Welcome new UNESCO Creative Cities!

Today, December 11, the UNESCO Creative Cities family has grown. Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO, has announced 47 new members of the Creative Cities Network, with nine distinguished as Cities of Literature, including Lviv, Baghdad, Barcelona, Ljubljana, Montevideo, Nottingham,  Óbidos, Tartu and Ulyanovsk ! Congratulations to our new partners!

For the full list of 47 cities newly admitted to the network, click here.

The Creative Cities Network was founded in 2004. It brings together cities that consider culture and creativity to be strategic components of their economic and urban development. The network is divided into seven subgroups: music, film, literature, media arts, folk and craft art, gastronomy and design. The aim of the network is to promote the idea of the creative economy, exchange of best practices and increase participation in cultural life.

As a reminder, Krakow earned the title of City of LIterature in October 2013. For more information about the network, go to: www.unesco.org

It is with great pleasure that we announce that on December 11th, following the decision of Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, Katowice have received the title of UNESCO City of Music and have joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

This success is the result of many years of hard work and preparation, as well as the effect of consequential political support for the creative and cultural industries in Katowice, where the music industry is a vibrant, valued and quickly developing sector, in particular thanks to the such projects as Off Fetival, Tauron New Music, Rawa Blues Festival and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Kraków – the first and only Polish City of Literature has been a long-time supporter of Katowice’s application, convinced of the exceptional qualities of the city and its music, cultural and creative sectors.

The City of Music Network is currently composed of the following cities: Adelaide (Australia), Bologna (Italy), Bogota (Columbia), Brazzaville (Democratic Republic of Congo), Ghent (Belgium), Hamamatsu (Japan), Hannover (Germany), Idanha-a-Nova (Portugal), Kingston (Jamaica), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo), Mannheim (Germany), Medellín (Colombia), Salvador (Brazil), Seville (Spain), Tongyeong (Republic of Korea), Varanasi (India).

Katowice are the first City of Music in Central and Eastern Europe and the second, after Krakow (City of Literature), UNESCO Creative City in Poland.

Congratulations!

The 31^st of October saw the end of Czytaj PL! – the largest campaign promoting reading in the country. Its success is visible in the results: 20 000 borrowed e-books and their fragments, as well as over 500 titles in national and local media. Throughout October, several hundred thousand people saw the covers of the 12 bestselling titles presented in the Czytaj PL! campaign at over 300 bus stops in Krakow, Gdańsk, Katowice, Poznań, Wrocław and Warsaw.
 

“Thanks to the unprecedented cooperation with partner cities, we organised a reading promotion campaign on a national scale,” said Izabela Helbin, the director of the Krakow Festival Office, the operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme. “I am thrilled with its results. Not only the numbers, but above all, the reactions of the readers – thousands of positive comments in social media. There were also many questions from residents of cities that were not present in our campaign this year. We want to share our projects with a growing number of recipients, and I hope that next year, Czytaj PL! will cover more locations,” director Helbin added.
On 1^st October, three hundred free e-book lending libraries appeared on the streets of the biggest Polish cities. In each one, users could borrow one of twelve books for a month, including Marek Krajewski’s newest novel, Marcin Wicha’s bestselling story about design, as well as Marcin Prokop’s funny children’s stories.

“We are very happy that the Czytaj PL! campaign was so well received by the media and the readers, and that it allowed them to encounter the best in literature directly in the urban spaces. I hope that thanks to our excellent cooperation with the Woblink.com platform and the Krakow Festival Offer, the Czytaj PL! campaign will become a permanent fixture on the map of literary events in Poland. We would like to see it grow from year to year, contributing to the promotion of reading in Poland through the use of new technologies and innovative book distribution models, as well as offering readers an increasingly better reading experience and the opportunity to borrow even more best-selling titles completely for free,” says Mateusz Tobiczyk from the Woblink.com platform, a co-organiser of the campaign.

