Like any other major city, Lisbon will be putting out the party flags. The main celebrations this year will be held on the newly renovated Praça do Comércio. There will be music supplied by Portuguese group A Fúria do Açúcar. Another popular band Xutos e Pontapés will perform after the pyrotechnics. A firework spectaculor over the river will take place at midnight to ring in 2011.

The event kicks off at 10pm so get your dancing shoes ready.

Wishing you a beautiful 2011.
Love Lily

I was recently contacted by one of the organisers of the DISQUIET Literary Program due to be held in Lisbon next year. I am delighted to share their information regarding the event on In Love With Lisbon. This sounds to me like a terrific initiative. The atmosphere in Lisbon certainly stirs the writer within and Portugal has a wonderful history of writing talent.

Please find the press release below.

Two weeks of writing workshops and lectures and discussions on the craft of writing and Portuguese literature and culture with some of North America’s and Portugal’s finest writers, including:

Kim Addonizio
José Eduardo Agualusa
António Lobo Antunes
Junot Diaz
Brian Evenson
Nick Flynn
Frank X. Gaspar
Valter Hugo Mãe
Horacio Castellanos Moya
Josip Novakovich
José Luis Peixoto
Jacinto Lucas Pires
Patrícia Portela
Miguel Real
Patricia Reis
Luis de Sousa
Gonçalo M. Tavares
Richard Zenith
…and many others TBA

Study writing and Portuguese Literature and Culture in a unique context in one of the most mesmerizing cities in the world. Lectures in Portuguese Literature & Culture will focus on famous Lusophone literary figures as well as contemporary writing and intersections between Lusophone and Anglophone literature. Workshops in Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Photography, and Writing the Luso Experience. Literary walks and tours by scholars, writers, and translators will introduce participants to the essential literary Lisbon, the City of Poets and Sailors.

Four full scholarships are available for writers and scholars of Lusophone descent, funded by the Fundação Luso-Americana. Winners will attend the ILP in 2011 in Frank Gaspar’s workshop Writing the Luso Experience. Submit: A 250-word statement about your background and what the scholarship would mean to you, and a maximum ten-page writing sample in any genre (poetry, fiction, creative/literary nonfiction, scholarly work). Deadline Jan. 31, 2011. Reading fee $20USD. See website for more details.

Writers may also enter the contest for the International Literature Award: The charge went that contemporary North American literature is too insular, that it doesn’t engage the outside world or speak to global concerns. The charge has some truth to it, and in response Dzanc Books requests your best writing with an international aspect, that somehow or other broadens the landscape of North American literature outside of the borders of North America. The winner of this multi-genre contest wins airfare, accommodations, and tuition to the ILP in Lisbon plus publication in TBA. Deadline Jan. 31, 2011. Reading fee $15USD. Entries accepted from the US and Canada in English.

For more info see the website Dzanc Books ; the Facebook group  ; or email .

Dzanc Books partners with Centro Nacional de Cultura, Fundação Luso-Americana, CETAPS-FCSH (Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies) Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and Universidade de Lisboa in the DISQUIET ILP.

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June 10th is National Portugal Day and it is a day for people of Portuguese descent to celebrate across the world. In Portugal it is known as Dia de Camões (Day of Camões) because it is dedicated to the famous Portuguese poet Luís de Camões who died on the 10th June 1580.

Luís de Camões was the author of one of the most important works in Portuguese literature “Os Lusíadas”. This collection of poems celebrates Portugal’s epic history and the voyages of discovery which brought the land and it’s people fame and fortune.

Portugal Day is a day to remember your roots, get together and party. Listen to Portuguese music, drink a glass of port, visit a Portuguese restaurant or read The Lusiads. Let’s celebrate this wonderful country!

Happy Portugal Day to everyone tomorrow.