It is a tradition for Perdu to host a wide range of poets every year in January during the Poetry Marathon, offering poetry in all its diversity in a way that stimulates curiosity. Performers and murmurers, anecdote tellers and hermetics, crafters and adventurers, newbies and experienced poets: they stand side by side and mixed together in this new edition of the Poetry Marathon. The concept is extremely simple: poets each read three poems: two of their own and one of a self-chosen colleague from abroad. This edition will take place on 21 januari 2022 at Perdu, leading up to Poetry Week 2022 (27 January - 2 February).

In these times of the pandemic, it goes without saying that we have to improvise and remain flexible with our programming, since there is so much that remains uncertain. Can we still make live programmes? How many people can join the venue? Is it safe to invite 20 poets to the stage? These practical questions are important and prompt us to rethink how to curate our programmes. Because we think it's important to be able to present the voices of poets and to continue to connect with our audience and community, we want to re-imagine how we do the Poetry Marathon in 2022. Keeping in mind the fragile and uncertain times in which we live, we are doing things just a bit differently this year. For this edition, we have asked each poet for a video recording, thereby adding an extra creative layer to our Poetry Marathon and offering the opportunity for experimentation with word, sound and image. On 21 January at 8pm, we will present all videos together, like a marathon, via our livestream. The host of the evening is poet and Perdu bookseller Peter Prins.