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Fans of the literature of the inter-war period, readers, Cracovians, and visitors to Krakow are welcome to the literary walk along the traces of the Krakow Avant-Garde.On July 8, the tour around Krakow will be led by Jacek Olczyk, doctor of humanities of the Jagiellonian University and INALCO in Paris, holder of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, chronicler of literary life in Krakow, author of Życie literackie w Krakowie [Literary Life in Krakow] (Ha!art 2016).Currently prepares a monograph about Tadeusz Peiper’s years in Krakow.
A 90-minute walk around Krakow will be an attempt to point to specific places, anchoring them in time and space, which best characterise the Krakow Avant-Garde.Visiting these several points on the city map will allow you to move not only to the inter-war period, but also to learn about the Avant-Garde society, their magazines, editors, cafeterias, as well as their literary opponents.You can also learn about many details, such as why Peiper ran away from Krakow at the age of twenty, just before the outbreak of World War I, and what happened in Krakow’s literary world before he began to publish his “Zwrotnica” after his return.
This coherent, although non-chronological narration will be an attempt to present some of the most outstanding poets and theoreticians of the Avant-Garde, as well as places where they met on everyday basis.The trail of over 3 km will include stops at Kurek House, where the editors of “Linia” had their seat, Peiper’s apartment on Jagiellońska Street, “Peiperownia”/”Peiper House” and the legendary “Szmatka” Café, where the members of the Avant-Garde used to meet.
Wszystkie drogi prowadzą na Krupniczą [All roads lead to Krupnicza Street] is a long-awaited novel about the legendary house inhabited since 1945 by the brightest stars of Polish literature. The book is the result of long research by Anna Grochowska. This is yet another publication published under the patronage of Krakow UNESCO City of Literature.
People who lived here include a representative of the Young Poland trend, Artur Górski, Witkacy’s widow – Jadwiga Witkiewiczowa, who cared after his legacy, and Anna Brzozowska, the daughter of Stanisław Brzozowski, through the “pope of the avant-garde” Tadeusz Peiper – representatives of generation 1910, the Columbus generation, the socrealist generation, generation ’56, the New Wave, and generation ’76. Important names can be found here, such as: Wisława Szymborska, Sławomir Mrożek, Tadeusz Różewicz, Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Halina Poświatowska, Anna Świrszczyńska, Stefan Kisielewski, and many others.
The book about the Writers’ House is a result of long research by Anna Grochowska, who did her job really well.She reconstructed the lists of former tenants, investigated yet unpublished archives, conducted many interviews with living residents at 22 Krupnicza Street, and searched through memoirs, diaries, correspondence, and other written testimonies.As a result, in the book Wszystkie drogi prowadzą na Krupniczą [All roads lead to Krupnicza Street], apart from many anecdotes, we can find fundamental, often unique information related to the Writers’ House, perceive its history at the background of socio-political transformations in Poland, and look at the most vivid residents of the Writers’ House.
Anna Grochowska, Wszystkie drogi prowadzą na Krupniczą
Anna Grochowska (1987) – graduate from the Polish Philology and Art History, lecturer at the Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University.Founder and editor of the “cieżkami pisarzy [On Writers’ Paths] series.Researcher in the “Cracoviana” and born Cracovian, yogi.Holder of a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Enjoy reading!
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us” – Franz Kafka. On the 134th anniversary of Kafka’s birth, falling on July 3, Lokator Publishing House invites all readers to its two events related to a new edition of Kafka’s first novel, The Man Who Disappeared.
“The first (and as all the other books – unfinished) novel by Franz Kafka was published post mortem by Max Brod under the title “America”, although the writer himself intended to entitle it “The Man Who Disappeared”.It is a story of Karl Rossmann, who – as a result of a moral scandal – had to leave his home, country, and even the continent.Kafka sends him to America to look for salvation there.”
“Apparently, on an occasion, the writer told Brod that there is so much hope in the world, endless hope… but not for us.The question is whether Karl is the chosen one, or just one of “us” – condemned forever and thus lost”?
Grzegorz Jankowicz
Franz Kafka, “Zaginiony”, fot. Lokator
On Sunday (July 2), Krakow will turn into Kafka’s America by way of an urban game where gamers will search for the lost Karl Rossmann.
More at: www.lokatormedia.pl on the day of the event.
On Tuesday (July 4) a 7:00 PM, at Lokator bookstore, there will be a meeting with Grzegorz Jankowicz (author of the afterword to the novel), chaired by Aleksandra Hudymač.
LOKATOR kawa&książki
ul. Mostowa 1
30-061 Krakow
Aleksandra Hudymač – double graduate of the Jagiellonian University:in Slavonic Studies and Polish Studies; reader at the Institute of Slavonic Studies, deals with the culture of Polish, Slovak, and Czech Romanticism, romantic epistolography, and theory of letter writing.She works on a book devoted to Slovak nineteenth-century travel diaries.
