Kraków UNESCO City of Literature invites to a new series of meetings created with writing novices in mind. Guests of the series “How have I started” are award-winning writers who will tell us about their first steps on the publication market. How did they issue their first texts? How did they seek motivation and perfected their method? What advice can they give beginner writers?

The first guest in the series is Łukasz Orbitowski, the author of Inna dusza, Horror Show and other stories. The meeting will be moderated by Maria Kula.

Where did the idea of the meeting come from?

Sometimes we forget that renowned writers also had problems to start on the publication market. Problems with establishing the first contacts, reading the first negative critical reviews, or simply painstakingly trying to find a publisher who will look favourably at an unknown debut writer have not been familiar to now beginning writers. The beginners who look up at successful writers believe that if their first literary works are not great, there is no reason to try further.

The meetings are aimed to show that writing is a method, a skill which can be learned and then perfected and trained. The talk with Łukasz Orbitowski will involve questions about his beginnings on the publication market, about his first texts, first mistakes, exercises to develop his writing method and seeking motivation to continue his writing career, and how to combine writing with a job to earn the living.

The conversation will offer useful tips for the beginner writer – some ready guidelines to be implemented in the creative process. The talks are aimed to give motivation, because we will finally learn that writing is not only inborn talent, but also hard work.

During the meeting Łukasz Orbitowski will also run some exercises in the area of his writing speciality – so every participants will have the opportunity to test the tips and write his/her own text.

The idea of the series was conceived by Maria Kula who will moderate the meeting.

HOW HAVE I STARTED? THE FIRST MEEETING: ŁUKASZ ORBITOWSKI

28 June, 6.00 pm – 7.30 pm
De Revolutionibus Bookshop
Organiser: Krakow UNESCO City of Literature, pod Globusem Bookshop

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!

Łukasz Orbitowski | Maria Kula

Siri Hustvedt, Agneta Pleijel, Achille Mbembe, Adam Hochschild, Wojciech Brzoska, Maria Dąbrowska, Frédéric Boyer and Serge Bloch are the first guests who confirmed their participation in this year’s edition of the Conrad Festival.

Its leading theme – Unrest – has been drawn from Joseph Conrad’s book titled Tales of Unrest.

”The Polish translation of the title — Opowieści niepokojące — seems not quite satisfactory. It should rather be something like doniesienia z krainy niepokoju (reports from the land of unrest) because the tales do not convey the feeling of unrest as such but rather try to diagnose, describe, explain and interpret unrest, to orient us in the growing chaos of information. It’s just like us: we want to talk about unrest in the modern world, about unrest we can see in the movement of individuals and communities, about passionate emotions that need to be vented and anxieties about the uncertain future, which like a hundred years ago, in Conrad’s times, begins to cast a black shadow over us.”

Professor Markowski stresses that it is difficult to discuss all meanings of the word Unrest within no more than seven days. This is why we have divided the Festival week by emotions and feelings – both positive and negative. The organisers believe that these notions best describe humans and communities experiencing unrest. These are: Fear, Anger, Hostility, Humiliation, Hope, Pride and Dignity.

“People experience unrest when they are afraid of something, when they feel insecure, humiliated or angry”, says professor Markowski. “But they also leave a peaceful zone if they see a hope for a better life, when their pride and honour do not let them agree with the situation, someone’s attitude, or politics, or if they cannot stand the pressures anymore. Unrest is unfortunate (causing discomfort) or desirable (encouraging action). Unrest lies on a shadow line between what is and what might be, or between what shouldn’t be and what must be. However, only rarely unrest is an individual feeling unrelated with the life of others. On the contrary, all emotions that cause unrest refer to the life of a community, a common experience which literature describes and which is always discussed at the annual Conrad Festival.”

Traditionally, the Festival will host the authors with whom the Polish reader is already well acquainted and world-renowned writers who, we believe, will be talked about in Poland still in this year.

Meet our guests

More at : www.conradfestival.com

The comic strip Kościsko created by Karol ”KaeRel” Kalinowski (Kultura Gniewu) is the winner of the Ferdinand the Magnificent Award for the Best Children’s Book 2016. The Readers’ Award goes to Barbara Caillot-Dubus and Aleksandra Karkowska for their book Na Giewont się patrzy (Oficyna Wydawnicza Oryginały).

