fbpx

Liliana Hermetz wins the Conrad Award!

“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 13th of October. The presentation of the statuette and the cash prize of 30,000 PLN took place on the 25th 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 7th 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!

We talked about the complicated identity of Vilnius with Herkus Kunčius, and about the memory of the noble Commonwealth in Poland and in Lithuania with Kristina Sabaliauskaite.

Asli Erdoğan talked about her literary and journalistic work, which has become the target of Turkish politicians’ attacks. The evening passed under the theme of irony – first, Petr Šabach, the icon of what we call “Czech humour”, put us in a great mood. Perhaps the next conversation with György Spiró, the Hungarian scholar of Polish romanticism, was not as light-hearted, but it was just as substantive.

During the meeting “The storyteller, who does not want to be boring”, Petr Šabach was one hundred percent true to the title. He had no difficulties in establishing contact with the audience, immediately winning the hearts of the participants and making the room at the Pałac pod Baranami ring with laughter again and again. The writer did not hide that that was what he wanted, and that laughter in literature is a good introduction to a lighter approach to reality. As he said, “What we call ‘tragedy’ and ‘comedy’ is really the two sides of come comedy. And if you are laughing at it, it’s good.”

György Spiró brought a fresh look at romanticism, especially at its esoteric areas, to the Festival. Many know the story of Towiański and his religious sect, but Spiró was able to extract from the fate of its members a diagnosis of Polishness that is still current today. Although Spiró is amused by the culture captured and exaggerated by Gombrowicz, in which we are told to repeat “Słowacki was a great poet”, he himself values romantic texts – especially Beniowski (perhaps because, as he mentioned, he did not have to read it in school). Above all, he searches literature for irony, which takes different forms. In his opinion, it is curious that although so much connects Poles and Hungarians, they do not understand “their own ironies” very well.

Saturday at the festival passes clearly under the sign of the children’s programming – we have many interesting propositions for the youngest enthusiasts of literature (or simply interesting and creative experiences). At 6 pm, at the Pałac pod Baranami, “the man from the literary district” will appear – namely Gonçalo M. Tavares, known as the “Portuguese Kafka”. Right after his appearance, at 8 pm, we will meet with Jonathan Franzen, one of the most anticipated writers of this edition of the Festival.

In addition to the “Correction of the world” meeting, will also take part in tomorrow’s Conrad Award Gala. The honour will be awarded to the best of the five nominated literary debut authors, whose books are voted on by the readers themselves. Voting is open until midnight tonight – take part in this exceptional event, cast your vote and become part of the development of literary life in Poland.

See you at the Festival!

The festival has been going on for a few days, but there is no sign of fatigue in our guests or the participants. On the contrary!

Thursday turned out to be a very energetic day, especially in light of two fantastic meetings: first with Kamel Daoud, and later with Hanna Krall, Mariusz Szczygieł and Wojciech Tochman. The great interest of the participants – who once again filled the Pałac Pod Baranami – speaks to the great value of the discussions.

It was certainly worth it. Part of the pretext for the meeting was the book KRALL, recently written by the two reporters, but the festival evening was mainly an opportunity to once again experience the phenomenon of the author of To Outwit God. Hanna Krall herself wowed the participants with her sensitivity to the human histories she has heard in her life. Some of them were difficult, others a bit lighter, and the good mood continued throughout (also thanks to the personalities of Wojciech Tochman and Mariusz Szczygieł), accompanied by loud applause. All of the histories allowed us to better understand the meaning of being open to the stories hiding in other people and what the role of the reporter is, who preserves human memory despite the frequently occurring experience of lack and non-existence.

The conversation with Kamel Daoud, called “Looking from Algeria – responsibility and anger”, was focused mainly on the experiences of the author of The Meursault Investigation in his home country. His writing was shaped not only by the difficult political fate of Algeria, but above all his enormous sensitivity and imagination (visible during the meeting), as well as his deep roots in Western Culture. To the writer standing on the border between the Arab world, Europe and the United States, his multilingualism is a key to the literary way of building interpersonal understanding.

Earlier in the day, the “Traces of Judaism” conversation with Agata Bielik-Robson, Adam Lipszyc and Przemysław Tacik took place. The invited guests – philosophers who specialise in writers, thinkers and scholars of the Jewish tradition, talked about its particular place in Western culture – the specific way of “hiding” and companionship, far from the temptation of mastering other languages of thinking. Thus the category of “traces”, which expresses not only the impermanence and the “weakness” of Jewish topics, but also the enormity of the tradition of texts, from which only a fragment of the full picture can ever be extracted.

