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Filip Springer, Marcin Wicha, Wojciech Bonowicz and Dominika Słowik, creative writing workshops and a literary walk through the Kazimierz district – this is the first time in the history of the Jewish Culture Festival that such a diverse program of literary events will be available to participants. Lovers of literature will have access to a festival reading room filled with books, as well as a special edition of the interactive City Codes Project, which will present the most important places and people of the literary heritage of Kazimierz. The literary programme is organised in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office, which is responsible for the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme.
Literary Programme
Many literary attractions await the participants of the Festival. Lovers of literature are welcome to attend meetings with the most interesting and prominent Polish writers, led by Filip Springer, Marcin Wicha, Wojciech Bonowicz, and the author of one of the most promising literary debuts of this year, Dominika Słowik. The youngest participants will be able to take part in special workshops: the children’s programme will have reading aloud and drawing together, as well as a search for a certain lost dog. During specially prepared workshops, seniors will find out how to begin their adventure with writing by discovering the secrets of constructing a good text. Literary Kazimierz will reveal its mysteries during a special walk, in which we will visit the literary nooks and crannies of the district, find out what its residents read, where they borrowed books and what songs they sang. There will also be references to the modern image of the district – as a restaurant hub and the setting for popular crime novels.
The programme is organised together with Wydawnictwo Literackie, Wydawnictwo Znak, Znak Emotikon, Karakter and Villa Decius.
Meetings:
Our little homelands. Literary workshops for seniors.
Thursday, 25 June, 6pm
Conducted by: Katarzyna Kubisiowska
Seniors, get your pens! “SAGA – creativity workshops” is an offer designed for people aged 55+, interested in literature. During the classes you will find out how to begin your adventure with writing, as well as learn the most important techniques of narration, describing events and building a plot. The workshops are organised in cooperation with the Villa Decius Association.
The number of places is limited
Free tickets available for pickup from the JCF ticket office at ulica Jakuba by the Cheder Café
Living in the city? Conditions and consequences of gentrification. A meeting with Filip Springer
Friday, 26 June, 6pm
Conducted by: Dorota Leśniak-Rychlak
To what extent should we interfere in social processes taking place in cities? How does the need to dominate the visual and urban chaos transform into gentrifying “niceism”? Does the battle for aesthetics contradict the battle for a social and functional diversification of the city? Filip Springer, undoubtedly the most interesting reporter of the Polish landscape, will attempt to answer these questions in the very heart of Kazimierz, one of the first Polish examples of the phenomenon of gentrification.
The meeting is organised in cooperation with Wydawnictwo Karakter.
And a little doggie. Art workshops for children
Saturday, 27 June, 6pm
Conducted by: Marta Tymowska and Marcin Wicha
Marta Tymowska and Marcin Wicha invite you to art workshops inspired by the poetry of Samuel Marszak. The programme includes: reading aloud, drawing together and general hijinks. We will also search for a certain tiny doggie. Samuel Marszak (1887-1964) was a Russian writer, translator, publisher and author of poems for children. His works were translated into Polish by, among others, Władysław Broniewski, Janusz Minkiewicz and Wiktor Woroszylski.
The workshops are intended for children aged 5 to … (as long as they still want to attend)
The meeting is organised in cooperation with Wydawnictwo Znak Emotikon
The number of places is limited
Free tickets available for pickup from the JCF ticket office at Ulica Jakuba by the Cheder Café
Trance and transformation. A meeting with Dominika Słowik
Sunday, 28 June, 6pm
Conducted by: Marcin Wilk
Atlas: Doppelganger is a strong, excellent debut, in which everything ordinary, dirty and cheap transforms into the metaphysical and fantastic right in front of our eyes. On a transformation-era grey Silesian housing estate, we sneak a peek at the degraded world of courtyards and the magical labyrinths of stairwells, described sharply, suggestively, in a language of the housing block cosmos well known to the author.
The meeting is organised in cooperation with Wydawnictwo Znak
Jacob’s Scriptures. A Reading by actor Anna Polony.
Monday, June 29, 18:00
The monumental “Jacob’s Scriptures” is an attempt to tell the story of Poland anew: a Poland that is colorful, diverse, multinational, but also torn by internal conflicts, full of tensions and disputes. This is not a historical narration – but a consciously political one. It’s a vision of what Poland could be, if history turned out differently.
Excerpts from the novel by Olga Tokarczuk, one of the most interesting European writers, will read Anna Polony, an outstanding actor and a legend of Krakow’s theatre scene.