Grzegorz Jankowicz (b.1978) – essayist, critic, and translator.Works at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities of the Jagiellonian University.Editor of the Culture section in the “Tygodnik Powszechny” weekly.Juror of the Silesius Wrocław Poetry Award.Director of literary programmes in the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation.Programme Director of the Conrad Festival.Member of the Programme Council at the Copernicus Festival.Member of the Programme Council at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.Publications include: Po co jest sztuka? Rozmowy z pisarzami (Krakow 2013), “Cmono. Rozmowy z pisarzami” (Krakow 2013), Gombrowicz – Loading. Esej o formie życia (Wrocław 2014), Uchodźcy z ziemi Ulro. Eseje (2015). Acted as editor to “Opowieść o dwóch miastach. Wrocław i Kraków” (Krakow 2015), presentation of Wrocław and Krakow as cities of literature. Together with Anna Kałuża, he prepared the following volumes:Pracownia Poetycka Silesius. Rok 1: Foks, Sosnowski (Wrocław 2015) and Pracownia Poetycka Silesius. Rok 2: Matywiecki, Pasewicz, Pietrek (Wrocław 2016). With Zofia Król, he edited the book Wolne słowa. Zestaw do ćwiczeń indywidualnych i zbiorowych (Gdańsk 2016). He recently published a book Życie na poczytaniu. Rozmowy o literaturze i reszcie świata (Wrocław 2016). Together with Alberto Manguel, he wrote a book “Małe języki, wielkie literatury. Small Languages, Big Literature” (Gdańsk 2017).He lives in Krakow.
Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme is a partner to this event.
The wspieram.to platform is currently promoting a crowdfunding campaign to publish the book Był sobie król… Poczet Jagiellonów [There was a king… The Jagiellonian Dynasty]. This is the second part of a series for young and adult fans of Polish history by Mariusz Wollny.The author is principally known for his series about detective Kacper Ryx, who tracked criminals in the sixteenth-century Krakow, and solved authentic criminal cases.
Był sobie król… [There was a king…] is, in turn, a three-volume popular series that presents history of Poland in an intelligible manner.These are books for a whole family, and books for life.They instruct and entertain by telling a story about our ancestors, starting from legendary times, and ending with the last kings.Without presenting unnecessary dry facts, while illustrated with brilliant pictures by Zuza Wollny, and enriched with many interesting curiosities, they prove our history can be not less fascinating than the best HBO or Netflix series.
The first two volumes were published several years ago by Bellona, and were completely sold out.After many years of fans’ pleading, Mariusz Wollny has decided to republish the series under the brand of his own micro-publishing house, JAMA.Late in the last year, with the help from readers, also through the wspieram.to platform, he managed to publish Poczet Piastów [The Piast Dynasty], while now is the time for the second part, Poczet Jagiellonów [The Jagiellonian Dynasty].
Click on the image below and read the whole volume one!
You are welcome to support the publication of this beautiful and elegantly published, wise book. You can do so by pre-ordering your own copy, as well as unique gadgets related to it.The campaign on the wspieram.to platform will last until the end of July, with the official premiere planned for the Book Fair in Krakow in October.
The Krakow Festival Office and Krakow UNESCO City of Literature are partners to the campaign.
For the first time in our series we have had a literary walk along the traces of poetic song. We managed to combine the word and music on the way. Participants in the walk had the opportunity to hear about the rich tradition of sung poetry in Krakow and the songs that have been created in Krakow. We visited Bracka Street (Grzegorz Turnau: Bracka), Piwnica pod Baranami (Dezyderata) and Klub pod Jaszczurami (Ewa Demarczyk: Karuzela z Madonnami). Literary anecdotes connected with the creation of the songs and biographies of the authors will also be shared. Photos: Małgorzata Augustyniak.
You are invited to the next literary walk – this time the Avant-garde will be the leading theme. To register, please contact us at the following e-mail address: spacery@miastoliteratury.pl
5 months, 10 weekends and 100 hours – this is how the third edition of UNESCO City of Literature Creative Writing looks like. It will continue from September 2017 to January 2018. During the new edition 12 writers will be writing novels of manners. Please send the aplications to 31 July.
On the1st of July recruitment to the next edition of the UNESCO City of Literature Creative Writing Course begins; the third edition will continue from 9 September to 28 January 2018 – after a novel and a crime story writing course time has come for a novel of manners, which will be a challenge for twelve participants in the course who will be selected on the basis of texts sent.
Similarly to the previous years, in this year we will have a lot of activities with outstanding writers and editors, experts in image creation, creative thinking and publication processes. Five months will be devoted to exploring the genre that has earned a lot of faithful readers. The lucky twelve will explore the secrets of the trade and psychological aspects of novels of manners which will help to create true-born characters who will win the heart of every critics. A lot of substantive knowledge and work on one’s own text will be offered to the lucky twelve.
