All-Polish Festival Following Writers’ Paths

Have a drink Pilch likes, carry Szymborska’s shopping bag, follow the paths of writers – on Thursday (27th March) the All-Polish Festival Following Writers’ Paths: City as a Space for Creation starts in Krakow. On the programme you will find a tour of the city that includes roaming Krakow’s literary bars, meetings with writers, workshops and a city game. On top of that, a conference will be held at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University, the project co-organiser. The Krakow Festival Office is the project partner.

Writers’ paths – retraced, marked, described, anecdotic, fetishized by culture theoreticians. But the paths are for walking along! The first edition of the festival will combine both approaches.

You will be offered a unique tour as part of the festival – following the trail of Krakow’s bars and restaurants with literary connotations. It will be an opportunity to meet colourful types from the circles of literary bar regulars and avid vodka drinkers. Bar owners, barflies or local writers will introduce you to the spirit of every spot on the way — Ambasada Śledzia, Piękny Pies, Cafe Szafé, Klub Kulturalny and other places.

Festival participants will take part in an open city game – they will have the chance to have a drink Pilch likes, to carry Szymborska’s shopping bag, to sing a Turnau song or to dress up as Ms Lola, the legendary cloakroom attendant at the Writers’ House in Krakow. There will also be workshops and meetings with writers associated with the former Writers’ House at 22 Krupnicza Street and film screenings. The Festival will come to an end on the 29th of March.

Three days of debates, 14 panel discussions, nearly fifty speakers from all over Poland – these are  only a handful of the impressive statistics of the conference, which is the most important event of the first edition of the festival. Before we set off on our way around literary Krakow as part of the Festival, we will have the opportunity to reflect on the issue of the creator and his/her work entangled in urban space (and the other way round): There will be theoretical content as well and very specific attempts at mapping individual writers from different regions of Poland. Each day will begin with a lecture given by an expert in the field. This includes, in order of appearance: The Dean of the Faculty of Polish Studies of the Jagiellonian University Jarosław Fazan PhD, Professor Marta Wyka PhD, and Professor Franciszek Ziejka PhD. Admission is free!

See the Festival programme and accompanying conference at: www.sciezkamipisarzy.pl