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90 thousand of free e-books and audiobooks were rented as part of the biggest actions in Poland and one of the biggest in the world promoting reading – Czytaj PL. Virtual books even reached the furthest parts of the world, the antipodes, among others. It was the fifth – and again a record edition of the action that gives access to free bestsellers. This year, it let the Poles read 12 million pages. If we printed and put all the pages in a line, that would make up a path stretching from Poland to the Arctic Sea!
As every year, the action was extremely popular, and the information about it was spread among millions of Poles through traditional media and social media. For the first time in history, on the initiative of the Book Institute, the project was implemented in 1,000 high schools all around the country. 7,000 yellow posters were hung in over 500 cities and towns in total. The action that was initiated in Krakow UNESCO City of Literature, crossed the borders on such a scale for the first time, reaching 12 UNESCO Cities of Literature across the world, including far Dunedin in New Zealand.
The organisers of the action are still looking for some new ways to effectively infect the Poles with reading. As part of the Read PL as an appetizer) action, some special menu inserts were distributed in 200 restaurants throughout Poland, making the waiting time for the meal more pleasant for the guests. In turn, there was a huge book weighing nearly half a ton, placed in the Krakow Main Square – a symbol and a specific monument of the action. The battle of books organized in one of Warsaw bookshops triggered lots of emotions – a provocative video promoting the action got viral on the Internet, reaching almost three million Poles.
The most important thing in the action though, and the thing that has been its greatest success and characteristic is the effective involvement of book lovers in the active promotion of reading. Almost 10,000 people encouraged their friends and relatives to take advantage of the action and just read, in many different ways. The readers sent over 10,500 invitations to take part in the action, shared 650 photos with books and the tag #czytajpl on Instagram, wrote 324 notes on books as part of a competition on the Lubimy Czytać portal, and above all hung 200 additional posters in their work places, schools and libraries as part of the action Książka za obietnicę (A Book for a Promise). For the first time the action had a real army of ambassadors – 1,000 teachers and 1,000 students selected from 5,000 applications, who wore T-shirts with funny, enigmatic slogans (“I am holding fresh folios,” “I am collecting thick almanacs,” “I am squandering the incunabulums”) and who encouraged their friends to read
The list of books available:
1. Wojciech Drewniak Historia bez cenzury 2 (History Uncensored 2)
2. Krzysztof Piskorski Czterdzieści i cztery (Forty and four)
3. Gregory David Roberts Shantaram
4. Filip Springer Miasto Archipelag. Polska mniejszych miast (Archipelago City. Poland of Lesser Towns)
5. Anna Kamińska Wanda
6. Jakub Małecki Ślady (Tracks)
7. Dan Ariely The Honest) Truth About Dishonesty
8. Elżbieta Cherezińska Korona śniegu i krwi (Crown of Snow and Blood)
9. Camilla Lackberg The Ice Princess
10. Peter Wohlleben (The Hidden Life of Trees)
11. Jon Ronson So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
12. Marek Kamiński Marek i czaszka jaguara (Marek and the Jaguar’s Skull)
Organisers of Read PL: Krakow Festival Office, Woblink
Strategic Partner: Polish Book Institute
Organisers of the initiative in schools (Hunt your own book): Polish Book Institute, Krakow Festival Office, Woblink
Publishers: Znak Horyzont, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Wydawnictwo Marginesy, Wydawnictwo Karakter, SQN, Smak Słowa, Zysk, Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca, Otwarte, Insignis Media, Znak Emotikon
Partner cities: Kraków, Poznań, Łódź, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Katowice, Lublin, Toruń, Częstochowa, Opole, Gdynia, Rzeszów
Other cities taking part: Warszawa, Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Bytom, Chorzów, Mysłowice, Rybnik, Sosnowiec, Szczecin, Tychy
UNESCO Cities of Literature participating: Barcelona, Dublin, Dundee, Dunedin, Edinburgh, Lviv, Norwich, Nottingham, Prague, Reykjavik
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and Cultural Heritage as part of the National Programme for the Promotion of Reading. The initiative is organised under the patronage of Ministry of National Education.
The awarding of diplomas to five rewarded bookshops in the plebiscite We are selecting the bookshop of the year 2017 took place on 15 December. Andrzej Kulig – III Deputy Mayor of the City of Krakow for Social Policy, Culture and City Promotion handed the managers and owners of Kurant, De Revolutionibus, WAM, Muza II and Massolit bookshops flowers, commemorative diplomas and the title of the Quality Mark of Krakow UNESCO City of Literature for 2018. The bookshops were awarded as a result of online and offline polls, in which almost 5,000 readers and 31 small, independent bookshops and antique shops from the whole Krakow took part. This was the first edition of the pioneer project at the national level, modelled partially on French and German independent bookshops certification systems.
