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Literary walks back in Krakow

For the fifth time, Krakow streets will host literary walks – an event of undying popularity among Cracovians and readers across the globe! Both the programme’s timeframe (March–November) and agenda will be expanded. The new programme will combine its cultural staples with new figures and locations. Literary walks will traditionally be held on the last Saturday of each month.

The 5th literary walk season will get a head start this year: the first walk will pass through the new Halina Poświatowska Route on 21 March. World Poetry Day celebrations will take us to places where the poet lived, acquired education, wrote poems, had love affairs and lived life to the fullest, often at the expense of her health.

The 2018 literary walk programme falls on the Zbigniew Herbert Year and Dorota Terakowska’s 80th birth anniversary, that’s why walks along the Zbigniew Herbert Route (June) and the Dorota Terakowska Route (April) are an absolute must. As Krakow was the hub of Young Poland’s literary and artistic life, the walk route map will be updated to include places related to Young Poland (July) and Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (August). In an attempt to recreate that period’s atmosphere, the walk will end in Jama Michalika with an absinthe toast to: Eviva l’arte!

The Literature for Children Festival (November) will see the introduction of the new Legends for Children Route, while the World Book and Copyright Day will initiate the Book in Krakow Route. Top literary walks will stay on the agenda: the Stanisław Wyspiański Route (May), the Children’s Literature Route (June, to celebrate Children’s Day), the Wisława Szymborska Route (September) and the Stanisław Lem Route (to celebrate Lem’s Birthday). To uphold tradition, the Miłosz and Conrad Festivals will include walks along the Czesław Miłosz (June) and Joseph Conrad (October) Routes.

 

Agnieszka Pudełko, Anna Hojwa, Łucja Malec-Kornajew and Grzegorz Jankowicz are just some of our outstanding guides.

All walks are free, but require prior registration due to limited availability and high interest. Please register via e-mail at: spacery@miastoliteratury.pl. The number of participants is limited, so be quick!

Schedule:

  • 21 March – Halina Poświatowska (World Poetry Day)
  • 23 April – Book in Cracow (World Book and Copyright Day)
  • 28 April – Dorota Terakowska
  • 26 May – Stanisław Wyspiański
  • 02 June – Children’s Literature (Children’s Day)
  • 09 June – Czesław Miłosz (Miłosz Festival)
  • 30 June – Zbigniew Herbert
  • 28 July – Young Poland
  • 25 August – Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
  • 08 September – Stanisław Lem (Lem’s Birthday)
  • 29 September – Wisława Szymborska
  • 27 October – Joseph Conrad (Conrad Festival)
  • 24 November – Legends for Children (Literature for Children Festival)

This year, like every other year, the International Vilnius Book Fair (22–25.02.2018) will host, at the Vilnius Litexpo Congress and Exhibition Centre, an interesting and diverse presentation of Polish literature prepared by the Polish Institute in Vilnius and its Polish and Lithuanian partners. Krakow UNESCO City of Literature will also participate in the fair.

“Books from Poland – understanding the world” will be the motto of Poland’s stand. In 2018, the Polish Institute in Vilnius will focus on Poland’s greatest literary achievements: Polish Nobel Prize winners, mainly Krakow-based Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska.

Krakow’s “Znak”, one of Poland’s oldest and largest publishing houses, will present its publishing record at the fair.

The Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme, will present its literary activity to fair participants. Europe’s intellectual and cultural centre offers a rich cultural programme related to i.a. literature promotion. Krakow hosts such acclaimed festivals as the Miłosz Festival or the Conrad Festival, and awards the Trans-Atlantyk Prize or the Wisława Szymborska Poetry Award. That’s why Krakow’s symbol, the Wawel Dragon, will exercise “patronage” over the Polish Institute in Vilnius stand.

Moreover, the “Wisława Szymborska. Collages” exhibition, centred on a relatively unknown aspect of the Polish Nobel Prize winner’s art, will open on Feb 26 at 6.00 p.m. at the M. Mažvydas Lithuanian National Library in Vilnius.

 

Events recommended by Krakow UNESCO City of Literature: Friday, 23 February, 3.00 p.m.

Screening of Wisława Szymborska’s biopic “Napisane życie” (“Written Life”). Introduction by dr Irena Fedorowicz (cinema room). Polish film with Lithuanian subtitles.

Saturday, 24 February, 2.00 p.m.

“Only in Krakow!” /Speakers: Jerzy Illg, Joanna Gromek, Urszula Chwalba, Donatas Puslys / room 5.3. / Meeting held in Polish and Lithuanian with simultaneous Polish-Lithuanian interpretation.

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Organiser: Polish Institute in Vilnius

Partners: Book Institute Poland, Krakow Festival Office, Znak publishing house, Warstwy publishing house, Adamada publishing house, Mintis publishing house, Lithuanian Association for Writers publishing house, Kraina Książek bookstore, Terra Publica Publishing House, 700 eilučių publishing house, Kino pavasaris Festival, Wisława Szymborska Foundation.