Please read twice. A meeting with Wojciech Bonowicz
Tuesday, 30 June, 2pm
Conducted by: Szymon Kloska
Good day, good day! Misiu Fisiu has decided to repeat everything twice, so that he’ll have twice the fun. The author himself will talk about why the short stories from the newest tome about the adventures of the awkward bear should be read twice. Wojciech Bonowicz is a Nike award-nominated poet and novelist.
The meeting is organised in cooperation with Wydawnictwo Znak Emotikon
My place. A writing workshop.
Wednesday, 1 July, 6pm
Conducted by: Maria Kula
Two hours reserved only for writing. The workshop is not a lecture or a Polish lesson, but is a literal “workshop”, with practical exercises, thanks to which you will learn about writerly tools and find new ideas and inspirations. For everyone who loves to read and would like to write something. But also for everyone who has never read or written anything in their life, and would like to try. The meeting will be conducted by Maria Kula – an editor who works individually with writers, helps to write books and teaches writing courses.
www.mariakula.com
The number of places is limited
Free tickets available for pickup from the JCF ticket office at Ulica Jakuba by the Cheder Café
The district of words. A literary walk through Kazimierz
Thursday, 2 July, 4pm
Conducted by: Agnieszka Pudełko
Come with us on an exciting stroll! During the walk you will find out about secret literary corners of Kazimierz. You will take a look at memories of the pre-war district, find out what its residents read, where they borrowed books and what songs they sang. There will also be references to the modern image of the district – as a restaurant hub and the setting for popular crime novels. Let’s go!
The number of places is limited
Free tickets available for pickup from the JCF ticket office at Ulica Jakuba by the Cheder Café
City Codes
During the Festival, we will inaugurate a special edition of the City Codes Project, dedicated to Kazimierz. Within it, we will present 20 extremely interesting places and people connected with the literary and historical identity of the district, such as Rabbi Moses Isserles, also known as the Rema – the most famous Jewish scholar from Poland, Miriam Akavia – an Israeli-Cracovian writer, translator, former president of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Society, or Professor Julian Aleksandrowicz, doctor, philosopher of medicine, great humanist, and inspiration and pioneer of many research concepts.
JCF Reading Room and JCF Quarter
For the duration of the Festival, visitors will have access to a special reading room, filled with nearly 700 books donated by publishers from around the country – partners of our undertaking, without whom a project of this scale would have been impossible. Both the festival reading room as well as the literary programme itself will take place within the JCF Quarter, which will this year be the heart of the festival.
The JCF Quarter is a mini-town built especially for the festival, right next to the Old Synagogue, which will become an open space for the residents and guests, serving as a playground, reading room, café, a space for workshops and meetings with literature, dance, architecture, and a place for meetings of present and past residents of Kazimierz. This will be a very important and needed place for meetings for Kazimierz and its residents. In the JCF Quarter, visitors will be able to read books, make their own t-shirts with a specially designed logo, learn hip-hop dance, talk with known and respected writers, drink coffee from a finjan, play ping-pong or matkot, spend time listening to good music, and much, much more!
On the 27th of June, a hackathon with the largest number of beacons per square metre in history will take place in the shade of Wawel Castle. Participants of BeaconValley Hackathon can count on free equipment, mentor support and exactly 24 hours to build applications based on BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology, which may in the future transform Krakow into a truly smart city. The Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme, is taking part in the organisation of the event.
A hackathon is a 24-hour programming marathon, during which programmers, graphic designers and project managers will work on creating applications using beacons – small transmitters, which are one of the most electrifying technological solutions of the past few years. Programming teams will compete in three themed areas:
- Beacons for good, in which solutions intended for public institutions, offices and the Krakow public sphere will be created.
- Beacons for business, which is dedicated to applications that support local businesses.
- Beacons for fun, for everyone who wants to set their creativity free and create an urban game or a social application.
Within each of the competition categories, the Krakow Festival Office will offer special topics for the participants, which will allow them to take on various challenges, such as creating a common loyalty programme for city cultural institutions, libraries and bookshops, promoting e-reading and increasing the availability of literature in public space, or the promotion of literary tourism based on modern technologies. The authors of the best solutions will receive additional rewards, such as an Apple Watch, but above all a set of vouchers for e-books and books from Krakow bookshops.
The creation and development of connections on the border of literature and new media, as well as supporting the creative industry connected with literature is one of the key elements of the strategy of Krakow UNESCO City of Literature, which is coordinated in its entirety by the Krakow Festival Office.