Advertising stands at public transit stops in Krakow, Gdańsk, Katowice, Poznań, Warszawa and Wrocław were turned into e-book libraries. To borrow a book, users had to download the Czytaj PL! mobile app, and then scan the QR code located beside the cover of the book they wished to borrow.
Among the available titles were both bestsellers as well as more ambitious publications. For enthusiasts of new technologies and crime, there were novels: Arena szczurów by Marek Krajewski, Kasacja by Remigiusz Mróz and Inna dusza Łukasza Orbitowskiego. For fans of something a little stronger, the e-book libraries contained the uncompromising interviews of Patryk Vega with policemen – Złe psy. W imię zasad and the first thriller 2.0 – Tomasz Lipko’s Notebook. Lovers of great literature could read one of the most important Scandinavian novels of the 20^th century – Finn Alnæs’ Colossus. The Czytaj PL! libraries also had room for Marcin Wicha’s high-profile Jak przestałem kochać design. Also on the list of the available titles were: the latest novel in the Metro 2033 universe series, Robert J. Schmidt’s Otchłań, Evžen Boček’s light-hearted Czech novel Ostatnia Arystokratka, a series of reports about women in the 30s, collected in Marta Szarejko’s Zaduch, as well as Dorota Gąsiorowska’s Obietnica Łucji.

The Czytaj PL! campaign ran from the 1^st to the 31^st of October. It was organised by the Krakow Festival Office and the e-book platform Woblink.com. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as part of the Promoting Reading programme.

Amazon recently opened its first physical store in Seattle. Whatever our opinion about the American giant’s practices, one thing is certain – these days, we need direct contact with books more than ever before. Today, an all-city promotional campaign begins in Krakow – supporting bookstores, which are cultural centres and places where social ties are made. Read locally! Brings attention to unique and original initiatives, and bookstores that conduct regular, proprietary and grass-roots cultural activities. As it turns out, there are plenty of them in Krakow!

In cooperation with the booksellers, we have prepared an exceptional gadget: a bookbag designed by known graphic artist and book cover designer, Przemek Dębowski. This is a present you will be able to get with the purchase of three books in all bookshops taking part in the campaign. The list of shops is found below.

We have also prepared a series of interviews with the employees and exceptional regulars and friends of eight bookshops in Krakow: De Revolutionibus, Bonobo, Massolit, Pod Globusem, Lokator, Ha!art, Matras at Main Square and the antiquarian bookshop Rara Avis at Szpitalna Street. Telling us about why such places are worth visiting and supporting will be, among others, Tomasz Pindel, Mateusz Pakuła, Zośka Papużanka, Ziemowit Szczerek, Wojciech Bonowicz and Professor Aleksander Krawczuk.

The material is absorbing – our interviewees not only share their thoughts with us, but also their experiences with the lives of small Krakow bookshops. We will learn about the history of the most faithful customer of the bookshop at Main Square 23 (he has been a regular for 80 years!), we’ll read about the complicated fate of Krakow’s Lokator, where the novels of Jerzy Franczak and Łukasz Orbitowski were written, as well as the plays of Mateusz Pakuła. We will learn why it’s worth to buy a first edition of Pan Tadeusz and why the rara avis turned out to be the most expensive Polish book sold in the 20^th century. We will also find out which Krakow bookshop survived the attacks of the “chicken-man” and what connects a cosy bookshop with a vegetable stand.

Look for the interviews in the pages of national media, as well as on our website.

Read locally! – support the bookshops of our city!

List of bookshops taking part in the campaign:

Bonobo – travel bookshop
Bona Książka i Kawa
De Revolutionibus Books & Café
Czuły Barbarzyńca w Krakowie
Jak wam się podoba – a shop with books
Księgarnia Edukator
Księgarnia Jedynka
Księgarnia Hiszpańska Elite
Księgarnia Korporacji Ha!art
Księgarnia Młoda i Muzealna
Księgarnia Pod Globusem
Księgarnia PWN w Krakowie
Księgarnia|Wystawa
Księgarnia Italicus
Książkoteka
Lokator Kawa & Książki
Massolit Books & Coffee
Microscup
MOCAK Bookstore
Muza Salon Książki

On the 15^th and 16^th of October, at the Villa Decius, the International Conference “The Return of the Fallen Empires” will take place – another in the series of events dedicated to the idea of freedom organised since 2002 by the Villa Decius Association.

The conference will be accompanied by the 12^th ceremony for the Polish Prize of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2002-2003), which is awarded to individuals and non-governmental organisations for their work on behalf of peaceful coexistence and cooperation of societies, religions and cultures.

The main aim of the conference “The Return of the Fallen Empires” is to call attention to the dramatic escalation of events in the international arena and the new balance of power being created under their influence from the perspective of the main political and social actors. Among the issues that will be raised during the conference will be the geopolitical strategies of former and current powers, new spheres of influence, as well as social effects of these actions.

