This week, our editors bring you the latest on a prestigious poetry award in North Macedonia; a Filipino comics movement leading the boycott of the Frankfurt Book Fair; and Hong Kong’s ever-exciting and evolving international intersections in letters.
Sofija Popovska, Editor-at-Large, reporting from North Macedonia
Throughout the years, the main event in the Macedonian literary scene has been the Struga Poetry Evenings’ awarding of the prestigious Golden Wreath, which has gone to lauded writers such as W. H. Auden, Allen Ginsberg, Pablo Neruda, and Ted Hughes. This year, the prize is given to the Slovak poet Ivan Štrpka; the decision to crown him as this year’s laureate was unanimous, for his “rich, authentic and significant poetic corpus created over six decades.”
Štrpka, born in 1944, has maintained an engaged approach to art from the beginning of his career, committing himself to both moral and aesthetic values and continually incorporating contemporaneous cultural themes. In the 1960s, together with the poets Ivan Laučík and Peter Repka, he founded the poetry group Osamelí bežci (Lonely Runners), and together they composed a manifesto celebrating “freedom of thought . . . individual responsibility and the rejection of communist dictatorship and censorship”—which was subsequently banned. (For those interested in finding out more, a documentary titled Lonely Runners: Moving On!, directed by Martin Repka, was released in 2019 and focuses on the friendship of the three members.)
Štrpka’s priorities are embodied in his writing, which illuminates—in the words of poet and member of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts Katica Kulavkova—“everyday life . . . fragments [of] interpersonal relationships, the relationships between man and woman . . . individual and society . . . the physical and the emotional.” Kulavkova also notes that the “intimate, meditative, communicative . . . dimension” of Štrpka’s work is in many ways achieved via his poetic style, which she describes as “unpretentious [and] subtle” and “filled with detail.”
This approach to poetry is necessary to behold at a time when anti-intellectual sentiment is on the rise and art is reduced to its technical aspects, both to the detriment of its social and subjective significance and to artists themselves, who must face the rise of generative AI. Today, it is worth it to remember that Štrpka sees writing as a human process rather than an exclusive activity—one that constitutes an antidote to “indifference and madness,” as well as a way to “develop the world of one’s own perception and to give it articulation.”
Charlie Ng, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Hong Kong
Recent happenings in the Hong Kong literary scene have been notable in their embrace of international exchange. From March 1 to March 8, the annual Hong Kong International Literary Festival returned, featuring a rich array of events including talks, panel discussions, performances, workshops, and book launches. Among the highlights was the panel discussion “Exploring HK Culture Through Words & Pictures,” in which cultural figures such as Fringe Club director Benny Chia, visual artist Sophia Hotung, Hong Kong writer Wong Yi, and journalist Christopher DeWolf examined Hong Kong’s unique identity and heritage through literature and art. Additionally, Wong Yi led a workshop titled “Past and Present: Landscapes and Imagination in Novels and Historical Sites,” guiding participants through the Central district’s historical landmarks while discussing how writers like herself incorporate local history into their narratives. Japanese author Asako Yuzuki, known for her acclaimed novel Butter, also captivated guests at a literary dinner, sharing her journey of blending psychological intrigue with societal themes.
While international writers were invited to Hong Kong to engage with local audiences, Hong Kong poet Yam Gong recently embarked on a US reading tour, supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, to promote his bilingual poetry collection, Moving a Stone: Selected Poems of Yam Gong. The English iterations are translated by James Shea and Dorothy Tse, who received a NEA Literature Translation Fellowship to support their work, and together, the poet and the translators visited The Literary Arts Department of Providence and Harvard University to share their insights on representing Hong Kong and capturing local experiences in the English language.
Moreover, the English translation of Hon Lai-Chu’s novel Mending Bodies, translated by Jacqueline Leung, will be released by Two Lines Press in April. This surrealist work raises profound questions about freedom and identity by exploring the struggle of a young woman resisting societal pressures, embodied in a bizarre law that mandates physical conjoinment.
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
A collective of Filipino comics artists, Komikeros for Palestine (K4P), is urging the Philippine publishing community to boycott the Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse or FBM), where the Philippines is poised to be the 2025 Guest of Honor. Notably, this is a seat confirmed through substantial public funding, as was the case of Georgia in 2018, Indonesia in 2015, the Netherlands in 1993 and 2016, and Slovenia in 2023.
K4P rightfully maintains that taking part in FBM means supporting an organization complicit in the Israeli settler-colonial government’s ongoing genocide on Palestine since the 1948 Nakba. In solidarity with Publishers for Palestine (P4P), K4P is calling on its community to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). They are also welcoming local publishers to join their group, while stating that currently participating Filipino authors and publishers should pull out of FBM, and that the National Book Development Board (NBDB) should formally withdraw from the fair and implement a more principled and conscientious use of government resources.
Co-signed by over one hundred and fifty (and growing) people from the local komiks scene, K4P’s open statement has resonated with the global outcry to shun FBM and its overt allegiances to Israel. The community of the organization, as award-winning graphic novelist Rob Cham puts it, welcomes everyone: comics artists of all genres (from webtoon and shōnen manga, from manhwa to queer cyberpunk), alongside readers, collectors, publishers, sellers, distributors, and organisers of events such as fairs and festivals, as well as production studios that adapt comics into film and series.
Additionally, K4P is demanding accountability from the Marcosian government, particularly the NBDB, for its prioritization of vested interests over the struggles of Filipino storytellers. For the group, this isn’t just about boycotting per se, but also about igniting urgent conversations within the komiks community, fostering awareness in the larger artistic landscape, and mobilizing Filipino creatives to stand with Palestine. The country’s regrettable role as the Guest of Honor at FBM, after all, is less an homage to Filipino artistry and more a lucrative deal funded by Filipino taxpayers. K4P is hoping that this campaign will spark wider discussions in local publishing and incite a movement towards a more sociopolitically-conscious komiks industry.
In April 2, feminist indie publisher Gantala Press organised Bakit Boycott? Why Boycott?, an online forum on the BDS movement and FBM. Apart from Gantala Press, several independent publishers, including Lomboy Press, Kwago Publishing Lab, Alfredo F. Tadiar Library, Aklat Alamid, have already joined K4P, deepening the movement’s grassroots backing. Those interested can sign or volunteer for Komikeros for Palestine and get involved in the initiative.
As of March 27, 2025, the Gaza Health Ministry is reporting at least 50,183 confirmed Palestinian deaths—including 16,750 dead Palestinian children and counting, 1,300 of whom were infants and toddlers under the age of two. Medical journal The Lancet has revealed, however, that Israel’s attacks on the healthcare system and disruptions to record-keeping have led to a significant underreporting of mortality rates, estimated at 41%. The study suggests that at least 76,820 Palestinians had been killed by June 2024.
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