Kościsko, is an involving comic strip, which frightens where it should and amuses where some fun is needed. It treats the reader seriously, it doesn’t preach, but it is an important book about important things, which both: the big and the small, can enjoy – said Szymon Kloska, a member of the Competition Jury, in the laudation.

Karol ”KaeRel” Kalinowski received the statuette of Ferdinand the Magnificent and the money award of PLN 10 thousand from the Deputy Mayor of Krakow Andrzej Kulig.

The readers decided that the Ferdinand the Magnificent Readers’ Award will go to Barbara Caillot-Dubus and Aleksandra Karkowska for Na Giewont się patrzy. Handing in the award, Agnieszka Karp-Szymańska admitted that they won by an overwhelming majority

The Sunday Gala of the Ferdinand the Magnificent Award and the accompanying concert Budyń Julka Tuwima in the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology are the greatest events of the Festival of Children’s Literature 2017 in Krakow and the last events of its spring edition. The autumn edition will be held in October in Poznań.

The Award of the Best Children’s Book has accompanied the Festival of Children’s Literature from the very beginning but in 2017 it changed its formula. Since that time it has taken its name after Ferdinand the Magnificent. The award is funded by theKrakow Festival Office, the operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme and awarded by the Competition Jury which consists of Barbara Gawryluk, Marta Lipczyńska-Gil, Joanna Olech, Małgorzata Węgrzecka and the Programme Council of the Festival of Children’s Literature. The winner of the Ferdinand the Magnificent Readers’ Award is chosen via the Internet vote.

For more information on the Ferdinand the Magnificent Award: click here. The event is held under the patronage of and in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office. For more information visit: fldd.pl andFacebook.

”It would be good if poetry books were discussed not only on the award-giving occasions” – said Marcin Sendecki, the winner of the Wisława Szymborska Award, on the last day of the Festival. Because in Poland we have really great poetry. 

W stands for Warsaw. Or for weaving memories. Or perhaps watching sights. On Saturday evening Marcin Sendecki received one of the most important Polish poetry awards – the Wisława Szymborska Award — for his volume with the shortest possible title. On Sunday morning he met with readers in the Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace, a branch of the National Museum in Krakow, this year’s Festival Centre.

It was the second meeting with the author. For the first time he talked about W on Saturday, not knowing yet that his volume would be found the best poetry book of last year. ”I’d like to say that my book hasn’t changed since yesterday; it’s neither better nor worse. And, with all due respect to the award-giving industry, it would be good if we discussed poetry books not only when they receive awards”, said the author. Because in Poland we really have great poetry. On Sunday morning Sendecki did not talk much about W – he explained it content and meaning on the previous meeting, after all. Here he was talking more about the method and the present condition of a poet. “ I assure you that writing makes sense. Recently I have written the critical review of a certain crime story. And see what happened? I was son out of the Jury at one competition. So some do read my writing, and what is more, think it’s important” – he said with his characteristic humour.

The winner of the Wisława Szymborska Award appeared in a select company. In the afternoon readers met with Adam Zagajewski, an outstanding Polish poet, essayist, prose writer, academic and translator. On the last day of the Festival, the readers also met with two female poets, who clearly stand out from their generation, creating sensitive poetry in a sophisticated form. The poets were Anna Piwkowska – the laureate of the City of Warsaw Literary Award, and Ewa Lipska, a Krakow-based poet, columnist and editor, a co-founder of the Association of Polish Writers.

On the last day of the Festival the floor was also given to those who enrich Polish literature on a daily basis – the translators, or as they like to say about themselves, authors of translations. “We co-create, not only re-create texts. I think about myself as a writer, a Polish-language writer”, said Jerzy Koch, who specialises in the Afrikaans language. ”The role of a translator is a little like that of a conductor, who does not only manages the orchestra but also creates the work anew”. Apart from Jerzy Koch, Justyna Czechowska (Swedish language) and Agata Hołobut (English language) also participated in the translators’ debate. The panellists translate from different languages, but all of the agree that they are lucky ”How many people can say that they do the job they really like? A per mille? I am part of that per mille” – said Justyna Czechowska. ”A translator is someone who can read texts over and over again. And not the texts you don’t like, by the great works of literature”, added Czechowska.

