner in organizing the residencies has been a Ugandan writers’ organization, FEMRITE, and activities have taken place around Uganda and in Gotland. In addition, Karavan has performed a literary bus tour to several villages in Botswana as part of an exchange between Swedish and Botswanan poets.
Karavan produces a literary podcast with a focus on writers in exile in Sweden. Jila Mossaed and Salim Barakat are among the writers who have appeared on the programme. Just recently Karavan has started to record readings of short stories for listening on-line, Karavannovellen.
Since a few years, the magazine issues its own literary series, Karavan Noir, which features stories of crime and mystery in a handy small booklet format.
In 2009, Karavan was awarded the Stig Dagerman prize for having ”carried a thousand and one necessary poems and stories into the Swedish language”.