The meeting will facilitate the exchange of information and views between known authorities in the area of international relations and the wider audience. This is because among those invited to participate are representatives of the world of science, politics and media, as well as non-governmental organisations and young academics.

The 21st century has opened, not only nominally, a new chapter in the history of international relations and its contents, according to experts, will be primarily the actions of countries with a worldwide reach and the social dimension of new technologies.

The most important challenges for international politics are deemed to be the relatively new, yet with a global reach, local armed conflicts (Libyan, Syrian and Ukrainian), as well as the escalation of ongoing, years-long wars in Africa and the Middle East. The key subject of international politics are also topics on the borderline of the social and political, including the contestation of both corporatism and the foundations (normative and empirical) of liberal democracies and the real threat of religious fundamentalism.

Armed conflicts and their social effects, as well as the civic or religious defiance of democratic systems, are nothing new in the history of international relations and they are in keeping with the patterns that have been known for centuries. However, commonly available technologies and the digital revolution seem to be accelerating the cycle and giving it new meaning, which can be clearly seen on the example of the current immigration crisis in the European Union.

This year’s conference is organised in cooperation with the Res Publica Nowa magazine, the Krakow Festival Office, as well as members of Krakow academia. The concept of the conference was prepared by Danuta Glondys, Dominika Kasprowicz and Wojciech Przybylski. The event will take place under the honorary patronage of the Mayor of the City of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski.

The return of the fallen empires: conference programme

Thursday, 15 October

10:00 am – 10:15 am Guest welcome

10:15 am – 11:00 am Inauguration lecture, “21^st century empires” – Giles Scott-Smith

11:00 am – 12:30 pm Debate I

David and Goliath: The United States as a superpower and its regional competition

Panellists: Metin Bulut, David Jones, Paweł Kowal, Sergei Kovalyov

Moderator: Wojciech Przybylski

13:00 pm – 13:30 pm Special lecture: “The rise of fallen empires” – Lucas Scott

13:30 pm – 15:00 pm Debate II

Spaces of imperialism: old vs. new – North Africa and countries of the Levant

Panellists: Emel Akcali, Jeannette Bougrab, Felix Kaputu, Patrycja Sasnal

Moderator: Łukasz Fyderek

15:00 pm – 15:30 pm Multimedia exhibition “The Time of the Empire” by Tomasz Kizna

15:30 pm – 16:30 pm Lunch

SPECIAL EVENT

16:30 pm – 18:30 pm The 12^th Polish Prize of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Taking part in the gala will be members of the Polish Prize of Sérgio Vieira de Mello jury, His Excellency the Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Poland, His Excellency the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden in Poland, the Representatives of the UNHCR in Poland, representatives of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, the Department of the United Nations and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Human Rights Defender, the Institute of National Remembrance, the Consul General of the United States, the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation – PAUCI, the ZNAK Christian Culture Foundation, the CEO of ZUE Capital Group, the Chairman of the Board of Krakow Airport, the Regional Director of PZU, and the Villa Decius Association.

Friday, 16 October

EXPERT SEMINAR

10:00 am – 12:30 pm Round table: The fall and recovery of societies in the 21st century

Participants of the seminar will discuss the social and political effects of geopolitics, with a particular emphasis on changes in the area of national institutions, ideas and practices of the rule of law, as well as human rights.

Introductory lecture: Hans Kolstad

Moderator: Michal Vašečka

Participants:

• Samuel Abraham (Poland)
• Emel Akcali (Cyprus/Turkey)
• Joanna Bar (Poland)
• Jeannette Bougrab (France)
• Metin Bulut (Cypr)
• Asli Erdogan (Turcja)
• Łukasz Fyderek (Poland)
• Olga Glondys (Poland/Spain)
• Danuta Glondys (Poland)
• David Jones (USA)
• Felix Kaputu (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Dominika Kasprowicz (Poland)
• Marcin Kędzierski (Poland)
• Tomasz Kizny (Poland)
• Paweł Kowal (Poland)
• Beata Kowalska (Poland)
• Sergey Kovalev (Rosja)
• Scott Lucas (Great Britain)
• Robert Piaskowski (Poland)
• Jan Piekło (Poland)
• Wojciech Przybylski (Poland)
• Janusz Majcherek (Poland)
• László Rajk (Hungary)
• Ziyad Raoof (Kurdistan/Poland)
• Agnieszka Rozner (Poland)
• Hans Ingvar Toth (Sweden)
• Irakli Samkharadze (Georgia)
• Patrycja Sasnal (Poland)
• Giles Scott-Smith (The Netherlands)
• Michał Sutowski (Poland)
• Elżbieta Święcicka (Sweden)