The end of the Festival was no less abundant with events as the other days. In addition to the meetings with authors and translators with the book lovers, there were such events as poetry reading on Marii Magdaleny Square under OFF Miłosz programme and the night concert of the group Pablopavo and Ludziki, which played the pieces from their most recent record Ladinola. They also prepared a special surprise for the Festival participants: The Song with lyrics by Czesław Miłosz. The Award of the Ferdinand the Magnificent went to the best children’s writer, Karol Kalinowski, for his book Kościsko – a story about a mysterious town in which the father and his daughter try to start a new life.

Those who couldn’t make it during the festival days, could watch the performance After Exile in Nowy Proxima Theatre. The scenario was based on Czesław Miłosz’s works. The director, Tomasz Cyz, did not try to build a story from unrelated poems. He has chosen one motif: love, with all its variations: falling in love, lust, jealousy and burn-out, and let the actors speak with the language of the Nobel Prize-winning author. All happens close to the audience, with a minimalist stage set, almost without music and light operation. Who needs the fireworks, if we all know what love is like. A serene and respectful tribute to Miłosz’s oeuvre.

”A good book may be based on that you don’t know what it is about. A bad book may be based on that you don’t know what it is about” – read Marcin Sundecki yesterday in one of his poems. The jury of the Wisława Szymborska Award considered his recent book W the best poetry volume in 2016, awarding Sendecki the Szyborska Prize.

”W” stands for Warsaw. Or rather for has been left of it in Sendecki’s memory. In his award-winning volume the poet examines his own ability to store and reconstruct images of the past. –”It is a book about the slipping down of the world, slipping away of once important events from your memory – something hardly describable” – said Joanna Orska, the Chair of the Competition Jury in her laudation speech. ”The rhythm of Sendecki’s sentences, in which the pictures are caught like as in the flashlight, reflects his effort to commemorate everything that once could be found in Warsaw”. In addition to the statuette, the author received the financial prize of PLN 100 000. Interestingly, when a few hours earlier Sendecki talked with the readers at a get-together with the author in the Festival Centre, he expected that the day would have a joyful finale…

It was a long day, anyway. This time the poetry marathon began with a translation workshop for beginner poetry translators. From early morning the paticipants tackled poems by festival guests. They discovered that a few verses might be discussed for hours, never getting to the final version of the translations

Participants in the literary criticism workshop, concluded by the debate between Marcin Wilk, Paulina Małochleb, Michał Nogaś and Justyna Sobolewska, also discovered how deep one can dig into the text. It appears that today the greatest problem for critics is that their texts often do not find readers. – ”There has never been such a wide and multi-layered literary criticism in the post-war history of Poland as today”, said Paulina Małochleb in the debate. – ”But in the times when the media drastically reduce the place for culture, the space for crticism is shrinking”.

At half-way point of the festival, the readers met a poet whose oeuvre best reflects the festival motto: “Beginning with my streets”. In his photographs, Wojciech Wilczyk has captured the streets of Polish cities for years. This documentary experience is reflected in his poetry. Like a photographer, he watches, eavesdrops and registers the reality that surrounds him. – “The poems help me to overcome the monopoly of the image”, he said yesterday at a meeting with the readers. ”Every medium has its shortcomings but those two arts complement each other perfectly – because photography cannot ask questions, whilst poetry is never altogether realistic.”

The same way Wilczyk looks at Polish streets, the festival organisers try to look ay their neighbours’ streets, inviting poets from not distant countries to Krakow. This year the countries are represented by the Austrian Evelyn Schlag and the German Joachim Sartorius. Both of them share the same language, but the character of the poetry is completely different. Schlang’s sensual, almost naturalistic poems pave new paths for poetry, whilst Sartorius is ”the guardian of tradition”. The Pergamon Museum, the Lascaux grotto and ancient Rome are his places. Ovid, Diane and Plato appear in his poems embodying contemporary classicism, encouraging the reader to look into the past and to enter into dialogue with other cultures. “For me the primary goals of poetry are beauty, enjoying the word and keeping language in good condition”, said Sartorius, whose poems were read by Ryszard Krynicki in his own translation.