We would like to invite you to see the photo gallery of this event! Photographs by Inga Szeliga and Jowita Jaszczyk.
Read more: here
De Revolutionibus, Kurant, Massolit, Muza II and WAM – these are Cracovians’ favourite bookshops selected in the first ever plebiscite organized by the Krakow Festival Office, the operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature. The voting lasted for over two months and took place in 31 intimate, non-chain bookshops and antique shops. The winning bookshops will be awarded the Quality Mark of Krakow UNESCO City of Literature certificate and a promotional campaign planned by the organisers and the partners of the plebiscite.
The voting in the action, whose main aim was to promote small bookshops as cultural centres and places of significant social mission, lasted from 5 October. The bookshops and antique shops were significantly different when it came to their profile, location and the scope of services they provided. However, there was one thing that was common for all of them – a belief that a bookseller is the best guide in the world of literature and good books are not only those most commonly disputed and publicized – Izabela Helbin, the director of Krakow Festival Office says. That is why the announcement of the results was planned for today, Booksellers Day – she adds.
4,500 votes were casted in the first ever plebiscite on the Bookshop of the Year. 65% of them were casted in a traditional way (tossing the vote into specific, yellow ballot-boxes in the bookshops) and 35% were casted on the Internet (filling in a form on www.ksiegarnie.miastoliteratury.pl webpage). There were four categories awarded: the quality of the book offer, the service, the atmosphere and other additional advantages (e.g. the possibility of getting a particular title from a depot really fast). A massive response from the readers shows that despite downward trends on the book market and strong competition on the Internet, most decisions on selecting books are still being made in brick-and-mortar bookshops. Small bookshops are often the only places where we can find less known, often niche tiles, ask for advice when choosing a book and take part in meetings with authors or just spend time creatively and nicely.
The winning bookshops – De Revolutionibus, Kurant, Massolit, Muza II and WAM – apart from the Quality Mark of Krakow UNESCO City of Literature will also be awarded a promotional campaign in the urban space, on the radio and in press, and as a part of literary festivals organized in the city. The diplomas will be handed in on Friday (15 December) by Andrzej Kulig – Deputy Mayor of the City of Krakow for Social Policy, Culture and City Promotion.
The action Wybieramy księgarnie roku (We are selecting the bookshop of the year) is a part of the programme supporting local book market which is a strategic element of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme whose operator is Krakow Festival Office. This is first such a big initiative in Poland, modelled partly on French and German certification systems (Librairie de Référence, Deutscher Buchhandlungspreis), giving the readers the deciding vote. The actions that Krakow has implemented on supporting bookshops include, among others: a system of rental discounts in city premises, initiated in a 2016 programme of supporting cultural activities in bookshops, as well as an outdoor book fair for antiquarians and booksellers at St. Maria Magdalena Square.
More at: ksiegarnie.miastoliteratury.pl
Organisers of the polls: City of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office – the operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme
Media patronage: “Gazeta Wyborcza” Krakow, Radio Krakow, TVP Krakow
Partners: Lubimy Czytać, initiatives: Książki Kupuję Kameralnie, City of Literature Foundation, Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Książek, Historii i Krakowa ”Otwarta Książka”, Re-Prezentacje Association
CONRAD IN (POP)TEXTS. DISCUSSION ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN JOSEPH CONRAD AND THE POPULAR CULTURE
Does Apocalypse Now reflect the time of Conrad? Where the Nostromo spaceship and its eighth passenger come from? Finally, are Geralt the Witcher and Mad Max Conrad’s protagonists? If you have ever been considering one of the above-mentioned questions, then undoubtedly this event is addressed to you.
During the meeting, we will follow the ways in which the author of Heart of Darkness and his works interfere with pop-culture. We will characterize the ways of re-writing, media processing and repeating particular facts from the life and works of the author in pop-texts. We will become familiar with the reasons for which artists decide to refer to Conrad’s texts in songs, TV series, literary fiction, visual art and films. All these will let us determine the scope of Conrad’s impact on our culture. The impact whose force cannot be overestimated. You can meet the writer in the streets, on school building walls, in Internet memes, comic books and even in the form of sophisticated tattoos or T-shirt prints.
Magdalena Heydel, PhD, Andrzej Juszczyk PhD and Tomasz Majkowski PhD will take part in the discussion. The talk will be hosted by Piotr Żołądź.
