EPESEP is supported by the Creative Europe programme and aims to promote the situation of women writers and raise public awareness of misogynistic and sexist structures in the world of literature. Our aim is to propose measures to improve the social and economic position, reception and prestige of women authors in the European Union and Armenia in order to close the pay gap, the performance gap and the pension gap in the literary sector, especially for women.

EPESEP unites experts from different countries to discuss the current situation, identify challenges and develop strategies for further development and cooperation in a collaborative and participatory approach.

EPESEP Project Partners
Austria:  ≠igfem is the leading partner of the EPESEP project. It  is a non-profit organisation, founded in 2019 and based in Vienna, Austria. Its name is an abbreviation for Interessensgemeinschaft Feministische Autorinnen, which translates into Association of Feminist Authors. The core missions of ≠igfem are to  represent the concerns  of female writers, fight against sexist inequalities in the literary field and to offer professional training for female writers.  

Germany: Schamrock is an international forum for women poets. It was founded in 2009 with the intention of encouraging poets to develop readings, extraordinary ideas and fresh performance forms with creative fury and poetic verve. 

The Netherlands: The Dutch writers’ collective Fixdit was founded in 2019. They write lemmas for handbooks, tip readers off in a regular column in the review “Nederlandse Boekengids”, make podcasts and organise a canon festival. They have a website, a newsletter, a reading club, and published a noted manifest in 2022.

Armenia: Today Art Initiative (TAI) was founded in 2014. The aim of the organization is to  develop contemporary art activities and create a platform for experimental and innovative art practices and exchanges. TAI provides opportunities to reflect  society’s issues locally and internationally. The aim of exchanges and residencies is to create the dialogue between art practitioners in larger contextual level such as identity, community, nationality.Through eco-art initiatives, TAI aims to raise awareness about environmental challenges and encourage sustainable practices. By integrating art into environmental activism, TAI seeks to inspire individuals to take action and make positive changes in their communities. 

Project activities & objectives:
Reading List
Increasing the visibility of feminist and especially socio-critical female authors, thanks to  an online reading list consisting exclusively of the works of mainly contemporary female writers from the countries of all participating organisations. The project team will offer suggestions on how the reading list can be used by schools, universities, and the general public
EPESEP Workshop Literaturliste - Freitag, 25.10., 13 Uhr

English Writing Group
Networking and enabling the exchange of experiences: we will organise an online writing and networking group, in which female writers can jointly work on texts and discuss improvements. .
EPESEP Workshop English Writing Group - Samstag, 26.10., 13 Uhr

Survey
Collecting data on the visibility, social and economic standing of female authors in the European Union. 
EPESEP Workshop Umfrage / Survey - Sonntag, 27.10., 13 Uhr

Symposien/Workshops/Networking/Exchange
Promoting the transnational collaboration among writers and feminist/literary organisations and experts, by organising four symposia  (Munich, Amsterdam, Yerevan, Vienna) to present the outcome of the online survey, the online reading list, the writing and the networking group. Experts will be invited from different countries like Latvia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Bulgaria.