“People have many voices inside them” – Liliana Hermetz, Alicyjka

Liliana Hermetz, the author of the debut novel Alicyjka (published by Nisza), was proclaimed the laureate of the Conrad Award for the best literary debut. The winning book was chosen by Internet voters, who could cast their votes for the five nominees from the 13^th of October. The presentation of the statuette and the cash prize of 30,000 PLN took place on the 25^th of October during the Conrad Award Gala at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre. The Gala was also the conclusion of the Conrad Festival.

“The victory of your novel, nominated by the Award Jury, and then chosen by readers through an open vote, shows that debuts can not only attract the attention of wider audiences and the media in our country, but should also be considered as high literature on par with the greatest Polish prose achievements of recent years,” said Andrzej Kulig, the Deputy Mayor for Social Policy, Culture and Promotion of the City of Krakow. “I congratulate you on the success of your book, eagerly await further literary achievements and wish you every success on your future creative path.”

The author of the winning novel is a cultural studies and theatre scholar – which is evident in her book, which is told in a way that refers to the language of the theatre and various literary genres and forms. She studied French language, literature and culture at the University of Strasbourg. She also completed and MBA and a post-diploma programme “Designing Culture”. Hermetz has also worked as a cultural manager, journalist, translator and director.

“Thank you to all the Internet voters for this award,” Liliana Hermetz spoke on stage. “Thank you for the nomination and thank you to the Nisza publishing house, who believed both in my book and in me. Thank you to everyone in Krakow, who helped in the promotion of Alicyjka. Thank you to my readers, the City of Krakow and to my friends, who supported me on this strange path that I’ve been on since I left my previous activities and summoned the spirit of writing a few years ago. Congratulations to all the nominees – I am honoured to have been part of the group.”

In her novel, set in a Communist-era village, Hermetz touches on the difficult relationship between a mother and daughter. The women struggle not only with the lack of warmth and closeness, but above all with the barriers created by mutual prejudices, perceptions and unrealistic expectations, often laced with fear.

With extraordinary sensitivity, Alicyjka presents the twists and turns of the family myth of a paradise to which the narrator returns in order to deal with difficult feelings towards her mother (who shortly after her wedding became disabled after she lost a leg and who is dependent on a toxic relationship with her husband). Thanks to the literary “playback” of memories, she also tries to recover the lost relationship and her own identity, as well as settle the accounts with the ideal images that permeate not only her life, but also entwine future generations of women who are taking on the roles of mothers and daughters.

In addition to the cash prize and the statuette, the laureate of the Conrad Award will have the opportunity for a month-long stay in residence in Krakow. All five of the nominees will receive promotional support both during next year’s Conrad Festival, but also in Tygodnik Powszechny.

The patron of the award is Joseph Conrad, one of the greatest modern writers, who started his international literary career after leaving Krakow. The founder and organiser of the award is the City of Krakow, partnered by the Book Institute, the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation and the Krakow Festival Office. The award is intended to not only support beginner writers, but also publishers, encouraging them to take the risk of publishing new authors. At the same time, the establishing of the Conrad Award allows Krakow to pursue the key goals of the UNESCO City of Literature strategy.

In the beginning, there was an idea: “Against the current”, which became a slogan of the 7^th edition of the Conrad Festival. Then, the following months were filled with intensive preparations, brainstorming sessions, arranging programmes, adding new names to the list of important figures from the literary world, who would soon visit Krakow. Great aspirations, but not without concerns. And when the festival week finally arrived, our hopes surpassed the reality. For seven exceptional days, Krakow became a city where pure literature was celebrated, a city of meetings with great authors, intellectual ferment and development of daring visions. Great names, creative workshops, exhibitions, thematic programmes, inspiring movies and – especially – the Conrad Award, given out for the first time in history, despite the variety, they all became elements of the beautiful whole.