BeaconValley Hackathon is the next stage of the project of bringing the ideas proposed by BeaconValley.io to life, which will help turn Krakow into a smart city powered by Bluetooth Low Energy. Public and commercial organisations have been invited to participate in the programme, and until the 15th of June, they could apply for free beacons. To date, over 50 institutions and private companies have applied, as well as over 150 participants. BLE technology in Krakow is intended to help provide better quality services, navigate through buildings and create loyalty programmes, among others.
The event is organised by Kontakt.io, HG Intelligence S.A. and Hub:raum, and partnered by the Krakow Festival Office, Sinersio, JIVR, Synkick, OnYourMap and the Krakow Technology Park. The event is under the honorary patronage of the Malopolska Voivodeship Marshal, Marek Sowa.
See the advertising film for BeaconValley Hackathon:
The first guests of the 7th Conrad Festival are: Jonathan Franzen, one of the most important contemporary American novelists; Hooman Majd, a cult Iranian-American writer; Wiesław Myśliwski, a two-time winner of the Nike Literary Prize; and Hanna Krall, a legendary Polish reporter. This year’s most important literary event in Central Europe will take place in Krakow on October 19th-25th.
The direction of this year’s literary search is determined by the slogan Against the Current. The festival will be an opportunity to talk about literature that does not follow the mainstream and wakens us from comfortable lethargy. For the first time in the history of the festival, the Conrad Award for debut writers will be granted this year. The festival is jointly organised by the City of Krakow, the Krakow Festival Office and the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation.
One of the first festival guests who confirmed his participation was Illinois-born writer Jonathan Franzen, considered to be one of the most perceptive observers of modern America and the social changes in that part of the world. The extraordinary status gained by Franzen in the United States is well reflected by the fact that he was shown on the cover of the Time magazine, which presented him as a “great American novelist.” He debuted with the novel The Twenty-Seventh City in 1988, but it was The Corrections, originally published in 2001, that brought him international fame and recognition. His new novel Purity will be released in September this year.
In accordance with the years-long tradition of the Conrad Festival, we will focus particularly on hidden places on the map of world literature, less commonly known stories and ideas that have not been fully embraced yet. Our invitation to Krakow was accepted by Teheran-born Iranian-American writer Hooman Majd, the son of a diplomat of the Shah’s government, grandson of one of the Iranian ayatollahs, interpreter for President Ahmadinejad in the United Nations in 2009 and a former interpreter and advisor for President Khatami. Thanks to his unique double perspective, Majd can look at many controversial issues from a non-conventional perspective, explaining the phenomenon of the Iranian Revolution and presenting a genuine description of everyday life in Iran. His texts are published in most important American newspapers, including The New York Times, New Yorker and Newsweek. He is known to Polish readers as the author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran (2008), The Ayatollahs’ Democracy: An Iranian Challenge (2010) and The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran (2013). We will meet him in Krakow already in October! Against the Current – the guiding idea of this year’s Conrad Festival – may also stand for a conversation going beyond the topics that are loudly promoted by tabloids and dailies.
This direction is consistently pursued by Wiesław Myśliwski, a cult writer with a circle of devoted fans and an excellent stylist characterised as one of the last representatives of the peasant current in Polish literature. Avoiding the mythologisation and nostalgic presentation of the village, Myśliwski shows both the bright and dark sides of rural life, continuously emphasising the key role that it has played in our social and cultural imaginarium until today. Each of the five novels written by him since his debut in 1967 has met with recognition among critics and especially readers. He has won many literary awards and distinctions, including the Nike Literary Prize (twice in 1997 and 2007) and the Gdynia Literary Prize (2007).
Another important name on the list of festival guests is an outstanding reporter Hanna Krall. Both in her novels and reportages, she focuses strongly on the experience of the Holocaust, which she survived as a child hiding in Nazi-occupied Poland. In her texts, she tries to describe the reality where the tragic events of World War II have left wounds that cannot heal. The book that brought her international fame is Zdążyć przed Panem Bogiem (Shielding the Flame), an interview with Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She has won many prestigious awards, including the Władysław Reymont Literary Prize and the Julian Tuwim Literary Prize. She was also nominated for the Nike Literary Prize and the Angelus Central European Literary Award. Krall’s works are an example of a consistently built and fully autonomous narrative against the current of mass expectations, political fashions or journalistic temptation.
The Conrad Award for a Debuting Writer
This year’s Conrad Festival is also an opportunity to present and promote on an unprecedented large scale the works of young authors who are only making their first steps in literature. For the first time in history, the Conrad Award for debut writers will be awarded; this nationwide distinction is the missing link on the map of Polish literary awards. This award will be granted every year; however, the winner will be selected by the audience of the festival, not by the jury.The aim of this distinction is to support debuting writers and to encourage publishing houses to invest more generously in young authors. The establishment of the Conrad Award will help to pursue the key goals determined in the Strategy of a UNESCO City of Literature. The award is funded by the City of Krakow, and its partners are the Book Institute, the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation and the Krakow Festival Office.
