Black Fountain Press: First Birthday Party!

And who could blame them? After all, with Black Fountain, good times and a relaxing literary atmosphere are always guaranteed. But in this case there were further incentives to come along and join in the fun.

There was, first of all, the presentation of our new book, a poetry collection by the acclaimed Luxembourgish poet, Lambert Schlechter, (of which there will be more in a future contribution) and the award ceremony of our Young Voices competition.

When we launched the competition in January we did not expect so many participants (87) and so many submissions (189) but above all, we were stunned by the astounding quality and rich diversity of the writings, ranging from short stories, flash fiction and poetry over to extracts from ambitious first novels.

Discussions and debates among the jury were heated, extending late into the night, until we had to settle for two winners. Yet the quality had been so impressive that we spontaneously decided to honour three runner-ups whom we felt were worthy of special praise.

Close to our heart were Sofia Foti´s piece of flash fiction, ´A Negative´, about a girl who refuses to admit that she is pregnant, Gaspar Alves Gonçalo´s short story `Him`, presenting a soldier´s grim admiration of Hannibal, the Carthegenan general. We had fallen in love with young Phoebe Archer´s poem `No´ in which she depicts the problems of a bewildered pubescent girl in an over-sexed, male-dominated world.

All this we loved but we felt that Mary Wivernes´ short story ´Shock´ and Noëlle Manoni´s poem `Farewell´ were a cut above the rest.

Mary´s story deals with the traumatic event of an adolescent who was brutally beaten up by a gang of bullies. The piece is an intense monologue of a youngster who tries to recover from his emotional and physical injuries and, in doing so, longs to create a new personal identity. The final poignant sentence of her story, which is both ambiguously sad and hopeful, depicts Mary´s talent to write in a deceptively simple style, a style, however, which reverberates with deep hidden meaning and metaphorical allusions.

© private Marie Wivenes

Yet the clear winner for us was Noëlle Manoni. Her short poem `Farewell´ is a moving piece about the slow, agonising death of a horse and intends to be a reflection about loss and the inevitability of decay. To use her own words the poem is ´..how we often struggle in vain in front of the unavoidable before we finally find rest and peace..”. The precision and the vivid clarity of her style are in their sad, melancholic beauty reminiscent of the poems of Gerald Manly Hopkins and it is impossible not to be drawn in by her lines.

© private Noëlle Manoni

After the laureates had read their work to the audience the rest of the evening was spent with cheerful discussions and conversations (about literary and non-literary subjects), people meeting and making contacts and we, at Black Fountain Press, felt that it had all been worthwhile, that the ambitious project we had embarked on about a year ago, had turned out as we had expected – a new, much needed platform in our country. “The future of English writing here,” to quote Anne-Marie Reuter, “couldn´t look brighter.”

Jeff Thill