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The National Museum in Krakow and the Wisława Szymborska Foundation would like to invite everyone to a series of meetings with people who knew Wisława Szymborska, starting in October.
On the 29th of October, we would like to invite you to a meeting with Bronisław Maj, who will talk, among others, about the famous little lotteries, the Poet’s unique and distinctive sense of humour, about how the “Stockholm tragedy” influenced her life, as well as about the literary life of Krakow and the recently published book, Błysk rewolwru, presenting the Poet’s frivolous works, for which Bronisław Maj wrote a humorous “academic commentary”.
The meeting will take place at the Szołayski House – a Branch of the National Museum in Krakow (pl. Szczepański 9) at the multimedia room at 6 p.m.
The meeting will be hosted by Maciej Miłkowski.
Those who do not make it to the meeting, will be able to watch coverage of the event on the Museum Foundation’s website.
Both in life and in poetry, she had the ability to combine two seemingly opposite traits.
On the one hand, she resembled a little girl, naively, wonderfully, and primally delighted with the world, and on the other, at the same time, she was a strict sage with no delusions of the sense, of the aim of our human adventure here.
(Bronisław Maj about Wisława Szymborska)
Bronisław Maj – poet, essayist, and translator. He is a Doctor of the Humanities, he works at the Faculty of Polish Studies of Jagiellonian University. Author of a book about poet Tadeusz Gajcy. Winner of several prestigious awards, including the Kościelski Award. He was Wisława Szymborska’s close friend. He lives in Krakow.
Pic. Jakub Ociepa
“I inflect my life in the present tense,” Claudio Magris confessed. The meeting with him, just like the conversation about language with Tahar Ben Jelloun and the discussion about Kronos, attracted crowds of people. The Conrad Festival in Krakow definitely is an event to attend.
During the evening meeting at the International Cultural Centre, Claudio Magris talked to Grzegorz Jankowicz about fundamental issues: identity, descent, and literature. Among others, he talked about how at some point he simply “had to” leave his hometown, Trieste, not only because he was just moving to Turin to study there. Trieste still evokes strong emotions in the author of Microcosms and Danubio, although – as Magris said himself: “I did not have such an oedipal relationship with the city as Kafka did with Prague. You have to return to your home and family once in a while, after all. When you leave it, you cannot forget about it,” the writer said.
Asked about the sense of literature, Magris answered: “There is the kind of literature that admires the world and the kind that shows its horror, the kind that looks for the sense of life and the kind that comes face to face with a lack of sense.” Enquired about his attitude towards the past, he answered that we should not become too nostalgic. “I always inflect my life in the present tense,” he said. Among the many themes raised during the evening conversation, the one concerning culture was also interesting. Asked by Jankowicz about where to look for a cultural impulse and energy fuel for contemporary European world, Magris reminded that culture is not only literature, sculpture or music. “Culture is a way of life. It is not only the ability to write a nice book, but above all, the art of critical thinking,” the writer said.
Right before the conversation with Magris, a discussion about Gombrowicz’s Kronos took place at Pałac Pod Baranami. Published several months ago in a sound philological setting, the previously unpublished volume of notes by the author of Ferdydurke met with negative reception on the part of many readers at the time. Participants of the festival panel: Jerzy Franczak, Professor Michał Paweł Markowski, and Professor Ryszard Koziołek – in the presence of Rita Gombrowicz – agreed, however, that the publication of this text was a good idea. “What others do with Kronos is often more interesting than Kronos itself,“ Jerzy Franczak commented on the storm of criticism around Gombrowicz’s volume. “In my opinion, Kronos plays a role in Gombrowicz’s life similar to the role of Baltazar in Mrożek’s life. It makes it possible to reconstruct the past,” stated Professor Ryszard Koziołek. And Professor Michał Paweł Markowski regretted that no thematic index was compiled for Kronos. “We would find out that “boredom”, “emptiness”, and “nothingness” are the book’s most frequently used words.”
Words – the isolated ones and those penetrating the head and the imagination – were one of the topics of the meeting with Tahar Ben Jelloun. The audience also did not disappoint – just like at the meeting with Magris and the discussion about Kronos. The award for the large audience was an interesting conversation conducted with Ben Jelloun by Małgorzata Szczurek. She asked him, among others, about his choice of language: why French, and not Arabic? “Initially, I was able to write in both,” Ben Jelloun said. “But one would have to be Beckett in order to write in two languages. I chose French. It was here that I found freedom.” One of the interesting themes provoked by a question from the audience was an attempt at referring to the situation of contemporary Morocco. “We talk straight out about schizophrenia,“ the writer said. “On Friday evenings many people go to the mosque in proper attire, only to consume forbidden alcohol the next day.”
