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A meeting with Grzegorz Jankowicz

This coming Thursday, the 12th of December at 6 p.m., Grzegorz Jankowicz will talk about his latest book, Cmono. Rozmowy z pisarzami, at Krakow’s Pod Globusem bookstore. It is a record of 13 interviews conducted by Grzegorz Jankowicz with the most outstanding authors of world prose and poetry, in which they raise issues important not only to literature. The authors talk about the need for narration and the condition of the contemporary novel, about the role of stories in the lives of both individuals and societies. Writers such as Josef Škvorecký, Dubravka Ugrešić, and Marjane Satrapi also point out the significance of the word as a tool that may serve liberation, but also enslavement of individuals, groups, and entire nations. In the book, we will also find deliberations on the contemporary world, which found reflection in the works of Jankowicz’s interviewees: on the status of women, relationships between the East and the West and between politics and religion, as well as the abuse of power and failures in the Western countries’ support programmes for other parts of the globe.

Cmono. Rozmowy z pisarzami is also a journey to the origins of artistic work. It allows us to discover what role in writing the writers’ native language plays and what role the languages that they acquired with time, e.g. in emigration or when travelling, play. The authors talk about their masters and reveal what influence on their work their loved ones have. Cmono is also a treasury of anecdotes. We will find out things such as why Israeli prose writer Etgar Keret was reprimanded by a giant on a film set, what American poet John Ashbery has in common with MTV, and how Josef Škvorecký’s wife reacted when he was offered the publication of his first book in exile. We will also get to know Orhan Pamuk’s theory on what Anna Karenina read, find out which author has as many as 100,000 books and 10,000 collections of essays on their track record, and what the teenage Alberto Manguel used to read to the blind Luis Borges. We will also discover the meaning of the mysterious word “cmono” included in the book’s title, the sense of which the famous lexicographer Samuel Linde tried to find. Grzegorz Jankowicz conducted interviews with: Orhan Pamuk, Rabih Alameddine, Josef Škvorecký, Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Marjane Satrapi, Dubravka Ugrešić, György Spiró, Lukas Bärfuss, Herta Müller and Charles Simic, John Ashbery, and Alberto Manguel.

Joseph Brodsky last met with Polish readers in 1993. Twenty years later, on the anniversary of him receiving the degree honoris causa at the University of Silesia in Katowice, we would like to invite you to Krakow, where students of Jagiellonian University have created the literary and academic Brodsky Project, as part of which an international interdisciplinary academic conference, Going back to a place not visited for twenty years – Joseph Brodsky’s returns from history, will take place between the 6th and the 8th of December at the lecture theatre of Collegium Novum of Jagiellonian University. Scholars researching the Nobel Prize winner’s works from Poland and abroad – St. Petersburg State University, the University of Helsinki, and Yale University, among others – will take part in the conference. The central theme of the project is a journey, constituting – one may say – a metaphor of Brodsky’s fate. His poetic path led through Russia, Italy, the US, and Poland: it was in Polish translation that Brodsky could read world literature, unavailable in the USSR. And literature became a gateway to the world of aesthetics and ethics.

We believe that the Brodsky Project will constitute a valuable contribution to the annual programme of literary events in Krakow. We encourage you to become familiar with the programme, which is available at: www.projektbrodski.pl.

The Korporacja Ha!art Foundation and Krakow’s Czuły Barbarzyńca bookstore-cafe would like to invite everyone to the premiere of Sławomir Shuty’s collection of short stories, entitled Dziewięćdziesiąte, with the participation of the author.

Friday, the 6th of December, 6 p.m.
Czuły Barbarzyńca
ul. Powiśle 11
in Krakow

Host: Michał Sowiński

Admission is free!

The Korporacja Ha!art Foundation, the Fragile cultural magazine, and the Śródmieście Cultural Centre in Krakow would like to invite everyone to the premiere of Marian Pankowski’s collection of short stories entitled Nastka, śmiej się! Opowiadania.

Thursday, the 5th of December 2013, 6 p.m.
The Concert Hall of the Śródmieście Cultural Centre
ul. Mikołajska 2

Guests: Jan Bińczycki, Tomasz Charnas, Grzegorz Jankowicz

Admission is free!

This coming Tuesday, the 3rd of December, the Wisława Szymborska Foundation and the National Museum in Krakow would like to invite everyone to the screening of the documentary entitled Chwilami życie bywa znośne directed by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska. The film is a sort of “meeting” with the Poet – a story of her everyday life, habits, passions, dreams. It presents the little-known face of the Nobel Prize winner. The film is surprising, amusing, and moving at the same time. The documentary is complemented by comments about Szymborska, made not only by people who were closely connected with her, but also well-known figures from the world of culture, fascinated with her works and personality, including Umberto Eco, Vaclav Havel, and Woody Allen.

The Chwilami życie bywa znośne documentary was screened in Europe and beyond, e.g. in Belgrade at the International Belgrade Poetry and Book Festival and in New York at the New York Polish Film Festival. Numerous screenings also took place in Italy, Germany, and Israel. Viewers in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Portugal had the chance to see the film on TV.