It is time to reflect upon the past once more, and it is definitely worth doing that, since this year’s edition of the Festival was a breakthrough in many aspects. First of all, we cannot overstate our satisfaction with the fact that our intuition didn’t fail, and our guest, Svetlana Alexievich, received the Nobel Prize in Literature just a few days before the Festival. The interest in the meeting “Russia’s unwomanly face” was enormous – the audience filled the Auditorium Maximum, which is designed for over 1000 people, to the brim), and the discussion with the author was very moving. It is worth remembering the motto of the author herself: “take care of the human being in yourself”

The Festival was full of many memorable meetings, which attracted crowds to the Pałac pod Baranami. We had the opportunity to listen to Jonathan Franzen twice, and on both occasions we observed with delight how the American writer captivated the audience. The same happened during the meeting with Hanna Krall, an exceptional figure of Polish reportage, and her discussion partners – Mariusz Szczygieł and Wojciech Tochman. We also had a chance to host Olga Tokarczuk, the laureate of this year’s Literary Nike Award, who during a meeting titled “Missing worlds” talked about her need for rebellious writing and where it comes from. In her novel, The Books of Jacob, such writing was an attempt to restore the lost historical memory and identity. Wiesław Myśliwski surprised us with his concise, but at the same time clear remarks on the role of a novel as a way to find one’s place in the world. At the same time we could get rid of several clichés, which are often attributed to the author’s creations. The discussion with Hooman Majd gave us a unique insight into his experience of living in Iran. Majd wasn’t the only “Translator of Cultures” among our guests – we need only mention Kamel Daoud, our guests who participated in the Lithuanian programme, or György Spiró, who gave us a chance to look closely on Polish and Hungarian culture.

This year was the first, where we emphasised the role of debut authors in the literary world, and we did it spectacularly, by establishing and awarding the Conrad Award. Internet voters eagerly participated in the plebiscite to select the best debut out of five nominated books. The winner turned out to be Alicyjka by Liliana Hermetz, a moving, multi-levelled and multi-faceted story of a complicated mother-daughter relationship, and a difficult process of rebuilding one’s own identity. The award of 30,000 PLN was given out during a gala on the last day of the Festival. We hope that the idea of this award will be a strong inspiration for both the writers and the publishers.

We are very proud of this year’s Book Industries programme, especially the series “The book: a high risk product”. The discussions, which attracted the publishers, booksellers, editors, graphic designers and other people, who take part in the publishing process, really refreshed our view on the situation of the book in our country. They were also a great source of interesting proposals for solutions, especially ones inspired by solutions which already worked in other countries.

The literary world intermingled with other areas of art and imagination even more than in the previous years – especially with virtual reality. The fine arts and films were accompanied by video games, thanks to Igor Sarzyński and Jakub Szamałek from CD Projekt we could learn (even from the practical side) how to write video game scenarios, including international blockbusters such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The Festival was strongly visible in the virtual space, too! Facebook, Twitter and Instagram really helped us maintain fast and constant contact with our participants and allowed Internet users to experience the aura of those exceptional events. Live streaming on Periscope, allowing the viewers to participate in the live events, was a new experience for us, and yet it proved to be very useful and helpful, especially during the most crowded meetings. This is also one of our goals for the future – to expand, facilitate and enhance the experiences using modern channels.

We are very happy that we were able to organise such an event for over 15,000 people (a thousand of whom participated using our live streaming). We gathered lots of data (and we will of course share them with you), that presents an impressive image of the scale of festival’s events, as well as lets us draw conclusions for the future. On the other hand – individual experiences will always be the most important for us. The close contact with literature, a quick glance at the lining of the world of meanings and imagination… We will meet again in a year – as for now, we enthusiastically begin the preparations for the next edition.

We made it to the end of the Conrad Festival! The last day made for an excellent conclusion to this year’s edition, which ran until the motto “against the current” – which was accompanied for the first time by the handing out of the Conrad Award. According to the Internet voters, the best debut was that of Liliana Hermetz, the author of the novel Alicyjka. The writer received the award during the gala ceremony, which was accompanied by Jonathan Franzen’s lecture, “How to write”. Congratulations to the winner – and we hope that thanks to the Conrad Award debut authors and their works will have an easier path to make a name for themselves on the publishing market and in the readers’ awareness!

But that’s not everything that the last day of the Festival gave us. We continued the children’s programming, with an appearance by Grzegorz Kasdepke, the incomparable fabulist and storyteller, and author of over forty children’s books. The art workshop with Piotr Socha proved to be a fascinating introduction into the world of bees and the youngest participants took to the creative game right away.