Before the meeting with Ben Jelloun, the festival day included a discussion about extreme reporters. It was attended by war correspondent Andrzej Meller and traveller Mariusz Wilk. The meeting of the authors – each of them sharing different experiences in their own way – was hosted by Michał Olszewski.
Early in the afternoon, Andrzej Skrendo talked to Piotr Paziński about the memory of generations. The discussion was a kind of an introduction to the next meeting – about generations. It was hosted by Cezary Michalski and attended by: Jan Burzyński, Michał Sutowski, Maciej Urbanowski, and Seweryn Blumsztajn.
Two exhibitions were also opened yesterday. The first one, presenting Nicolas Presl’s works – at the Arteteka of the Regional Public Library in Krakow. We encourage all the good comic book enthusiasts to see it. The second vernissage took place at Bunkier Sztuki, and its central figure was Bohdan Butenko, whom one may easily call the legend of Polish graphic arts. The exhibition of the Master’s works will remain open until the 10th of November – you just have to see it.
Today at the Festival: to begin with, at 10 a.m. – A Reading Lesson with… Piotr Paziński, and at 12 p.m. – Iran: the Possibility of Literature, i.e. a meeting with Houshang Asadi. At 2 p.m. – a discussion: From Literature to a Letter with the participation of Krzysztof Bartnicki, Jerzy Jarniewicz, and Magda Heydel, and at 4 p.m. – two events: a lecture of W.J.T. Mitchell, outstanding professor of English Studies and Art History at the University of Chicago, taking place at the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, and a meeting with Timothy D. Snyder concerning Joseph Conrad’s prose in the eyes of the American historian at Pałac Pod Baranami. At 4:30 p.m. – the long-awaited meeting with the queen of Scandinavian crime novels, Åsa Larsson; at 6:30 p.m. – a meeting with the Brothers Quay, and at 8:30 p.m. – a meeting with Cees Nooteboom. At 7 p.m. in turn, we would like to invite you to the seat of Radio Kraków (al. Słowackiego 22) for a radio drama entitled Radio behind the Iron Curtain with the participation of Anne Applebaum. We would also like to invite all cinema enthusiasts to the Kino Pod Baranami cinema for the third evening with the works of the Brothers Quay. The screening begins at 9.30 p.m.
A heated discussion on how to deal with the humanities today took place during a meeting concerning Professor Michał Paweł Markowski’s new book. But there were many more exciting moments during yet another day of the 5th edition of the Conrad Festival.
Professor Michał Paweł Markowski’s latest book is entitled Polityka wrażliwości. Wprowadzenie do humanistyki [The Politics of Sensitivity. An Introduction to the Humanities]. Its starting point is a question asked by Maria Janion 40 years ago. At the time, it ran: “how to be an expert in the humanities in the 2nd half of the 20th century?”. Today, this question provokes reflection on the condition of universities and the humanities in the post-liberal era.
The three main theses of Markowski’s book are based on the claims that: first, the humanities should not compete with exact sciences; second, their task should be to develop discursive sensitivity; and third, the humanities should aim at highlighting the existential roots of cultural studies. Quoting these claims yesterday during the meeting at Pałac Pod Baranami was like stirring up a hornets’ nest. The discussion provoked by Markowski’s book centred around finding the identity of contemporary Academia. Therefore, comments about higher education appeared. “Academia without the humanities makes no sense. Throwing them beyond Academia and thus separating oneself from science is disadvantageous,” Professor Krzysztof Kłosiński commented. There were also attempts to find the right place for the humanities in the social system. “Overproduction of specialists in the humanities breeds revolution. This is why, for example, Cameron is now closing successive humanities departments at universities, just like Thatcher used to do back in the day,” said Professor Agata Bielik-Robson. And commenting on the issue of the relationship between the humanities and the natural sciences, Professor Michał Paweł Markowski stated: “Dialogue is absurd here. Everyone fights to be in their own world. We have reached a terrible impasse and it is beyond our power to talk to others.”