Partners of Literary Debuts – a publisher support program
A strong supplement to the young literature support project is Partners of Literary Debuts, a program established by the Book Institute that will be implemented in co-operation with the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation and the Conrad Festival. The aim of the project is to provide financial support to publishers who invest in debut authors. Books ready for publication that represent genres such as the novel, short story, essay, poetry, comic book and children’s book can be submitted to the program. Submissions will be accepted by the end of September. The results of the competition will be announced during the Festival. The winning publishing houses will receive a financial prize of 10,000 PLN for the coverage of costs of the first publication of the book.
Creative Writing Course of a UNESCO City of Literature
The culmination of the young author support program will be the Creative Writing Course of a UNESCO City of Literature, which has never been organised before. Classes covered by this course will be conducted by excellent writers, including Marek Krajewski, an author of cult detective novels; Wit Szostak, the winner of Polityka’s Passport award in 2014; and top-class experts from the publishing industry: editors from biggest publishing houses, literary agents, a PR expert and a literary psychologist. Thus up-and-coming writers will have an exceptional opportunity to develop their literary skills not only under the supervision of recognised writers, but also under the guidance of experienced coaches. The course will be held in September and October and its culmination point will be a master’s lecture during the Conrad Festival. At the end of the course, the organisers will recommend the three most talented participants to leading Krakow publishers. Further information about the course is available at: pisz.miastoliteratury.pl. The project is supported financially by the National Culture Centre.
The last day of the Miłosz Festival began with a poetic May picnic in one of the most beautiful gardens of Krakow, at the Józef Mehoffer House – and ended with a journey with a finger over a map, or rather, over the Atlas Estremo.
In the Mehoffer garden the poets not only read their poems, but also answered difficult questions asked by Paulina Małochleb – where is the border of intimacy in the poetry and how significant is the trash can in the creative process. It was not an easy meeting – the creators admitted to having doubts, destroying poems, and Klara Nowakowska said she even wanted to remove her book from the competition for Jacek Bierezin Prize, the competition that she later… won.
The border of intimacy was also an important theme in the discussion between Joanna Zach, Agnieszka Kosińska – the author of the book Miłosz in Krakow, Jerzy Illg, editor-in-chief of the Znak publishing house and Ireneusz Kania, a translator. Agnieszka Kosińska was an assistant to the Nobelist for a number of years, as well as the custodian of the poet’s house. She admitted that after taking care of the poet’s calendar she can still recall individual days from the life of the creator of the Book of Luminous Things, including the hardest ones – the last days of the artist’s life.
In his discussion with Marcin Hamkało, Korneljus Platelis, a poet from Lithuania – a country that was very important to Miłosz – spoke about the usefulness of an engineer’s education in poetry and disclosed the identity behind the broken vase, which appears in the title of his collection. He added that poetry was an easier solution when using Aesopian language was necessary in order to smuggle the truth under a watchful eye of the censorship.
The Lithuanian poet emphasised that for him, the most interesting possibility provided by poetry is adding new contexts to the histories that took place in reality.
Yurii Andrukhovych, one of the most important Ukrainian authors, also admitted that he devoted many of his poems to the characters he knew from urban legends. Doctor Dudka and the Captain’s Wife become alive between the verses of his poems, and the poet himself watches his characters with affection.
Edward Pasiewicz said that Andrukhovych, the author of, among others, Piosenki dla martwego koguta [Songs for a Dead Rooster] in fact realises the postulate stated by Czesław Miłosz in the Book of Luminous Things in full – his poetry and activity in the Bu-Ba-Bu group helped to dismantle the communist regime in Ukraine. Today, in the face of Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Andrukhovych is also actively working for his country.
During the final concert that capped off the Miłosz Festival, Andrukhovych with Karbido group from Wrocław took us on a journey not only to Ukraine – Atlas Estremo is a journey around the world, to the cities that watch themselves in a phantasmagorical mirror. The road is full of magnetic visions, but also a sense of unrest that lurks somewhere in the East. Andrukhovych and Karbido plucked the string of sentiments and took us to places that are impossible to find in official guides to Moscow, New York or Drohobych.
Although the fourth edition of the Miłosz Festival has ended, the celebration of poetry in Krakow never really ends – just follow the activities of the Krakow Festival Office and City of Literature Foundation.