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Join us at the poetry evening organised by Universitas Publishing House to enjoy the poems of Beata Bronakowska-Sanak, winner of the Anna Świrszczyńska Contest in the category “Poetic Debut”, and promote the “Proś o kolor” (“Ask for Colour”) poem collection. The event will be held on Thursday, 1 March at 7.00 p.m. at Piwnica Pod Baranami.

The meeting will be moderated by Bronisław Maj.

The meeting is organised by the Universitas Publishing House in cooperation with the Krakow Festival Office and with the support of the Culture and National Heritage Department of the Krakow City Office.

Beata Bronakowska-Sanak’s debut poetry book was published after she won the 2017 4th Anna Świrszczyńska Poetry Contest in the “Poetic Debut” category.

On 19 June 2017 the contest jury led by Bronisław Maj, after a thorough analysis of all submitted poetry collections, decided on awarding the Poetic Debut Prize of the Anna Świrszczyńska Contest.

The prize consists in the professional publishing of the submitted poetry collection, organisation of the winner’s meeting with the public and promotion of the poetry book at the 6th Poetry Night (7 October 2017).

This year’s Poetic Debut section of the 4th Anna Świrszczyńska Contest received 102 poetry collections from across Poland, Europe and the world.

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The Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Residency Program is dedicated to emerging writers from the Cities of Literature of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The Program was created with the belief that the Network provides an excellent opportunity to develop interconnections, boost mobility, and offer professionalization services for writers. It aims to promote the Cities of Literature Network, provide writers with a platform to showcase their work and talent to a Central European audience, support greater diversity of voices and literatures on the Polish and Central European book market and offer local writers the chance to create links with international writers as well. In the previous, pilot year, Krakow hosted three residents from three Cities of Literature, and this year there will be five scholarship holders!

The first resident, Grigory Semenchuk from Lviv UNESCO City of Literature, will spend two months in Krakow (May and June). Semenchuk is a Ukrainian poet, translated into many languages, including Polish, Russian and French. He is also a columnist for the Lviv socio-cultural journal Prosto Neba and the head coordinator of the International Literary Festival as part of the Publishers Forum in Lviv. In 2005-2007, he was actively involved in organizing slam and poetry events. In May, we will also welcome Mark Pajak — poet, writer and editor from Manchester UNESCO City of Literature — for a month’s stay in Krakow. His debut volume of poems Spitting Distance published in 2016 was met with enthusiastic response in Great Britain. Published works by Pajak can be found, in The North magazine, New Writing North or The Poetry School, among others. In addition to writing, he is also involved in literary education; he leads creative writing workshops in cooperation with the Manchester Metropolitan University and others.

In the autumn we will welcome the second round of residents. For two months (September and October), Krakow UNESCO City of Literature will host Louis Klee from the Melbourne UNESCO City of Literature and Núria Añó from Barcelona UNESCO City of Literature. Louis Klee is a poet, playwright and literary critic and the youngest ever winner of the Peter Porter Prize in 2017, the most prestigious poetry award of Australia. His poems were published in the Australian Book Review and Meanjin. He also writes theater plays, including The Ink Trail, which was awarded by the Australian Council.

Núria Añó is an award-winning Catalan-Spanish writer and translator. Her debut publication was published in 1990. In 2006, Añó’s novel titled Els nens de l’Elisa placed third in the 24th edition of Ramon Llull Prize for Catalan Literature. Her prose was translated into many languages including French, English, Italian, German, Polish, and more.

Lastly, this year we will welcome a special scholarship holder, Hera Lindsay Bird, who in June will come to Krakow to partake in the Miłosz Festival and for a month-long residence. This New Zealand poet has a volume of poetry under the name Hera Lindsay Bird, which gained great recognition and popularity and many awards, including the Jessie McKay Best First Book Award or The Sarah Broom Poetry Prize in 2017.

The Residency Program is a strategic project of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Program, operated by the Krakow Festival Office, which will fulfill the priority of strengthening international cooperation in the field of literature and the creative industries.

Writers will receive the opportunity for a one or two month stay at the Villa Decius, official partner of the project with years of experience running international residencies, including the Visegrad Literary Residency and the ICORN residency program.

The Krakow Festival Office will guarantee residents the opportunity to participate in the literary life of the city and help to develop opportunities for them to promote their works in Poland.

[From left to right: Grigory Semenchuk, Mark Pajak, Hera Lindsay Bird, Louis Klee, and Núria Añó]

Krakow UNESCO City of Literature and the cultural magazine Dwutygodnik are organising a 4-month Literary Criticism Course. Editors Zofia Król and Maciej Jakubowiak will hold classes from 24 March to 9 June. Registration is open until 9 March.

Literary criticism does not boil down to pointing out interesting books, presenting one’s evaluation or classifying literary phenomena. For literary criticism to be interesting, it has to be written in a creative and captivating way. Krakow UNESCO City of Literature and the cultural magazine Dwutygodnik invite you to enrol for a Literary Criticism Course centred on creative writing about literature.