But in spite of everything, conversations with others succeed in practice. The Conrad Festival, which Professor Markowski – the event’s artistic director – talked about, is a space that makes conversation possible. And provokes it.
During the meeting with Sylwia Chutnik, Kaja Malanowska, and Zośka Papużanka, gender was the controversial category. And it was not because – it so happened – all three authors, whose books Professor Przemysław Czapliński discussed with his distinctive panache, are women. The point was that gender as such constitutes a cultural problem, and the so-called “feminist prose” sometimes becomes a convenient bag into which it is easy to lump everything together.
In this context, a meeting with Jan Polkowski was very interesting. This time, the poet appeared in the role of a prose writer and commentator on language. His book entitled Ślady krwi [Traces of Blood], published several months ago, provoked various questions that Professor Krzysztof Koehler asked the author. “Poetry is the heart of language. It makes language retain internal strength and independence. As Brodsky said: nations that do not read poetry may become an easy prey for a demagogue,” Polkowski stated, adding: “The Polish language is extremely sensuous and close to nature. It harmonises with the music of the world. Please check this by juxtaposing various words in various languages.” Asked about the main character of his book, Polkowski expressed his doubt, streaked with an undertone of irony, that man as such would like to answer questions about his identity. “I am sceptical about the claim that everyone knows who they are. Most people don’t. Some people even relegate this knowledge. And human life is an internal dialogue conducted against the background of a dialogue with the world.”
Almost at the same time as the conversation with Polkowski, in a room next door – as the nature of the festival involves various conversations taking place at various places at the same time – a discussion took place, of which Cavafy was the central figure. It was attended by Ireneusz Kania – an outstanding translator who recently published a volume of Cavafy’s poems – in his own translation, of course.
Today at the Festival: to begin with: at 10 a.m. – A Reading Lesson with… Agnieszka Taborska; at noon – Mariusz Wilk and Andrzej Meller will talk about the essence of a reporter’s vocation; and at 2 p.m., Andrzej Skrendo will talk to Piotr Paziński about how to be the last one in the generation chain, among others. At 3 p.m. – an interesting discussion about the category of “generations” with the participation of Jan Burzyński, Michał Sutowski, Maciej Urbanowski, Seweryn Blumsztajn, and Cezary Michalski. An hour later (at 4 p.m.) – a meeting with Tahar Ben Jelloun, at 6 p.m. at Pałac Pod Baranami – Gombrowicz without Anaesthesia (a discussion with the participation of Jerzy Franczak, Ryszard Koziołek, Professor Michał Paweł Markowski, and special guest – Rita Gombrowicz), and at the Arteteka of the Regional Public Library – a vernissage of the exhibition entitled The Son of His Father and a meeting with Nicolas Presl. At 7:30 p.m., at Bunkier Sztuki – a vernissage of Bohdan Butenko’s exhibition entitled Books Are Knitted Like Sweaters, and at 8 p.m. – a meeting with Claudio Magris, long-awaited by the festival’s audience, at the International Cultural Centre.
Outstanding figures of the literary life in one film, less than six minutes long – you have to see this! We present to you a special production of the City of Krakow and the Krakow Festival Office, created on the occasion of Krakow receiving the title of UNESCO City of Literature.
We would like to remind you that on the 21st of October – after three years of efforts – Krakow was officially announced as a UNESCO City of Literature. We are the seventh city in the world to be awarded this honourable title (along with Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavik, and Norwich).
We would like to thank the authorities of the Jagiellonian University and the Collegium Maius Jagiellonian University Museum for their help with the production of the film.
Can architecture generate melancholy? Absolutely. Especially if this topic comes up in a conversation between Filip Springer and Marek Bieńczyk. Besides the lecture on Iranian literature and the stories of clerks after hours, the meeting dedicated to space is yet another interesting event of the Conrad Festival.
The exchange between Marek Bieńczyk, essayist, writer, and melancholy hunter, and Filip Springer, archaeologist and photographer who dedicated several books to contemporary Polish architecture, had to be magnetic. This is why the evening meeting at Pałac Pod Baranami attracted crowds of people. It was worth coming, because in spite of the fact that the journey began in the Warsaw district of Grochów, it reached much further, and not only in the geographical sense. “The beautiful danger of these books lies in the fact that we forget about life” – this is how Ryszard Koziołek, who moderated the conversation, complimented Springer’s works. “I am interested in post-war Polish architecture in the sense that it gives answers to the question about what is going on in our space today,” said Springer. The author of Miedzianka, Źle urodzeni, and Wanna z kolumnadą is not particularly delighted with contemporary architecture in Poland. “What is being built now has to have the ‘wow’ factor. It either has to look incredible or be very expensive. Space is noisy, there is no room for silence,” he said. It did not take Marek Bieńczyk long to search through the map of his memory for a place that makes him melancholic. He named one of the milk bars in Warsaw. He sometimes visited the place together with Maria Janion. “It was a royal experience. Special and marked with emotions,” the essayist confessed.