The meeting will take place on Tuesday, 19 December, at 6.00 p.m. in DeRevolutionibus. Books&Café bookshop at 14 Bracka Street, Krakow.
The Krakow Festival Office, Krakow UNESCO City of Literature and Jagiellonian University Joseph Conrad Research Centre are the organisers of the event. The meeting is part of the Conrad Year 2017 celebrations and In the Footsteps of Conrad programme that was co-funded by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
An official unveiling of the mural dedicated to Joseph Conrad, which will blend into the creative climate of the post-industrial Krakow district of Zabłocie, took place on 10 December 2017. The mural was made by Artur Wabik, a street artist from Krakow, on the basis of graphics by Mateusz Kołek, Krakow young generation illustrator, who has prepared a complete graphic design of the Conrad Year for the Krakow Festival Office.
You can already admire the mural in all its beauty at 11 Zabłocie Street.
The UNIVERSITAS Society of Scientific Papers Authors and Publishers, Krakow Festival Office and Kawiarnia Literacka would like to invite you to take part in a meeting with the author by dr. Monika Malessa-Drohomirecka which is connected with the premiere of a book Konwencje, stereotypy, złudzenia. Relacje kobiet i mężczyzn w prozie Josepha Conrada (Conventions, Stereotypes, Illusions. Women and Men Accounts in Joseph Conrad’s Prose) (Universitas 2017). The talk will be hosted by Magdalena Heydel PhD. It will be possible to buy the book during the meeting.
The book by Monika Malessa-Drohomirecka entitled Konwencje. Stereotypy. Złudzenia. Relacje kobiet i mężczyzn w prozie Josepha Conrada covers one of the most important aspects of the writer’s work. It describes complicated and ambivalent relations between women and men included in the novels of Lord Jim’s author.
Presenting the way of developing these relations, the author extracts the main features of the writer’s view of the world, characterizing the philosophical trends of his times, as well as social movements of his époque together with the women emancipation movement in the fore-front. The book includes an analysis of the most important plot lines of Conrad’s works in the context of gender battle, stereotypes and convention manners prevailing at the turn of the 19th and 20th century.
Monika Malessa-Drohomirecka PhD: literary historian, a member of the Polish Joseph Conrad Society; has published, among others, in Nowe Książki, Tygodnik Powszechny, Zeszyty Filozoficzne and Yearbook of Conrad Studies; author of a collection of interpretations of Polish 20th century literature selected works entitled: W poszukiwaniu prawdy o człowieku (In Search of the Truth on a Human).
Magda Heydel PhD: engaged in translation studies and comparative literature; head of translation studies at the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University; editor-in-chief of Przekładaniec. A Journal of Translation Studies, author of the monograph Obecność T.S. Eliota w literaturze polskiej (The Presence of T.S. Elliot in Polish Literature) and Gorliwość tłumacza. Przekład poetycki w twórczości Czesława Miłosza (The Eagerness of a Translator. Poetic translation in the works of Czesław Młosz); co-author of the anthology Współczesne teorie przekładu (Contemporary Translation Concepts) and Polska myśl przekładoznawcza (Polish Translation Thought); appreciated translator of literary works by Conrad, T.S. Elliot,Virginia Woolf and many others.
This event is part of the Conrad Year 2017 celebrations organized by the Krakow Festival Office.
The meeting will take place on Monday, 11 December at 6.30 p.m. at Kawiarnia Literacka, 41 Krakowska Street. It will be possible to buy the book during the meeting. Free admission.
CONVENTIONS, STEREOTYPES, ILLUSIONS. WOMEN AND MEN ACCOUNTS IN JOSEPH CONRAD’S PROSE
A meeting with the author, dr. Monika Malessa-Drohomirecka
when: 11 December (Monday), 6.30 p.m.
where: CaféKawiarnia Literacka, 41 Krakowska Street
Zdjęcie © Photo: Dag Fosse, Bergen Art Museum
We would like to invite you to take part in a commemorative touring of Czesław Miłosz’s apartment connected with a mini lecture on the Krakow episode of the poet’s life. The host of this truly unique space will be Professor Aleksander Fiut, a great expert on Miłosz’s work and his long-time friend.