During the day, there were two chances to meet with Mariusz Szczygieł (who earlier participated in the meeting with Hanna Krall and Wojciech Tochman). First, during the “Only the truth matters” discussion with Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska, where the subject was the modern role of non-fiction literature. Later, the reporter took part in a less-formal meeting, “Do writers read blogs?”, with bloggers and readers of online literary criticism, who learned, among other things, what opinions are particularly valuable from the point of view of a writer and how to handle aggressive critique. Both these meetings were not only an occasion to learn about the reflections of the discussion participants, but also to encounter their incredible personalities first hand.

In the evening, shortly before the closing Gala, we had the opportunity to more closely examine the newest book by Michał Paweł Markowski, titled Kiwka, with a commentary by the author himself. It was worth to take part in the meeting, especially to once again, at the conclusion of the literary celebration, think about the place of literature. Is fiction necessary to live? How do we combine imagination with the involvement with what we are occupied with on a daily basis? These are questions that accompany us all the time – answers to which we are still searching for.

Thank you to all our guests and readers for their participation and for bringing their unique experiences to these seven intense days of celebrating literature. Here is to all of us meeting again at next year’s Festival!

This was the penultimate day of the Festival – but no less exciting than the others! Before noon, the time was filled by the creative and engaging children’s programming, which attracted the youngest participants to the Pałac Pod Baranami.

Later, we spent time in discussions with invited guests – including Lidia Kośka, Michał Paweł Markowski and Leon Neuger, who spoke about the fascinating but forgotten work of Stanisław Jerzy Lec. We also talked about the everyday life of a writer with Michał Olszewski and Piotr Siemion. The evening once again proved to be spectacular – first was the meeting with Gonçalo M. Tavares and then we were carried away by the brilliance of Jonathan Franzen.

Jonathan Franzen is known as an astute observer of everyday human relationships. He is often associated with the stories of complicated and subtle family relationships; however, at the Pałac pod Baranami, Franzen spoke especially about American culture, including the obsession with “the Great American Novel”. The listeners also learned many details about his writing craft, deeply immersed in observing people. As the author of The Corrections noted: “When you move away from the great themes and look at what is in people’s heads, you get a much better story”.

In reference to one of his books, we called Gonçalo M. Tavares “the man from the literary neighbourhood”. It turned out to be a very good choice – the openness, with which the Portuguese novelist, poet and playwright shared his intuitions about where the need to write literature comes from made a great impression on us. According to him, it is closely intertwined with the distance to the world, the need to move away, from which a deeper understanding of reality comes: “Everyone sees what’s outside the window – people, trees, the world. The role of the writer is to close the window, sit in a chair and start writing about it in a more full way”.

“The everyday in literature” was a meeting that also allowed us to gain a bit of distance towards the “monumental” approach to literary work. Listening to the ironic commentaries of Michał Olszewski and Piotr Siemion was a true pleasure. We can only regret that it last such a short time, but as Siemion noted, there comes a time when we must say “Enough! That’s it!” – and that is a necessary thing in the case of every type of creativity, and even in the ordinary experience of the world.

Today is the last day of the Festival. This does not mean, however, that there is not a lot waiting for us. On the contrary. We are impatiently awaiting tonight’s Conrad Award Gala. We will find out who the winner is, selected by the readers themselves, who cast their votes online. We will happily announce the result and we are convinced that it will be a strong impetus for Polish literary life to appreciate the work of debut authors. The gala will be accompanied by a lecture by Jonathan Franzen, “How to write” – and if anyone is still hungry for more after yesterday’s meeting, they will have the opportunity to satisfy that hunger.

Earlier, however, we invite you to join us for other meetings. At 1:30 pm, there will be a discussion “Only the truth matters” with Katkarzyna Surmiak-Domańska and Mariusz Szczygieł (who will later meet with bloggers to discuss internet criticism). At 2:30 pm, Edwart Hirsch – a poet and an “institutional practitioner” – will talk about literary foundations. As an introduction to the evening’s celebrations, there will be a meeting with Michał Paweł Markowski, at 5:30 pm, about his newest book, Kiwka, which talks about the freedom of creation, about serious irony, the benefits of the death of God, Brazilian football, memory, literary translation, the fictions that save lives and science that runs from life.

For us, the last day of the Festival is not a decline (because we would gladly extend the time spent close to literature), but a crowning celebration. Join us!