Mostafa Zamaninja talked about completely different experiences. The writer came to Krakow at the invitation of the municipal authorities as part of the ICORN programme, aimed at helping writers-refugees. He is an outstanding expert in Iranian culture, a writer, and publisher, persecuted in his own country. He came to Krakow for some rest, but also – which he proved during yesterday’s meeting – in order to talk about whether literature is possible in Iran and how it is possible.
An interesting meeting was the afternoon talk that Grzegorz Wysocki conducted with Wojciech Kłosowski and Paweł Potoroczyn. The discussion took place under the theme of A Clerk after Hours and was an allusion to the fact that on an everyday basis, the invited authors deal with office work – managing culture, to be more precise. The books they published – Kłosowski’s Nauczyciel Sztuki and Potoroczyn’s Ludzka rzecz – can therefore be treated as a form of escape from an ordinary workday. “Before I took the manuscript to the publisher, I slimmed it down by half. It took me thirteen years to write the entire thing, and slimming it down took five,” said Potoroczyn, revealing what the technique of his work looks like behind the scenes. “I get up at 5:30 a.m. every day, no matter what I do the night before. It was also then that I began working on my book each morning.” Both Potoroczyn and Kłosowski made friends with their characters in a way, which automatically – as they admitted in unison – developed their personalities, and not only the creative parts. “You have to muster the courage and live and breathe your character. This teaches empathy,” said Kłosowski. “I got to like my characters, I was tolerant of them, although I thought about the fiction in which the lower limit of truth meets the upper limit of probability,” Potoroczyn distanced himself from autobiographical questions.
Yesterday, at the Conrad Festival, the Conspirators of Imagination exhibition was also opened. It presents works created for Agnieszka Taborska’s books by Selena Kimball, Andrzej Klimowski, and Mieczysław Wasilewski. Let us remind you that surrealism is one of the important festival motifs. You can encounter it – literally – even in the corridors of the Festival Centre at Pałac Pod Baranami, where most of the events take place.
Just like every year, during the Conrad Festival, a film section is also organised. This time, besides a series with films by the Brothers Quay, Iranian cinema is an important subject. Giving a talk before yesterday’s screening of The Past directed by Asghar Farhadi, Mostafa Zamaninja convinced that the work of the Iranian filmmaker is close to what Polański or Bergman did. “Actions and reactions take place not so much outside, as inside the characters,” he said. “Another topic important for Farhadi is the feeling of being lost. People in the director’s films seem to be close to one another, but at the same time, they are completely out of touch and unable to talk to each other.”
Wednesday at the festival promises to be delectable. At 10:00 a.m. – A Reading Lesson with… Ryszard Koziołek. An hour later, at the Arteteka of the Regional Public Library in Krakow, creative writing workshops for seniors will begin (they will last till 3:00 p.m. and will be conducted by Katarzyna Kubisiowska and Łukasz Wojtysko). At 11:30 a.m., the three-hour section, Literature on the border, will begin. At 2:45 p.m., a meeting with Sylwia Chutnik, Kaja Malanowska, and Zośka Papużanka will begin. It will be hosted by Przemysław Czapliński. At 4:00 p.m., Marcin Baran, Michał Bzinkowski, and Ireneusz Kania will take the floor in a conversation about Cavafy. At 7:00 p.m., Professor Michał Paweł Markowski, Agata Bielik-Robson, Krzysztof Kłosiński, and Lech Witkowski will take part in a discussion on how to be a specialist in the humanities today. And to finish off the third day of the festival: from 9:00 p.m. – Night Reading at Cafe Szafe, and at 9:30 p.m. at the Kino Pod Baranami cinema – the second evening with films by the Brothers Quay.
