Ex
Tempore is the literary journal published annually by the United
Nations Society of Writers (UNSW)/ Societé des écrivains
des Nations Unies (SENU) in Geneva.
The society of writers was founded on 14 August 1989 by Sergio Chaves (Argentina), Leonor Sampaio (Brazil) and Alfred de Zayas (USA).
Over a capuccino (renversé)
at the Press Bar of the Palais des Nations, Alfred suggested naming
the proposed journal "Ex Tempore", since staff contributions
should be crisp, uncomplicated, impromptu, and as far away as possible
from the stale UN jargon of resolutions and reports.
We wanted to prove that we could write
literature - not just bureaucratic pseudo-intellectual stuff. The most
boring part of our endeavour was the drafting and amending the statutes,
and getting our own issn number: ISSN 1020-6604.
After 15 years as president of the
UN Society of Writers, I announced at the General Assembly on 15 December
2005 that I would gladly retire and leave my post to the younger and
more enthusiastic colleagues. At the general assembly held on 24 May
2007 at the Palais des Nations the new Board was confirmed in the following
composition:
President: Karin Kaminker
Vice-President: Carla Edelenbos
Secretary: Christina Giordano
Treasurer: Janet Weiler
Editor-in-chief: Alfred de Zayas
At the General Assembly on 23 September 2009
the following colleagues were elected:
President: David Winch
Vice-Pfresidnet: Carla Edelenbos
Secretary: Ngozi Ibekwe
Treasurer: Janet Weiler
Editor in-chief: Alfred de Zayas
The Board of Ex Tempore is
pleased to announce that Vol. XIX is now available. For the journal’s
forthcoming anniversary issue, Vol. XX, the Editorial Board invites
literary efforts of general interest, short stories, science fiction,
humour, poems or aphorisms in any of the UN official languages,
or in other languages, together with a translation. Please send
these to David Winch electronically: dwinch@unog.ch.
Membership is open to active and retired
staff of the United Nations, specialized agencies, CERN, Permanent Missions
and Observer Missions, inter-governmental organisations, NGO’s and the
press corps. We invite you to subscribe to Ex Tempore and support
the Society of Writers of the UN Staff Socio-Cultural Commission. The
membership fee is SFr. 40.— per year. Please send your generous donations
directly to Ex Tempore’s account with the Union de Banque Suisse,
branch office at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, account No. 279-CA
100.855.0.
On Friday, 19 January
2007, "Ex Tempore" held
its 11th annual salon at my home. 63 Poets and essayists from
the United Nations Office in Geneva, some of them members of
PEN International read their oeuvres in English, French,
German, Spanish, Russian -- even Arabic, Vietnamese and Dutch.
We celebrated the centennial of the birth of Samuel Beckett
and the bicentennial of the birth of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
whose "Sonnets from the Portuguese" seduced
not just her husband Robert Browning!. In 2007 we celebrated Daphne
du Maurier (Rebecca, the Birds) and Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow (Evangeline)
On Friday, 23 January 2009, Ex Tempore held its 13th annual
salon at my home. We celebrated the 250th anniversary of the birth
of Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1905).
On Thursday, 18 May 2006 Ex Tempore
hosted a lunchtime music-and-poetry event in the Cinema Room at the
Palais des Nations. Thanks to the organization and charm of Karin
Kaminker and Alex Ezana, it was a resounding success. Below is
a photo of some of the participants, courtesy of one of our members
Vatsala Virdee from UNHCR (at the extreme left). I am the last
person on the right, next to Karin.
on 14 August 2009 we celebrated the 20th Anniversary
of the founding of the United Nations Society of Writers with poetry
-- and champagne.
Jacqueline Simon, Irina Gerassimova and Aline Dedeyan
at the garden party.
David Lewis reading his poem "here and there"
For more
photos click here
Press reviews:
Les internationaux
lancent un Salon littéraire, Tribune de Genève,
9 avril 1997
Le cercle de poètes
qui libère les Onusiens, Tribune de Genève,
12 février 2004
Les onusiens et la littérature.
UN Special, February 2005.
Dixieme
soireee litteraire de las Societe des Ecrivains. UN Special,
April 2006
Scat: Le
recital de poesie, 18 mai 2006 UN Special June 2006, pp.
19-21.
Chez
Alfred de Zayas: Fête de la Genève Internationale.
Diva International, 2006 Nr. 2.
Ex Tempore- Nouveau Numéro et Soirée Littéraire.
UN Special, Avril 2008, p. 33.
On 22 January Carla and I hosted the traditional Ex Tempore literary
soirée. 73 people showed up, 14 performed -- poems, short stories,
essays and, of course, Aline Dedeyan's sketch. This time a colleague
Connie from WHO demonstrated the link between literature and music
by singing her own poems -- and playing her new CD. Who said UN staffers
didn't have creative talent? We had languages galore: English, French,
German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Vietnamese... and we announced that
the next issue of the Ex Tempore will be devoted to the general theme: "Music,
the international language". Besides the usual UN crowd, we had guests
from the Geneva Art Club, the Geneva Writers Group, the Société genevoise
des Ecrivains and P.E.N. Suisse romand.
Latest Ex Tempore XX : 160 pages with contributions
in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Esperanto, French, German, Italian,
Latin, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Ex
Tempore volume XIX (December, 2008)
Ex Tempore volume XVIII (December 2007)
Ex Tempore volume XVII (December, 2006)
Ex
Tempore volume XVI (December, 2005)
Ex Tempore volume XVI
(2004)
.
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