Due to limited space, the film will be screened on two consecutive December Tuesdays: on the 3rd and the 10th of December.

The screening will take place at 4:30 p.m. at the Szołayski House – a Branch of the National Museum in Krakow (pl. Szczepański 9) in the exhibition space of “Szymborska’s Drawer”.

Admission to the screening is free. Due to a limited number of places, please pick up the tickets in advance. They are available at the cash register at the Księgarnia Młoda bookstore in the Szołayski House.

A documentary, 74 min, Poland, 2009.

Directed by: Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska

Adam Zagajewski – poet, essayist, translator, one of the most recognisable Polish contemporary authors in the world, won the prestigious Zhongkun literary award, called the Chinese Nobel Prize in Poetry.

This international prize is awarded in China every two years by the Zhongkun Foundation and the Poetry Research Institute of Peking University. This is the only literary distinction in the country that can be awarded to a foreigner. Each time, there are two winners: a foreigner and a Chinese author, such as Bei Dao, representative of the Misty Poets – a poetry group opposing restrictions imposed by the cultural revolution. He is one of the most outstanding artists and winners of the Zhongkun award.

A collection of Adam Zagajewski’s poems is to be published in China in 2014. They were translated by Wu Lan, thanks to whom books by authors such as Czesław Miłosz and Ryszard Kapuściński came out in this country.

Born in 1945, Adam Zagajewski is a winner of many prestigious awards, such as the Prix de la Liberté awarded by the French PEN Club, the award of the German Konrad-Adenauer-Stifung (Konrad Adenauer Foundation), and the Swedish Tomas Tranströmer Prize.  His books have been translated into over a dozen languages: from English, French, and  German, through to Albanian, Bosnian, and Norwegian. For a number of years, the name of Adam Zagajewski has also appeared among the candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Source: www.rp.pl

Pic. Michał Sosna

Neither rain nor the Ski Jumping World Cup competition and the sensational victory of young Polish ski jumper, Krzysztof Biegun, discouraged you. As usual, you turned up in crowds at the Wyspiański Pavilion to participate in this year’s penultimate edition of the Second Life of a Book campaign. This time, Katarzyna Grochola’s novels were an indisputable hit of our book exchange. There was also something for those who prefer more ambitious literature – Wisława Szymborska’s poetry or Stanisław Lem’s always equally popular novels. Several dozens of books which did not find new owners this time were donated to a school library in Niedźwiedź. They were carefully selected by its librarian to whom we would like to thank for her commitment. There are two more editions ahead of us this year: we would like to invite you to Gołębnik on the 11th of December  and to the Wyspiański Pavilion four days later (the 15th of December).

Read an account of yesterday’s book exchange in Dziennik Literacki.

The Second Life of a Book is a joint campaign of the Krakow Festival Office and Bookeriada.pl. Everyone can take part in the free book swap; just bring at least one book and a maximum of ten books if they are in good condition. Books published till 1995 can be swapped only for those that were also published till that year, whereas newer books (published after 1995) can be swapped for every book available during the given book swap. Find out more about the campaign at: www.drugiezycieksiazki.pl.

Media partners: RMF Classic and Fragile.
Partners: Galeria Krakowska, Strefa Wolnego Czytania, Klubokawiarnia likeKonik

The project was subsided from the resources of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The central figure of yet another episode of the Writers in Motion Audiovisual Library of Writers is Marek Bieńczyk – writer, historian, translator, and essayist, winner of last year’s NIKE Literary Award for a collection of essays entitled Książka twarzy. The interview was conducted in Krakow during the 5th edition of the Conrad Festival by Olga Szmidt – Jagiellonian University doctoral student. We encourage you to watch it!

 


We would like to remind you that the Writers in Motion Audiovisual Library of Writers is a project carried out by the Krakow Festival Office in cooperation with the Faculty of Polish Studies of Jagiellonian University. During the conversations conducted with authors by Jagiellonian University students and doctoral students, audiovisual profiles of Polish and international writers are created, both by those who live in Krakow and those who visit the city during its numerous literary events.

No plans for this weekend? Puzzled about where to look for presents from Father Christmas? We would like to invite you to spend your Saturday in the company of books. This year’s penultimate edition of the Second Life of a Book campaign will begin at 3 p.m. at the Wyspiański Pavilion. You will be able to find books perfect for autumn evenings and well suited for Christmas presents at this free book exchange. Examine your home libraries and choose books to exchange with others. See you there!

The Second Life of a Book is a joint campaign of the Krakow Festival Office and Bookeriada.pl. Everyone can take part in the free book swap; just bring at least one book and a maximum of ten books if they are in good condition. Books published till 1995 can be swapped only for those that were also published till that year, whereas newer books (published after 1995) can be swapped for every book available during the given book swap. Find out more about the campaign at: www.drugiezycieksiazki.pl.

Media partners: RMF Classic and Fragile.
Partners: Galeria Krakowska, Strefa Wolnego Czytania, Klubokawiarnia likeKonik

The project was subsided from the resources of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

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