A confirmation of the information that Krakow has officially joined the exclusive circle of UNESCO Cities of Literature, as well as meetings with Joanna Bator and Peter Sloterdijk are undoubtedly the most important events of the first day of the 5th edition of the Conrad Festival.
The letter sent from Paris by Francesco Bandarin – UNESCO Assistant Director-General – dated the 18th of October 2013, leaves no doubt. After three years of efforts and preparations, Krakow has joined the Creative Cities Network in the area of literature as the seventh city in the world and the first in this part of Europe to be granted this honourable title. “The title of UNESCO City of Literature will open new possibilities for obtaining additional funds and set a direction of the development of literature in the city,” said Magdalena Sroka, Deputy Mayor of the City of Krakow for Culture and the Promotion of the City during yesterday’s briefing, during which this happy news was announced.
The fact that Krakow is indeed a city of literature and literature is the perfect medium has been emphasised by the organisers of the Conrad Festival for years. “Literature mediates between readers, writers, and at the same time between various worlds” – this is how the festival’s artistic director, Professor Michał Paweł Markowski, explained the idea of this year’s edition of the event. “Krakow is becoming a global city. It lives and breathes questions asked in various places on earth,” he added.
This year’s festival guests have also come from various places on earth. During yesterday’s press conference inaugurating the festival, Grzegorz Jankowicz, the festival’s executive director, encouraged everyone to take part in meetings with the Brothers Quay, for whom literature is “something like a trampoline”, and reminded about the meeting with outstanding Italian writer, essayist, and translator Claudio Magris, and the sure candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Cees Nooteboom. He also invited to the meeting with Kiran Desai and Sławomir Zubrzycki. The latter is a virtuoso on the viola organista – an instrument invented and designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Zubrzycki himself managed to construct the viola only several years ago. The author of the reconstruction presented its sound last night during a concert at Saint Peter and Paul’s Church.
Joanna Bator also gave an unusual concert, but performed with the use of different notation –
a concert of thought and reconstruction of the past. Winner of this year’s Nike Award for Ciemno, prawie noc (Dark, Almost Night) talked about how Japan came into her life and how she left the mythical – also for her writing – city of Wałbrzych. “When I completed my doctorate and was staying in New York, I had no idea what to do next,” Bator confessed. “One day, almost by accident, a friend sent me a form concerning a scholarship in Japan. I had one night to write a project and find a host. And I did. I sent my application at dawn. I soon found out that I am supposed to go to a foreign country for two years,” said the writer. “I had never been so lonely in my life as I was there.”
But it was in this loneliness that Joanna Bator – the writer was born. The Nike-winner admitted that she initially sent Piaskowa Góra (Sandy Mountain) to the publishing house under a pen name. She was convinced to publish it under her real name by Beata Stasińska, editor-in-chief at W.A.B., the publishing company which published Bator’s successive novels. The author of Dark, Almost Night explained that she associates Wałbrzych with a terrible and horrifying place, but also a place one keeps wanting to visit, explore, and see. “I spent 18 years there and left without looking back. I never returned there and probably never will. But when I write any narration, Wałbrzych often appears there.”
For Bator, the ideal novel is a two-code book. In practice, this means a text that engrosses thanks to the story itself, but at the same time includes a subtext, a hidden agenda. This ideal is put into practice by one of Bator’s favourite writers – Haruki Murakami. “Writing Dark, Almost Night left me ravaged for several months,” said the writer. “I began to write again only quite recently. In July, a character spoke, and with time, it began to flow. But the chaos after receiving the Nike Award does not favour creative work,” Bator admitted.
What favours and what hinders creative work – broadly defined, also philosophical – is what Professor Michał Paweł Markowski and outstanding thinker Peter Sloterdijk talked about in the evening. The meeting began with a commentary on three points in the philosopher’s biography: the Indian experience, professorship, and writing a libretto for an opera. Sloterdijk talked about the former two in a particularly vivid way, stating that it was the experiences of the 1960s and 1970s that sent him to the East, when as a 20- and 30-something, he was fascinated by alternative movements, psychotherapy, and ecology. “So we are talking about Hesse’s classic journey to the East filtered through a hippie experience,” Markowski responded. But the recipe for a philosophical life only seemed to be simple. The conversation between the philosopher and the literary scholar quickly moved to the key topic for the entire festival: the media. The thinkers quoted classical and modern media theories and referring to them, they talked, among others, about the philosopher as the one who reacts to what society lives and breathes, but at the same time one who resists the world. Their philosophical dialogue, dense with footnotes, also concerned the media diagnosis of the present. “We live in the times of iconic revolution,” Sloterdijk said, and added: “We are not able to create appropriate relations and interrelationships.” At the request for commentary on McLuhan’s thesis, according to which “the media are an extension of ourselves”, the philosopher referred to the theory of organ extension. According to this theory, a tank is an extension of a soldier, and a shoe an extension of the foot.