The poetry day in the Bishop Erasm Ciołek Palace closed by a meeting with Marta Eloy Cichocka, on a completely different theme from the previous talks with the authors. Cichocka talked less about her recent volume Engramy, and more abut the writing method, how to make a living writing poetry (or rather that it is impossible) and about how difficult it is to find some time for herself and for writing which has for her a therapeutic value. –”Poetry gave me the power to influence reality and to cope with painful experiences” – she said yesterday –”sometimes I think about poems as if they were moths I am afraid of but I can pin them to the wall and create something beautiful.”

In the evening the festival audience was offered Reading Stories before Sunset by Juliusz Chrząstowski, a meeting with Bridget Minamore in Cafe Szafe under OFF Miłosz stream and the film screening of Taboo devoted to the life Georg Trakl in Metaforma. Or you could simply read poetry by the guests of the Miłosz Festival on your own, at home, to gather strength for the next day.

The Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace resounded wit many poetic voices – on the second day of the Milosz Festival our guests shared with the readers the sources of their creative inspirations.

Karol Maliszewski, nominated for the Polityka Passport, the Nike Literary Award and  the Silesian Literary Laurel, confessed yesterday that his poetic fame did not really reach his native Nowa Ruda. What has reached his home town is pop culture, slogans and advertisements that he uses to build his poetry. “Quoting reality is my way of struggling with lyrical infantilism, purifying the language”, he told the readers. “Besides, slogans are extraordinarily poetically fertile. Sometimes I can see a banner which reads ”plein-airs on sale” or a signpost “the Word sawmill” and I think to myself that the copyrighters are not bad poets at all. That tormented voice of telemarketers or strips with information rolling on a TV screen, all that begs for a haiku”.

“Tree injuries” – Maliszewski would certainly like that too. It is the issue the botanist Urszula Zajączkowska deals on a daily basis. But being a naturalist is but one of her professions; another is poetry which Zajączkowska treats as an alternative path to the studying and describing nature. “The deeper I go into science the more clearly I see how many things still remain mystery” – she told her readers yesterday. – “ Physics is the best method to characterise such things  – just one formula, one line – and here we have the definition of a blade of glass. But if you ever saw the stalks shaking in the wind, you know it’s indescribable. Then poetry is of help”.

Linn Hansén’s poetry also touches science. Contrary to popular opinions about Scandinavian literature, the Swedish poet does not deal with crime stories but with history. Her almost obsessive interest in history is reflected in classroom-like questions she abundantly quotes in her poems: Who was a hoplite? When was the wheel invented? What was decisive for the success of money? “To me history is something which legitimises our activity. When we want to describe a complex issue, we usually say: It’s a long story” – explained Hansén. “History is a key for which we reach if we want to learn what we are and why we are like this”.

Robert Pinsky. released the readers from classroom questions of the type “what the author means by this poem?” At a meeting with his readers, the American poet openly stated that his poems, which are considered complex by critics, as they are full of references to European heritage, are written simply for pleasure – his own and the readers‘. “When I cook dinner I don‘t expect its taste and aroma to be analysed. Just tell me if you liked it. It’s the same with poetry”. Pinsky is world-renowned not only for his poems written for pleasure but also from his translations of Miłosz’s poetry. “Cooperation with Miłosz was for me the honour of a lifetime” – he confessed yesterday. “As to translation, it is the best way of reading. A sheer pleasure. It would be interesting to know if the participants in  translation workshops that started yesterday agreed with that”.

The second day of the Festival brought more reflections on the guiding theme of the event – i.e. narcissism and individualism. Roma Sendyka, Olga Drenda and Przemysław Czapliński discussed  about singularity in the era of narcissism.. “Politicians tell people: look at the mirror, see how perfect and beautiful you are, better than others”, said Przemysław Czapliński. The panellists agreed it is difficult to give a precise definition of narcissism nowadays. As a matter of fact, the notion which is commonly associated with vanity, has a number of meanings, beginning from positive ones, such as caring for oneself and working to perfect one’s personality, to negative with the most topical one – nationalism, that is uncritical adoration of ones own country.