After a long period of living in exile, Czesław Miłosz started to consider coming back to Poland permanently at the beginning of the 1990s. Soon after having received Honorary Citizenship of Krakow, in 1993, he bought a flat at 6 Bogusławski Street, in which he at first just spent summer time with his wife Carol. Choosing the former capital city of Poland was not a random decision – he had been living here after the war, having escaped from destroyed Warsaw. He had a group of loyal and devoted friends here and Krakow publishing houses published his consecutive works. The tardy atmosphere of Krakow, among all the other Polish cities, reminded the writer of Vilnius – the city of his youth. Because of his deteriorating health, Miłosz decided to permanently settle in Krakow and spent his last years here. Despite his health problems, it was a really intensive period for him in which he created such works as the Nike-awarded collection of essays Piesek przydrożny (Road-side Dog) or the tome Wyprawa w dwudziestolecie (An Expedition to the Interbellum).
The apartment at Bogusławski Street is the only address preserved after the literary Nobel laureate of 1980 and a unique space, which has practically not been changed since his death. The apartment is occasionally made available for visitors.
Free admission, compulsory registration: spacery@miastoliteratury.pl. Visiting the house takes place only after an e-mail confirmation by the organizer – only registered participants can take part in the tour. Limited number of tickets!
SATURDAY AT MIŁOSZ’S. TOURING KRAKOW APARTMENT OF THE NOBELIST
When: 16 December 2017 (Saturday)
Two rounds: 11.00-12.00, 12.00-13.00
An exhibition on Joseph Conrad, a mural dedicated to the writer and a walk in the footsteps of this unique traveller. The last projects implemented as part of the celebration of this year’s round Joseph Conrad’s 160th birth anniversary are still ahead of us.
The events that took place so far, as well as those planned for the end of the year, cover different spheres of literature and culture. Their keynote is a journey understood as a life path of the writer, that had begun in Poland and led him to the most remote parts of the world.
ILLUSTRATING WORKSHOPS WITH JOANNA RUSINEK
On 6 December at 10.00 a.m. we would like to invite all children aged 7-10 to DeRevolutionibus bookshop to take part in illustrating workshops with Joanna Rusinek, who will take the youngest ones on a sea journey following the footsteps of Joseph Conrad. Joanna Rusinek is a Krakow designer, an illustrator of books for children, an author of press illustrations, book covers and posters, co-owner of Kreska-Kropka graphics studio and a graduate of the Faculty of Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.
The number of participants is limited. Participation in the workshops is free, online registration on: kontakt@miastoliteratury.pl.
AN EXHIBITION ON JOSEPH CONRAD IN FRONT OF WYSPIAŃSKI PAVILLION
You can see an outdoor exhibition in a quaint All Saints Square, the historic centre of Krakow until 31st December. It is naturally dedicated to Conrad. On display-boards near Wyspiański Pavillion we can find, among others, some basic information on the writer and the places connected with him in Krakow. All that accompanied by characteristic graphics by Mateusz Kołek.
JOSEPH CONRAD MURAL
On 10 December there will be an official unveiling of the mural dedicated to Joseph Conrad, which will be incorporated in a creative climate of the post-industrial district Zabłocie in Krakow. The mural will be made by Artur Wabik, Krakow street artist, based on a graphic by Mateusz Kołek, Krakow young generation illustrator who has prepared a complete graphic design of the Conrad Year for the Krakow Festival Office.
WALKS FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF CONRAD
We would like to invite school groups to take part in literary walks devoted to Joseph Conrad – an extraordinary man and a truly original writer – for the last time this year. To take part in a free walk you just need to register on spacery@miastoliteratury.pl. The date will be set by e-mail.
Do you want to win a mountain of books and learn to write prose at the same time? Take part in our Game of tome!
The rules are simple:
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Bring one book published after 2000 – that is your admission ticket for the event.
- Listen to a short talk on writing by Maria Kula – an editor and a host of writing courses and the Novel Writing School. The watchword of the meeting will be the most important element of the novel which is a literary character. Be aware as these clues will be useful in the next stage of our game!
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On the basis of a short lecture, write a short fragment of a novel on a given topic. Use your imagination!
- Do you want to read your first words of your new story? Grab a microphone and share the text with other participants.
- Time for voting – all the participants (who had and had not read their texts) vote for the best piece. The winner gets all the books that had been brought – the admission tickets, which are loyal companions during cold, December nights.
The event is free, registration is not necessary. Take a book and come to Cheder Café (36 Józefa Street) soon – 20 December at 6.00 p.m.
The Game of tome is an event that accompanies the programme of supporting literary debuts by the Krakow Festival Office. This programme includes the Conrad Award, which is granted every year for the best literary debut, as well as the Creative Writing Course by UNESCO City of Literature, weekend workshops of creative writing and open meetings with commissioning editors from the biggest Polish publishing houses.
GAME OF TOME #1
When: 20 December, 6.00-8.00 p.m.
Where: Cheder Café