Poets and writers

Portraits of poets, authors, journalists and writers from across Europe.

Meet the female authors and illustrators who brought the fairy tale to life

Transatlantic perspectives on American abolitionist and anti-slavery campaigner

Three Black authors from the Americas who have lived in Europe

For 20 years, Emile Zola was both a novelist and a journalist

One of Bulgaria’s most cherished poets during her lifetime

Literary life of migration and exile of 20th century Serbian author Miloš Crnjanski

Serbia’s first feminist author: a writer and traveller who led a remarkable life

Author and migrant Ivan Cankar is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Slovene language

Travelling in our minds with books, like Selma Lagerlöf's The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Discover the history behind the beautiful patterns and illustrations inside book covers

Alphabets are the building blocks of the written languages in Europe, used to communicate, teach and decorate. Explore the beauty of typography, alphabets and languages in this gallery.

How would you like having a poem composed especially for your friendship album? This is what happened to Elizabeth Adriana Staats (1823-1896).

Compare traditions across communities and time combined handwriting and art

Here's a variety of book cover designs, from children's fiction to classics of world literature.

Noteworthy authors were put on the Index librorum prohibitorum because their works caused moral controversies.

"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book" – Marcel Proust.

A striking illustration of the relationship between Venice, Istria and Dalmatia.

Many medieval manuscripts are full of decorated capital letters that come in all styles and sizes.

Whether it’s inscriptions, annotations or doodles, readers have always made their marks in books as decoration, aids to memory and signs of ownership.

Discover a gallery co-created with the Europeana Education community

Cooperative learning, PBL, Philosophy - Lower Secondary Education

Language subjects - Secondary school

English, Language subjects - Secondary school

Art, History, Language - Primary school, Secondary school

Adult education, Art, History, Language - Secondary school

English, Language subjects - Lower secondary

History - Lower secondary

Art, English, History - Lower secondary, Primary school

English, STEAM - Primary school

English, History - Lower secondary

Philosophy - Upper secondary

English, Language subjects - Primary school

English, Language subjects - Primary school

English, History, Language subjects - Primary school

Language subjects, STEAM - Secondary

Art - Secondary school

Art, English, History, Language subjects - Secondary

English, Language subjects - Lower secondary, Upper secondary

Explore the world through the written word

From antiquity to the early print era

Explore our collection of newspapers