Two editors of Dwutygodnik’s literary section, Zofia Król and Maciaj Jakubiak, will guide workshop participants through intense work on their texts: from brainstorming ideas, through work scheduling and text structure planning, to linguistic and stylistic solution analysis.

Workshop participants and hosts will thoroughly analyse i.a. the critical reading method, the specific features of particular genres of literary criticism (review, essay, polemic, interview), the issue of negative criticism and the challenges posed by new media. The workshop will focus mainly on prose genres (novel, short story, essay).

The workshops are intended for both experienced literary critics and those who intend to take up writing about literature. The course consists of seven 5-hour meetings held on Saturdays.

Recruitment

In order to apply for the course, please send your 1-page CV and a review of your own (max. 5,000 characters with spaces) to pisz@miastoliteratury.pl. Please write a review of one of the books below:

  • Ignacy Karpowicz, Miłość (Love)
  • Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (Ruiny i zgliszcza translated into Polish by Michał Kłobukowski)
  • Weronika Gogola, Po trochu (Bit by Bit)

Organisers will select max. twelve participants. The submission deadline falls on 9 March

Moderator

Zofia Król (born 1980) – Dwutygodnik editor-in-chief and its literary section editor, literary critic and Doctor of Philosophy. Author of “Return to the world. The History of Attention in Philosophy and Literature of the 20th Century” (2013). Contributes texts to “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “Zeszyty Literackie” and “Konteksty”. Sits on the Witold Gombrowicz Debut and the Conrad Award juries.

Maciej Jakubowiak (born 1987) – Dwutygodnik literary section editor, literary critic, Doctor of Literary Studies. Author of “Nieuchronny plagiat. Prawo autorskie w nowoczesnym dyskursie literackim” (“Inevitable plagiarism. Copyright in modern literary discourse”) (2017). Writes for “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “Teksty Drugie”, “Polityka”, “Wielogłos”, “Znak”, “Popmoderna” and “FA-art”.

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LITERARY CRITICISM COURSE

24 March – 9 June

Number of participants: 12 Cost: PLN 500

Workshop dates: 24 March, 7 April, 14 April, 28 April, 12 May, 26 May, 9 June Organisers: Krakow UNESCO City of Literatureand cultural magazine Dwutygodnik

“Once there was a man who worked a lot, and worked very fast, and left his soul far, far behind him. Life without his soul was quite good – he slept, he ate, he worked, he drove his car, he even played tennis. Sometimes, however, he got the impression that everything around him was too flat, as if he was walking across a smooth math notebook page, a very neatly squared page…”

The Lost Soul is Olga Tokarczuk’s first book written also for young readers. It conveys its message through both words and images. Joanna Concejo’s images illustrate this story and create a double narrative, as the writer puts it. Twelve illustrations presented at the Wyspiański Pavilion tell a moving story about waiting, patience and mindfulness. The book received a prestigious distinction in the Fiction section of the 2018 Bologna Ragazzi Award.

Joanna Concejo’s illustrations were originally included in Olga Tokarczuk’s The Lost Soul published by Format.

Ilustracje Joanny Concejo do książki "Zgubiona dusza" autorstwa Olgi Tokarczuk, wyd. Format

The Lost Soul. Exhibition of Joanna Concejo’s illustrations to Olga Tokarczuk’s book. Exhibition: 15 February – 9 March 2018

Venue: Wyspiański Pavilion, Krakow

The Second Life of a Book campaign is now in its seventh year! Last year, 15 editions were held over twelve months with 1500 participants who swapped more than 10 000 books, and bookcrossing shelves were placed in a number of new locations. The book swapping culture is in ever better shape – book exchange meetings inspired by our campaign were held during fairs, literary festivals and culture events in Małopolska and beyond.

The calendar of free book swapping events to be held in 2018 will be of interest to all – we will meet 14 times in variety of attractive locations. Seven special edition events will be organised, including a comic book exchange during the Krakow Comic Book Festival, a book exchange in Decius Park and an English book exchange in the Massolit bookstore. In 2018, book swapping events will be held traditionally at the Regional Public Library and the Wyspiański Pavilion, but also at the ‘Ogniwo’ Cooperative, the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, the Outdoor Cinema during the Off Camera Film Festival and the Central Fair in Nowa Huta.

The Second Life of a Book self-service bookcrossing shelves will also be put up during the Miłosz and Conrad Festivals. The 1:1 rule applies to using the bookcrossing shelves– for each book you take from a bookcrossing shelf, you must leave another.

The rules for participating in the Second Life of a Book project are very simple: participants have to bring at least one book, but no more than ten. The condition of the books you want to swap is important – you bring your books so that other people can read them. Books published before 1995 can be exchanged only for other books published before that year. If you bring new books (published after 1995) you can choose freely from new and older books.

Stop wasting books that you have got bored with. Pass them on and find a new owner for them. And who knows, you might even find a literary gem for yourself. Please, join us at the swapping events!

The complete events calendar along with the rules and regulations are available on the website: www.drugiezycieksiazki.pl

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The Second Life of a Book campaign is organised by the Krakow Festival Office – the operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme.

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