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On August 19th, during the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival, a new wave of literary initiatives from Krakow took over the Jura Unbound event! The Jura Unbound is a celebration of niche and world literature – showcasing literature in unique settings and intertwining it with other art forms, like music and film. It is a truly interdisciplinary and hip event that is held after 9 am for two weeks in a wide variety of inviting locations.
This year Jura Unbound welcomed 3 innovative authors and literary figures from Krakow: Piotr Marecki (Ha!art Corporation), Łukasz Orbitowski and Sławomir Shuty, who engaged audiences on the following topics:
New Wave Krakow: Contemporary literary arts in the youngest City of Literature
Sławomir Shuty and Łukasz Orbitowski discussed a side of Kraków not typically featrured in tourist guidebooks or on the official channels of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature. Shaby local bars and illegal flee markets constitute the background for their fiction. They talked about the popularity of Kraków as a setting of popular horror stories and fantasy novels, as well as Slavic motifs, which became the obsession of some local and international authors. They also spoke about the phenomenon of Nowa Huta, the communist socrealist district (Sławiomir Shuty’s artistic pseudonm, “Shuty”, is the phonetic transcription of the words “z Huty”, which means “from Huta””).
Polish Experimental Writing in the Digital Age
Polish digital literature has a rich tradition to build on, in particular the Polish experimental literature and demoscene to avant-garde filmmakers associated with the Warsztat Formy Filmowej (Film Form Workshop). With a rather isolated position on the international scene and a separate, a unique historical background contributes to the distinctiveness of Polish digital literature.
Both events are organized in cooperation with Krakow Festival Office and the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Programme.
Krakow earned the prestigious UNESCO title in October 2013 and joined the ranks of Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin, Reykjavik and Norwich.