Today, Friday, will once again confront us with the issue of different cultures. More Lithuanian programming meetings will take place (with Herkus Kunčius, as well as with Kristina Sabaliauskaite), as well as a discussion with persecuted Turkish writer, Asli Erdoğan, the ICORN grant beneficiary. At 5 pm, we will host “the storyteller, who does not want to be boring” – one of the most widely read Czech writers, Petr Šabach. Tonight at 7 pm at the Pałac Pod Baranami, we will meet with György Spiró, the Hungarian writer who is also a prominent expert on the culture of Polish romanticism – thanks to whom we’ll be able to find out what we’re like to an “outsider”.

Each day of the Festival hides much more than we can present here – we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the full programme and continue celebrating literature!

Attention! We remind you that the voting for the Conrad Award is ongoing. You can cast your votes for one of the five finalists at www.conradfestival.pl, following the CONRAD AWARD link. Voting is open until midnight on the 24th of October.

The day passed mainly under the sign of fiction – whether in connection with Polish literature, or video games, increasingly visible with culture, or finally with the fascinating procedures that are the specialty of Robert Coover, the American writer-experimenter.

But what do we really need fiction for? On the third day of the festival, the problem was discussed by Inga Iwasiów, Agnieszka Taborska, Wit Szostak and Grażyna Plebanek, during the discussion “Polish fictions”. Thus the native context was of particular importance, in which fictions (beginning with the greatest of all of them that is “Polishness”) have a surprisingly large impact (although many do not want to admit it) and allow for the construction and criticism of one’s own identity. The writers also spoke about the difficult issue of the line between fiction and truth – which are sometimes set in opposition (to the detriment of literature), but are actually both necessary for everyday human life, in order to face the world and build ties with other people.

How can video games help with this? The meeting with Igor Sarzyński and Jakub Szamałek (called “Agon, or the muse of gamers”), who know the world of the biggest computer productions (starting of course with The Witcher 3), turned out to be a fascinating introduction to the subject. Today’s game scripts equal the literary panache of film screenplays, and games themselves are visual spectacles to rival Hollywood productions. The guests discussed not only the high and lowlights of the production and publication of games, but also the fact that computer games have ever greater possibilities of affecting the player. Thanks to this, they are not simply pure entertainment, but can effectively compete with other arts in the expansion of human experience – and even play a therapeutic role.

Finally, we met with Robert Coover (the meeting “Postmodernism isn’t what you think”), who often uses metafiction to test how far literature can go. The American writer not only introduced us to his thought on (post)modernism, but also indicated the perspectives of the interpenetration of the world of new electronic media and literature. In fact, it would be difficult to separate his reflections from life – the writer spoke fascinatingly about where he gets the ideas for his novels, why he spent a month in a small cottage reading Beckett and the Bible, and what drives him to renew writing, the novel and the way we think about narration. At the end, our guest read “Going for a Beer”, the story he brought especially for the meeting and received loud applause when he finished.

What awaits us today? We particularly recommend the 4 pm discussion “The traces of Judaism”, with Agata Bielik-Robson, Adam Lipszyc and Przemysław Tacik – it will be a continuation of the identity motif of our festival, showing how literature can renew the way we think about ourselves as a national, social and historical community. The session will not be the end of attempts at a “different way of looking”: at 6 pm (the meeting “Looking from Algeria – responsibility and anger”), we will have the pleasure of meeting the renowned Kamel Daoud. At 8 pm, there will be a discussion, with the eloquent title “KRALL” – dedicated of course to one of the eminent Polish writers and journalists, Hanna Krall. She herself will take part in the meeting, along with Mariusz Szczygieł and Wojciech Tochman – the authors of a new book about her.

The festival days are full of diverse and interesting meetings, where everyone can find something for themselves – we encourage you to familiarise yourselves with the full program. See you at the Festival!

Attention! A reminder that the voting for the Conrad Award is still ongoing! You can vote for one of the five nominees at www.conradfestival.pl on the CONRAD AWARD page. Voting goes on until midnight on the 24th of October.

