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Multimedia summary of the literary year 2015 in Krakow

Literature is an inseparable and extremely intensive part of Krakow’s life. From today, a multimedia report documenting the most important literary events of 2015 will be available on our website: 2015.miastoliteratury.pl .

The last year confirmed that literature is one of the foundations of Krakow’s cultural life. Its development means intense and active work, but also a source of huge satisfaction for us. We have many reasons to be happy – looking back, we see a fascinating picture of hundreds of events, institutions and, most importantly, people who cannot imagine their lives without a book. Krakow as the UNESCO City of Literature had many unique proposals for them last year.

Thus, we invite you to visit, watch, read and recollect and to plan another successful literary year in Krakow with us.

See more at: www.2015.miastoliteratury.pl

Krakow has adopted the city strategy of literature and reading development. The resolution, voted in yesterday by the city councillors authorises Mayor Majchrowski to annually allocate funds from the cultural budget to support actions that build a reading culture and strengthen the work of literary communities. Included in the document are a strategy for modernising libraries, the development of scholarship programmes for writers, support for literary festivals and programmes for local publishers and independent bookstores. This is a historic moment for the city, which is even more strongly emphasising its desire to build its identity around literature.

In recognition of the centuries-old heritage, as well as the intensive literary life of the city, in 2013, UNESCO named Krakow a Creative City in the field of literature. Since then, numerous actions have been taken to popularise reading, including projects using new technologies (the Read PL! virtual e-book library), literary walks, city games and the launch of a support programme for literary debuts with a creative writing course and a publisher competition. The Conrad Award for the prose debut of the year completed an extensive programme of literary awards, which includes the poetry Wisława Szymborska Award, the theatrical Stanisław Wyspiański Award, the Kazimierz Wyka Award in the field of literary criticism, as well as the Długosz Award, which is handed out during the Krakow Book Fair. Krakow bookstores have lived to see the expansion of the possible rent discounts in city buildings, and the first competition for the organisation of cultural events in bookstores has also been established. In 2015, during the Biblioteka NOWA conference, a nationwide debate was opened on the libraries of the future. Krakow also actively promoted its writers abroad, for example by participating in the Paris Book Fair as a guest of honour. More scholarship recipients from the ICORN International Cities of Refuge Network are part of the mission of a city open to diversity and involved in the international debate about human rights. Krakow literary festivals – Conrad and Miłosz, numerous independent initiatives, including the Festival of Literature of Children, the Krakow Festival for Amateurs of Fear, Disgust and Anxiety, the Ha!wangarda Literary Festival, as well as the largest Book Fair in the country – are beating popularity records – in just October 2015, nearly 100 thousand people participated in the festival and fair events.

The programme confirming continued support of the city for activities aimed at raising the readership level is the realisation of commitments included in Krakow’s application to the Creative Cities Network from 2011. The project was created in collaboration with the literary circles of Krakow – cultural institutions, publishes, booksellers – and its assumptions have the recommendation of UNESCO and the Honorary Council of the City of Literature. Two weeks ago, the Culture Committee of the City Council of Krakow unanimously accepted the draft of the resolution.

The culmination of the Krakow – City of Literature programme will be the construction of a literary centre at the former Salt Warehouse. The long-awaited institution, bringing together combined public libraries, a media library, an interactive exhibition space, a multi-purpose hall and a co-working space for micro-business owners connected with the book market will be constructed in Zabłocie in the coming years.

There are so many books published in Krakow all the time, sometimes it is hard to keep track of every single one of them. That is why we have created a tracking tool for the most interesting publications from the one and only Polish UNESCO City of Literature.

Krakow is the capital of the Polish publishing industry. The city’s publishing houses are famous and well-known throughout Poland – both the biggest ones, publishing the best literary works and top-of-the-line authors, but also the smaller – but no less interesting – ones, boasting beautiful graphic design and high quality of published books. Every month Krakow sees dozens – if not hundreds – worthwhile literary works published.

Panic by Lauren Oliver, Skok w dal by Jerzy Kronhold, Zawsze nie ma nigdy by Jerzy Pilch, Sekret Zegarmistrza by Renata Kosin or The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – thanks to our cooperation with Lubimy Czytać, the largest Polish book portal, on our main page you can find books published in Krakow that are worth recommending. The titles, presented on the website are selected at random from the list of books published in recent months using a mysterious algorithm, the works and intricacies of which remain unknown to us.

Enjoy!

On the 18th of February (Thursday), at 6:00 PM, join us at the Voivodeship Public Library in Krakow – Arteteka – for a special meeting with Michał Rusinek. The occasion for the meeting will be the premiere of the book Nic zwyczajnego. O Wisławie Szymborskiej [Nothing Ordinary: About Wisława Szymborska]. It is a very personal portrait of the poet, the likes of which we have not seen before. The event will take place under the patronage of the Krakow Festival Office, which is the operator of the UNESCO City of Literature programme. Admission to the meeting is free.

Only one Author could write about the Nobelist with such tact, subtlety and insight. There was nothing ordinary in the fifteen years of being secretary to Wisława Szymborska, after all. She – a fresh Nobel Prize winner. He – master of arts in Polish studies. He was supposed to help her for three months, between the announcement of the prize and its awarding in 1996. In the end, he stayed for much longer.

Michał Rusinek describes the everyday and the extraordinary situations. He recounts how he copied poems, replied to letters, and accompanied Szymborska in moving and travelling. Everyday shopping, sumptuous feasts, the famous “lotteries” and formal meetings – Rusinek’s book is the portrait of a lady with an unusual sense of humour, which allows us to understand the phenomenon of the poet and where the essence of her reader-beloved poetry lay.

In Michał Rusinek’s newest book, we meet a Wisława Szymborska whom we have not met before. It is a portrait of a remarkable person, who skillfully wrote about the most important things, a portrait that allows us to get closer to her and the essence of her poetry.

An eccentric elderly lady. Giggling, sometimes frivolous, fond of language games and practical jokes. She preferred talking with regular people to poetry congresses and discussions with intellectualists.

Depression. Melancholy. Harsh judgment of herself and others. Perfectionist, intolerant of talking about trivialities and wasting time on meetings with people, which didn’t give her anything besides, as she called them, empty calories.

After the Nobel, she would say that she would do everything she could to not become a personality, but to remain a person. She was once recognised by a taxi driver, who told her, “It is an honour for me to drive such a great personality”. He was partly right: she was quite a peculiar representative of our species.

 

Nic zwyczajnego_Michał Rusinek

 

Michał Rusinek was born in 1972 in Krakow, and still lives there with his family. He was the secretary to Wisława Szymborska, and now runs her foundation. He works in the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University, where he gives lectures in theory of literature and rhetoric. He sometimes translates from English, and he has written books for children and adults, as well composing poems or song lyrics. He also writes columns about books and language.

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