Extempore

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Home / Extempore (only three Volumes at present - more to follow) Drawing above of "Prague roofs" by Martin Andrysek (2004)

I started
counting on
on 16.VI.2004

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

The Board of Ex Tempore is pleased to announce that Vol. XVII is now available. For the journal’s forthcoming issue, Vol. XVIII, 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 Alfred de Zayas electronically: zayas@bluewin.ch or to Karin Kaminker: k.kaminker@gmail.com.

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 are celebrating Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca, the Birds) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Evangeline)

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..

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 Numéero et Sorée Littéraire. UN Special, Avril 2008, p. 33.

Latest Ex Tempore:

Ex Tempore volume XVIII (December, 2007)

Ex Tempore volume XVII (December, 2006)

Ex Tempore volume XVI (December, 2005)

Ex Tempore volume XV (2004)

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Click on icon for download - but be prepared, 1.2MB (word only)!

Ex Tempore volume XIII (2002)

Devoted to Peace and anti-war literature. Full text coming soon.

Table of contents

Ex Tempore volume XIV (2003)

This is the first full text Ex Tempore that I make available. It is the pre-publication version that excludes texts in Arabic, Chinese and Russian (my Word does not support those scripts).