The day ended with a theatrical premiere. Tomasz Cyz adapted Miłosz’s works for stage. His performance After Exile will be played for the following two days of the festival and in the upcoming season. The festival audience also met in Kolanko No.6 at the international poetry slam, in the festival club Metaforma, in which Pinsky showed films from his project Favorite Poem. Massolit was also filled with poetry, premiering the newest issue of WIDMA. The youngest participants, somewhat hyperactive after the morning “disagreement exercises” run by Agnieszka Wolny- Hamkało, ended the day with the stories read by Krzysztof Piątkowski.

Why writing about worn shoes of your son? Is menopause the right theme for a poem? Can you see universal truths looking at yourself? This is what the guests of the first day of the Milosz Festival discussed yesterday.

”Beginning with My Streets” is the motto of this year’s edition of the Miłosz Festival. The organisers began their literary journey from the closest streets situated right across our southern border. The first festival meeting was devoted the Czech Petr Hruška. Critics say that his poems created from fragments of everyday talks, notes and e‑mails are severe and naturalistic. The poet says that for him it is a way for taming the world and a clue to its secrets. “There are poets who can write about big things. I don’t. I don’t know how to write about politics, war or crisis, so I write about my son’s worn shoes” – said the poet at yesterday’s meeting. “But I’m sure that if you write well and at the same closely watch yourself, you can reach universal truths, close to everyone”.

Antjie Krog reaches even deeper layers of privacy in her poetry. The poet comes from RSA. She published her first poem when still a high schools student, and caused a scandal with her strong protest against the Apartheid policy. Today, Krog is 65 years old and still shocking. She writes, among other things, about the aspects of female physicality that are generally considered embarrassing: menopause, the passing of beauty, decrepitude “For centuries the theme of femininity has been neglected by male poets. Love , death, religion – this is what they think important” – said Krog at the meeting with the readers. “Women, even if they take up those themes, write about them in a completely different way, setting those issues in a human scale”.

These words of poets were supplemented by theoreticians’ reflections. During the debate ”Intimate languages – do they still remain?” Dorota Kozicka, Zbigniew Mikołejko and Zbigniew Libera discussed the role of intimacy in our times. Kozicka considers it merchandise – as can be seen from best-selling biographies of stars, the fashion for coaching or psychological guides; Mikołejko considers intimacy as something that helps us to tame the world, whilst Libera associates it with physicality, something that happens behind the closed doors of the bathrooms and bedrooms.

Professor Tadeusz Sławek set festival reflections in a wider context. In his Miłosz Lecture, the professor interpreted the leading theme of this year’s festival edition. He noted that the street of Miłosz, who claimed to be ”an inheritor of Gothic cathedrals and baroque churches”, was simply Europe. So perhaps the poet’s idea of ”beginning with my streets” was to encourage reflection on the condition and directions of development of our continent.

The first day of the festival included not only lectures and meetings but also practical activities. The youngest participants had the opportunity to take lessons of typography under Anna Kaszuba-Dębska. Justyna Sobolewska and Michał Nogaś introduced the older participants into the complexities of the literary critic profession (economic, formal, and societal).

In the evening Mayor Jacek Majchrowski read bedtimes stories the youngest participants under the: Reading Stories before Sunset series. Grown up participants ended the day with a poetry performance in Cafe Szafe and a concert given by Julia i Nieprzyjemni, the premiere performance of the group’s record Wojaczek.

A prominent poet, many times candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, a member of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Honorary Council and of the Miłosz Festival Honorary Committee, will receive one the most prestigious literary awards in the country of Don Quixote from the King of Spain.

The Princess of Asturias Award (Spanish: Premio Príncipe de Asturias) is one of the most important awards in the Spanish-speaking world, awarded by the King of Spain Philip for major achievements in science, humanities and public affairs. The award consist of EUR 50 thousand and a statuette designed specially for that occasion by the famous Spanish artist Joan Miró. Among award-winners there are Krzysztof Penderecki (2001) and Ryszard Kapuściński (2003).