Today at the Festival: at 11:30 a.m. – A Reading Lesson with… Jerzy Franczak; at 2:00 p.m. – Not Like in Paradise, i.e. a meeting with Agnieszka Taborska; and at 4:00 p.m., Dariusz Czaja, Krzysztof Środa, and Adam Wodnicki, led by Anna Arno, will take us on a journey Somewhere further, somewhere else. An hour later, Agnieszka Taborska will open the Conspirators of Imagination exhibition at the Szara Kamienica Gallery. At the same time, a meeting with Mostafa Zamaninja – writer, publisher, and expert in Iranian culture – has been planned. At 6:00 p.m., Wojciech Kłosowski and Paweł Potoroczyn will talk about A clerk after Work. And in the evening, Marek Bieńczyk, Filip Springer, and Ryszard Koziołek will take us on a fascinating journey streaked with melancholy. Film enthusiasts will also find something for themselves today. First, at 7:00 p.m. – The Past directed by Asghar Farhadi, and at 9:30 p.m. – the first part of the film series dedicated to the works of the Brothers Quay will be screened. The film events will take place at the Kino Pod Baranami cinema.
After a three-year wait, Kraków is officially revealed as the latest UNESCO City of Literature today (Monday 21 October). We are the seventh city to be granted this honour, following Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavík and Norwich!
It is significant that the splendid news that Kraków has received this honour is announced in late October, on the first day of the Conrad Festival; this prestigious literary event, one of the most noteworthy in this part of Europe, runs in parallel with the Kraków Book Fair, celebrating the Polish publishing industry and attracting crowds of readers over many years.
This rare distinction, awarded since 2004, has been bestowed on very few cities so far: the title is held by the metropolises of Edinburgh, Melbourne and Dublin, as well as the historical Norwich in England and the entrepreneurial Iowa City in the US, renowned for its State University. Kraków is only the second non-English language city to hold the title (alongside Reykjavík), and the first in mainland Europe.
How did it happen?
In order to become a UNESCO City of Literature, the candidates must meet several requirements in terms of the quality and diversity of initiatives held by local publishers, the role of literature in its broad sense in the everyday lives of the city’s inhabitants, the range of festivals and literary events, and the abundance of bookshops, libraries and other institutions involved with books and literary heritage. Also important is the involvement of the media and the creation of ambitious development programmes: all the themed titles awarded by UNESCO (City of Film, City of Music and City of Design) form the wide-reaching Creative Cities Network.
Kraków’s application, originating in 2011, was successful precisely because of the harmonious co-existence of all these elements, as well as the city’s broad, daring plans for the future. Kraków is already a treasure trove of literature, with the first books printed in the Polish language published here in the 16th century (Historyja umęczenia Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa, anon., 1508, and Raj duszny, a prayer book by Biernat of Lublin, 1513). Putting the new plans into action means that literature will also become the driving force behind the development of other creative industries, and bring together circles of writers, poets, critics and scholars, as well as booksellers, publishers, the media, IT companies and investors. The process started during the preparation of Kraków’s application with the participation and collaboration of dozens of public, private and municipal institutions located in Kraków; the work was overseen by the Kraków Festival Office, an organisation responsible for coordinating numerous literary events.
Why Kraków?
Kraków receiving the title of UNESCO City of Literature bears testament to the cultural heritage of our ancient city and the wealth of its artistic life today. Kraków has long been an academic and intellectual centre of Europe and a cradle of language and literature; it was the first Polish city to hold scriptoriums, libraries and printing houses, and it is the birthplace of scores of literary masterpieces. It was also home to the authors of Polish modernism – Stanisław Wyspiański, Stanisław Przybyszewski and Józef Mehoffer – and more contemporary artists including Karol Wojtyła, Tadeusz Kantor, Stanisław Lem, Sławomir Mrożek and Andrzej Wajda. It was here that Czesław Miłosz (awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980) returned after many years in exile, and it was the home of Wisława Szymborska (Nobel Prize in 1996) throughout her long life until her passing in 2012.