Following previous editions of the courses will be run by renowned and award-winning writers, editors and specialists in the publishing industry. Last year the courses were run by Marek Krajewski, Wit Szostak, Katarzyna Puzyńska and other experts. This year lectures will be given by Sylwia Chutnik, Mariusz Czubaj, Anna Dziewit-Meller and others. Filip Modrzejewski, editor in W.A.B. will be watching over the group throughout the entire course, preparing the writers to a strong debut after five months. Professor Bogdan de Barbaro will help to create credible relations between characters in the books. He is a psychotherapeutic who leads meetings on the family roles and motivations. Meetings with editors working in the largest Polish publishing houses, a literary agent, coaches, creativity psychologists and image-creation specialists will also be on the programme.
The months of work will be concluded by the publication of an anthology of texts written by participants, which will then be sent to leading publishers in Poland. There will be a great chance to have your book published! The success of the award-winning participant in the first edition, Ahsan Ridh Hassan, testifies that the course is a good way to enter the publishing market. The author has issued three titles so far and began cooperation with the oldest literary agency in Poland, BookLab.
The UNESCO City of Literature Creative Writing Course is organised by the Krakow Festival Office. Karolina Macios and Magdalena Zielińska, editors with a long experine in the publishing industry, are in charge with the concept of the course. The course is part of the programme in support of literary debuts in Krakow, which also includes the Conrad Award, For two years, the Course is accompanied by monthly weekend writing workshops that were run by Łukasz Orbitowski, Sylwia Chutnik, Max Cegielski, Weronika Murek, Wojciech Jagielski and reporters of ”Duży Format” and others.
Twelve participants in this year’s edition will be recruited on the basis of short, maximum five-page texts describing a family dinner. The recruitment starts on the 1st of July and will continue to 31 July 2017.
More info here
We invite you to the next literary walk of Krakow, for the first time along the poetic song trail! We will combine the word and music. The participants will have the opportunity to listen to the songs at sites which are connected with them: in Bracka Street (Grzegorz Turnau: Bracka), in Piwnica pod Baranami Cabaret (Dezyderata) and in Klub pod Jaszczurami (Ewa Demarczyk: Karuzela z Madonnami). Literary anecdotes about the creation of the songs and biographies of their authors will be shared on the way.
Please remember to register: spacery@miastoliteratury.pl
The Villa Decius Association invites individuals and/or NGOs to submit applications to the 14th edition of the Polish Prize of Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2002-2003).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 30 JUNE 2017.
We announce the a14th edition of the award of the prize in tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2002-2003). It is granted in recognition of the activity for peaceful coexistence and cooperation between peoples, religions and cultures.
The annual prize is granted in two equal categories: for an individual and an NGO. Candidates from Poland and from abroad are eligible.
The prize is awarded by the Jury that consists of High Representatives of the President of the Republic of Poland, the Ambassador of the Federative Republic of Brazil to Poland, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Poland, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, the Institute for National Remembrance, the Human Rights Ombudsman, the Award Founders, embassies, consulates and foundations supporting the Association’s human rights activities, as well as the President and the Director of the Villa Decius Association.
Among the award-winners there are: Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Father Marian Żelazek SVD (1914-2006), Alexander Milinkevich, Maryna Hulia, One World Association, Krzyżowa Foundation for European Understanding, Jewish Culture Festival, Magurycz Association, Shevah Weiss, Krystyna Pryjomko-Serafin, Michał Żejmis, Helsinki Human Rights Foundation, Fatos Lubonja, Leopold Unger, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Nagy El-Khoury and Mohammad Al-Nokkari, Memorial Association, the late Andrzej Przewoźnik, Hassan Omar Hassan, Halina Nieć Legal Aid Centre and Bernard Kouchner.
Tha award ceremony will be held in October 2017 in Villa Decius, Krakow.
More on: www.mello.villa.org.pl
On 10 June we made a special Literary Walk as part of the Miłosz Festival. We followed Czesław Miłosz’s footsteps in Krakow, guided by Andrzej Franaszek, a literature expert, a literary critic and an editor at ”Tygodnik Powszechny” , the author of Czesław Miłosz’s biography (Miłosz. Biografia, Wydawnictwo Znak, 2011). We began from a lecture at the Wyspiański Pavilion and finished the walk with a visit to Czesław Miłosz’s apartment in Bogusławskiego Street. Andrzej Franaszek familiarised the participants with the Nobel Prize-winning author not only on the basis of his biography, but also his personal acquaintance with the writer. The special guest, Professor Stanisław Fiut, also talked about the writer. There was also a discussion about the writer’s rich book collection and photographs which could be seen in his flat.
Please register if you are interested in the next walk: ”Poetic song”. For more information click here.