Adam Zagajewski (b. 21 June 1945 in Lviv) is a Polish poet, prose writer, essayist, academic and translator of literature. For most of his life he has been connected with Krakow. He represents the New Wave generation. He is the signatory of the Letter of 59 (1975). From 1976 his works were banned in Poland for years. From 1982 to 2002 he lived in exile in France. In 1983 he became editor of ”Zeszyty Literackie”. He had his début in 1972 with a poetry volume entitled Komunikat. His newest poetry volumes are Asymetria (2014) and Lotnisko w Amsterdamie (2016). The winner of many literary awards, including the Kościelski Foundation Award (1975), the Neustadt International Award in Literature (2004), Zhongkun China Literary Award (2013), the Jan Parandowski Polish PEN Club Award (2015) and the Griffin Prize for lifetime achievements (2016). He has been honoured with many orders and distinctions, including the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2012) and the Legion of Honour (2016). A member of the Union of Polish Writers (1973-1983), the Polish PEN Club and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Please remember that a meet-the-author session with Adam Zagajewski will be held during the Miłosz Festival! The poet will meet the readers on Sunday at 4:45 pm in the Festival Centre at Erazm Ciołek (17 Kanonicza Street).

More on the Princess of Duchess of Asturias Award for Adam Zagajewski here: read more (in Spanish)

Congratulations for well-deserved laurels!

“Lanugage is our engine. There is no other way to think and explore reality than through language“, said Anthony Miłosz, the son of the Nobel-Prize winner, at yesterday’s opening of the Miłosz Festival.  The leading motif of this year’s sixth edition is “Beginning with My Streets”. It is the title of a collection of Miłosz’s essays that the Festival organisers: the City of Krakow, the Krakow Festival Office and the City of Literature Foundation used as a pretext to look at the condition of contemporary man. So let’s begin! 

”We live in a narcissist era where sometimes there is no place for being individual, original, simply being yourself” – said Krzysztof Siwczyk the Festival Artistic Director at the press conference.  ”In this Festival edition we will appeal for restoring intimacy and individuality. Who can help us to do it, if not poets?”

6. Miłosz Festival – inuguration, fot. Kamila Zarembska-Szatan​

Guests of this year’s Festival edition came to us from three continents. Robert Pinsky came to us from accross the ocean  . The nominee for the Pulitzer Award and a translator of Miłosz’s works, he read Miłosz’ poem Incantation. Antjie Krog  ,  who in her work openly criticises the Apartheid policy, came to us from the Republic of South Africa. Europe is represented by the rebellious Linn Hansen from Sweden and Evelyn Schlep – an Austrian poet who deals with such issues as Nazism, suicide and chilldlessness. Our neighbours: Joachim Sartorius from Germany and the Czech Petr Hruška will also appear at the festival.

”Despite their outstanding literary output, those poets are unknown to most of Polish people. This is why the festival organisers, in cooperation with five publishing houses, decided to translate and publish collections of their poems. I hope these volumes will bring a new value and individuality to the Polish language, something we would like so much to be fighting for in this edition of the Festival”  – said Krzysztof Siwczyk yesterday. Two debates will also offer opportunities for reflection: ”Intimate languages – do they still remain?” with Dorota Kozicka, Zbigniew Libera and Zbigniew Mikołejko and ” Singularity in the era of narcissism” with Przemysław Czapliński and Roma Sendyka.

The Miłosz Festival is not only literature but also music. The record Wojaczek by the ensemble Julia i Nieprzyjemni will have its premiere during the Festival. The project initiators – among whom the best known are Julia Kamińska and Marcin Świetlicki –  created a musical Interpretation of works by the tragically died poet.  But these are not the only Festival attractions. Literary criticism and translation workshops, poetry slams, events for children and the premiere of After Exile, a performance based on the Nobel-Prize winning poet’s work. In summary, said Anthony Miłosz, “The Festival has started. Time to get to work”.