The first day of the Conrad Festival started off with a strong accent. The thing we will most certainly remember was the presence of Nobelist Svetlana Alexievich and two-time Nike Award laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

Svetlana Alexievich, who was the first to take part in the Festival opening press conference, made the Audutorium Maximum of the Jagiellonian University the literary heart of the world for the duration of the “Unwomanly face of Russia” meeting. The discussion attracted crowds of people, who filled the auditorium that seats over 1000 people to the brim. It was well worth it – the writer spoke movingly about her journalist experiences (particularly the meetings with the women she described), her creative work, her plans for further books, as well as answering a long series of reader questions.
laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

After the meeting with Alexievich, festival goers gathered in great numbers at the Under the Rams Palace (Pałac Pod Baranami) to take part in the “Taming the world” discussion with Wiesław Myśliwski. As it turned out, the discussion was an opportunity to refresh the image of the writer, clearing away the many clichés laid over it, and to understand what peasant culture means for the author of the Treatise on Shelling Beans, along with the metaphorical way of thinking about the world connected with it and the world-creating possibilities of literature. What’s more, while answering a question from the audience about the “death of the author”, we heard the reassuring answer that Myśliwski has no intention of leaving this world and that his creative work is not done yet.
laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

“Whose Ukraine?” was the subject of the first festival day discussion by Igor T. Miecik, Paweł Pieniążek and Ziemowit Szczerek, along with Iryna Vikyrchak. The meeting showed how closely literature and politics can intermingle. The problems that were discussed are things we hear about every day: the political and social situation in Ukraine, the corruption in the country’s government, but also the hopes connected with the painfully-born citizenship attitudes and identity changes.
laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

These are only some of the experiences of the first day – the next day and further meetings with literary figures of great stature await us. First, at 7 pm, we will hear the “translator of culture” of Iran and America, Hooman Majd, who will introduce us to the world of “democracy of the ayatollahs”. Then (8:30 pm), thanks to Olga Tokarczuk, the laureate of this year’s Nike Literary Award, we will get closer to our own historical memory.
laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

Additionally, we will reach into other cultural circles – with Lukas Bärfuss, Leonidas Donskis and Tomas Venclova, as well as Varujan Vosganian. There will also be events connected with three exhibitions: “Unrecounted. Jan Peter Tripp”, “Pensioners” and “War!”. Finally, there will be a film screening of Taxi – Tehran, with an introduction by Hooman Majd himself.
laureate Wiesław Myśliwski – but the inauguration of the Festival brought many more experiences.

Join us!

Yesterday, we met with Olga Tokarczuk, two-time Nike Literary Award winner and Hooman Majd, an American-Iranian writer, who has in-depth knowledge of the problems in the Middle East. The enthusiasm of the participants does not cease to amaze us, as they follow festival events with great interest. Tuesday evening, they filled the Pałac Pod Baranami.

In moments like that, the coming together of the literary community is palpable. Olga Tokarczuk brought this fact up during the “Missing worlds” meeting, speaking about the ties formed with readers through books. Although, as she admitted, her books (not only the award-winning Books of Jacob) clearly exhibit a rebellious spirit, she tries to use her resistance to help build understanding – as well as a deeper understanding of oneself. This is a difficult proposition, especially in the case of group memory, which is why Tokarczuk tries to bring back to the readers the feeling of the complexity of the world, especially the historical one.

During the “Translator of cultures” meeting with Hooman Majd, we had the opportunity to look at Iran from the point of view of a resident of the country, deeply rooted in its culture, but at the same time remaining at the boundary between the worlds of the West and the East. The writer spoke not only about his difficult experiences and living in the state of constant surveillance and control, but also about hope for change, tied especially to generational changes. As we found out, Majd is a writer who is also very interested in our country – especially thanks to diplomatic friendships.

Leonidas Donskis and Tomas Venclova’s discussion “Violence and imagination”, part of the festival’s Lithuanian programme, was an opportunity to consider the dangers of totalitarianism in a part of the world that is much closer to home. Once again, literary tropes were helpful – especially Huxley’s and Orwell’s dystopias, as well as Houellebecq’s work – and they became the central point for the commentaries about the political changes in Europe.

This look at the festival events is only a small portion of what participants could experience on the second day. However, the third day of the festival is upon us! Join us for “Polish fictions”, a meeting with Inga Iwasiów, Wit Shostak, Agnieszka Taborska and Grażyna Plebanek, who will talk about which fictions are necessary and which ones we should give up immediately. We will also look at something that exceeds traditional understanding of literature. At 5pm, we will meet with Igor Sarzyński and Jakub Szamałek from CD Projekt, to talk about “Agon, or the muse of gamers” and the new position of video games in culture. In the evening, we will be joined by Robert Coover (during the meeting “Postmodernism isn’t what you think” meeting), the creator of fascinating stories that experiment with literature and the boundaries of fiction, provoking readers to take a critical look at reality.

That is a lot for one day, but the Festival has much more to offer – it is well worth checking for yourself. Join us!

Enter the search phrase: