The need to create and implement the project ePublisher was evoked by the nowadays situation in the field of poetry. In the modern society, it has lost its specific force and vigor that have contrived humanity throughout civilization. For a long time the publishers complaint that poetry doesn’t sell any more; editions and issues in the EU countries have been reduced. Paper-based poetry collections don’t appear on the bestselling books lists nor do the poets receive as much attention from the society as the prosaists. Inevitably, this has led to a loss of opportunities for the presentation of poetry works and moreover, the new generation of European poets is rarely heard.
 
On the other hand, the part of the general public who is interested in poetry finds it difficult to access contemporary poetry creations, because they are rarely published and circulate only among certain small groups of people and are not always reachable from the general public. Moreover, the accessibility of poetry works of foreign artists heavily depends on the reader’s language skills, because they are rarely translated to other languages. These scenarios are not so common in the field of high-level poetry, but they are particularly relevant in a context of the poetry of young, beginner and amateur contemporary poets.
 
Considering this present situation, the partnership agreed on the fact that new and innovative ways of creating and presenting poetry are needed. With an application of multimedia and on-line tools new opportunities to reform the ways of reaching new and enlarging audiences and also promoting poetry will be widely open. As well as introduction of innovative tools, traditional ways of poems’ presentations to the general public (public reading events, workshops, etc.) will be developed in order to foster the accessibility of the poetry works even more. The development of both the innovative and traditional ways will motivate professional and amateur poets collaborate. It is expected that this collaboration will encourage the development of emerging talents and stimulate the international mobility of poets and their creative works.
 
Aims, objectives and target groups
The ePublisher aims to contribute to audience development by promoting innovative ways of publishing poems of professional and amateur poets, helping them to reach new and enlarge audiences and improving access to poetry.
 
The specific objectives of the project are to:

• Encourage the development of new ways of poetic expression and publication of poetry
• Contribute to innovation (application of modern ICT) in the field of culture
• Encourage flexibility of presenting creative works of poets
• Increase society’s interest in poetry in each partner country
• Involve general public in poetry creation and/or translation;
• Foster cross-cultural cooperation among poets and support their capacity to collaborate internationally
• Promote international circulation of contemporary poetry
• Motivate amateur poets to exhibit their creative texts
• Foster the development of emerging talents in the field of poetry
• Promote less widely used European languages (LWUEL) and multilingualism
• Promote active citizenship and pride of national as well as European identity.

 
The target group reached by the project are:

• Professional poets
• Amateur poets
• Students participating in philology, creative writing and/or translation studies or courses
• Poet communities
• Organizations and associations working in the field of culture and arts
• Local authorities working in the field of culture and arts
• General public interested in poetry.

 
Outputs and expected outcomes
ePublisher focuses on developing on-line tools for collaborative creation and translation of poems and their publication as well as implementing poetry promotion events.
 
Main outputs of the project will be:

• Network of associated partners, which will be established at the beginning of the project with cultural and art institutions and organizations, poet and translator communities, etc. which will highly contribute to the dissemination activities as well as exploitation of project products and results.
• Analysis of existing portals supporting on-line poetry writing.
• Website, which will serve as a multilingual international platform for users (professional and amateur poets and translators) to set up their profiles, publish their poems, translate them, participate in collective on-line poetry creation and translation, comment on and evaluate the work of others.
• Poetry platform on the website where each partner will organize the on-line collective poetry creation and translation among registered participants by identifying poets and translators who will be responsible for the moderation of poetry platform.
• On-line poetry writing games on the website which will help to increase general interest in poetry through innovative ways to create poems (the use of ICT).
• On-line poetry library will contain all the published works representing each partner country. The poets will have the possibility to publish written poems as well as video and audio poems.
• Local poetry promotion events such as poetry reading events in public places, excursions to local poetry places. One of the significantly attractive and innovative events will be video projections of poetry texts (selected from the on-line library) on buildings’ walls.
• International poetry festivals will be organized in each partner country. The representatives of the partner countries (including poets) will be invited to participate in the festivals.
• Booklet which will present project products and results.
• Documentary films created by each partner country on the international poetry festivals.

Main outcomes of the project will be the possibility for professional and amateur poets to meet and collaborate within the network of poets. By international cooperation poets will share and 3 exchange their experience. Thus cultural and creative sectors will be strengthened. Project will also foster emerging talents and motivate beginner poets to publish their creative texts. Besides, anybody who is interested in creating poetry works and/or translating them will be invited to join the network. This will open the possibility to general public to stimulate their creativity and develop creative writing skills. It is expected that the network of poets will continue collaboration after the end of the project.
 
Innovative character
The ePublisher project gives a special importance to the poetical language recovering the past tradition and projecting it towards new expressive ways. Several aspects represent the innovative character of the project:

• Finding new ways to bring poetry to a wider public
• Experimenting new ways to create poetry
• Involve the general public in poetry creation

European added value
Due to very low interest in poetry by general public and because poems are mainly written in national languages, citizens of different EU countries know very little about other countries’ poetry. The geography of ePublisher takes a very broad range – from north to south European countries, which has very different cultural backgrounds and history. The project will not only help to see the differences and identify similarities between different EU cultures and poetic traditions, but also get to know contemporary European poetry by assuring easy access to translated poems.