Kraków holds many of Poland’s finest publishing houses, such as Wydawnictwo Literackie, specialising in fine literature since 1953, and Znak, founded in 1959 as an independent publishing institute. There are also countless exclusive and artistic publishers, including a5, Czarne, Ha!Art, Otwarte and Karakter, numerous publishing houses specialising in children’s literature, and a thriving network of religious publishers. From the Rynek Główny to the Kazimierz district, the streets are lined with literary cafés (Bona, Matras Caffe, Czuły Barbarzyńca, Lokator), excellent venues for reading (Pod Globusem, Café Szafé, Gołębnik, Arteteka), and historical libraries with globally unique collections (Jagiellonian Library, Czartoryski Library, and the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences). Kraków also hosts translation and interpreting events, conventions of scholars and poets, and resident scholarships (with the participation of the Villa Decjusz), as well as awarding literary prizes. The most recent, most coveted and of the highest monetary value is the Wisława Szymborska Prize: instituted in the author’s will and presented by an international jury, it is awarded for a volume of poetry composed in Polish. Kraków is also home to the Book Institute – a national institution promoting Polish literature around the world, awarding the prestigious Transatlantyk Prize, and supporting literary programmes in Poland.
City of many events
As well as the two major literary festivals recalling acclaimed Polish authors (the Conrad Festival and the Miłosz Festival), Kraków hosts book readings for children, conventions of fans of fantasy and crime novels, reviews of young and independent literature and the latest graphic novels, poetry tournaments and competitions, popular book swap programmes, literary events in public spaces (outdoor events as part of the Night of Poetry, the e-multipoetry campaign, the itinerant library and literary murals), scholarly sessions devoted to literature, poetry slams in pubs and literary cafés, and exhibitions and campaigns promoting reading (Second Life of Books, Virtual Library of Publishers). There are also ambitious projects supporting literature, including the Reading Małopolska project and the Kraków City of Literature portal, developed as part of the preparation of Kraków’s application for the UNESCO title. The city also hosts the Book Fair, attracting crowds of visitors each year; since 2011, it also holds Poland’s only Children’s Book Fair.
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The title of UNESCO City of Literature is a prestigious acknowledgement of this wealth of literary and cultural heritage, but the distinction has far broader implications, outlined in Kraków’s visions of development that explore new territories. The scope is extremely wide: from preparing tourist literature, through creating innovative literary venues, to paving the way for collaboration with other creative industries such as filmmaking, new media and game development. The historical city of Kraków, home to rapidly developing state-of-the-art technologies, has a wealth of potential to show that the brave new digital world can and does exist in harmony with good old printed literature.
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Claudio Magris – prose writer, essayist, translator, and Germanist, professor of contemporary German literature at the University of Trieste – will meet with readers in Krakow on Thursday (the 24th of October). A highly regarded scientist of world renown, an Italian by origin, he regularly publishes in the best European periodicals, such as the Italian magazine Corriere della Sera and the Polish quarterly Zeszyty Literackie. He has received many prestigious prizes, including the Erasmus, Herder, and Vilenica Prizes. In 2009, he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is awarded annually at the Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main. We would like to invite you to the meeting with Claudio Magris at the International Cultural Centre (Rynek Główny 25) at 8 p.m. It will be hosted by Grzegorz Jankowicz.
To date, the following of his books were published in Polish: Danubio (1990), Microcosmi (2002), Altro mare (2004), Alla cieca (2006), Illazioni su una sciabola (2009), Itaca e oltre (2009), L’infinito viaggiare (2009), and Le voci (2010). Apart from the first two books, co-translated by Anna Osmólska-Mętrak, all the other works were translated by Joanna Ugniewska in an outstanding manner.
As regards the matter of literary creation, he is fascinated mainly with Central Europe as a place where various cultural influences intermingle. One of the examples of such multiculturalism is his hometown Trieste, to which Microcosms is devoted. He is also fascinated with history observed from various perspectives and places where languages and traditions intermingle. In order to enhance this diversity, he makes use of various genres and combines them into a specific travel diary.
You can find the best books by guests of the Conrad Festival and the Krakow Book Fair on almost 300 citylights in the largest cities of Poland. Scan the QR codes and download free passages. More on: www.qr.miastoliteratury.pl.