Open Call for the Janina Katz Residency programme

The matron of the residency is Janina Katz (1939-2013), a Krakow-based writer, poet, and translator who was forced to leave Poland in 1969 due to anti-Semitic persecution. She spent the rest of her life in Copenhagen, where she won numerous prestigious literary awards and translated the works of Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Sławomir Mrożek, among others, into Danish.

Today, Krakow aims to be a shelter for women writers forced to leave their countries. The Janina Katz Residency Programme arose from the belief that Krakow – a city that is open, welcoming, and committed to women’s rights – has a special role to play today for women creators from beyond the eastern border. The first resident of the Janina Katz program was the Belarusian poet, translator, and novelist Hanna Jankuta. In 2024, the residents were Alena Piatrovich, a Belarusian translator from Polish, English, and Ukrainian, and Tamara Duda, a Ukrainian prose writer, journalist, and translator. Last year, Ukrainian translator and editor Larysa Andriievska and Belarusian prose writer Yulia Artemova explored literary Krakow.

The resident selected through the recruitment process will be provided with a two-month stay in an apartment in the city centre, a salary, reimbursement for travel expenses to and from Krakow, substantive and logistical support, as well as the opportunity to explore the local literary and publishing scene and establish valuable professional contacts. The resident will stay in Krakow from April to May 2026.

What we offer:

• A two-month stay for the resident in April and May in a furnished residential apartment in the city center.
• a stipend of PLN 2,500 gross per month and coverage of travel expenses to and from Krakow.
• KMLU also provides guests with the opportunity to participate in the city’s literary life and supports the promotion of their work in Poland.

We invite writers and translators from Ukraine and Belarus to apply.

Criteria:

• knowledge of Polish or English
• at least one published book (fiction or non-fiction), screenplay (film or theater), or translation

Details regarding the exact dates of the stay will be agreed individually with the resident.

Application deadline: 9.02.2026

Date of stay in Krakow: April to May 2026

How to apply?

Applications containing:

• a completed  form
• a CV or bio should be sent by the deadline to: residencies@miastoliteratury.pl

Janina Katz (1939–2013) – writer, poet, translator, and literary critic. Born on March 2, 1939, to a Jewish family in Kraków, she survived the war, sheltered by Maria and Stefan Kapłański in Dobczyce. She studied Polish studies and sociology at the Jagiellonian University and published in “Życie Literackie” and “Twórczość.” Due to anti-Semitic persecution, she left Poland in 1969 and settled in Copenhagen. She wrote in Danish and published five novels, twelve volumes of poetry, and two volumes of short stories. She has translated poetry (including those by Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, and Ewa Lipska) and prose (Sławomir Mrożek and Tadeusz Konwicki) into Danish. She has been recognized for her translations with the Parisian “Kultura” award and has also received the Medal of Merit for Polish Culture from the Minister of Culture and Art. She has also received lifetime achievement awards from the Danish Academy of Literature and the Danish Writers’ Association. The program is part of the year-long literary residency program of Krakow, a UNESCO City of Literature.

The theme of the 17th Joseph Conrad International Literary Festival in Kraków is Radical Hope. ‘We hearken back to the concept coined by philosopher Jonathan Lear, who was inspired by the attitude of the Crow Native Americans. A radical form of hope was what enabled them to adapt to the new circumstances, as they experienced the end of the world as they had known it. We want to follow in their footsteps and remain open to the good that may come, even in extremely difficult situations,’ says Olga Drenda, creative director of the Conrad Festival. She adds that: ‘We try to look at life after a crisis or sea change from many perspectives. Literature can reliably aid us in the process by feeding the imagination and allowing us to create possible scenarios of events. This year, we are interested in alternative histories in the broadest understanding of the term.

The festival will feature Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah, who is considered one of the most eminent contemporary writers. The Tanzanian author of the acclaimed novel Afterlives was born in Zanzibar and has lived in the United Kingdom since the 1960s. His writings concern colonialism, voluntary migration and exile, and reveal lives suspended between Africa and Europe, between the past and the present. The central theme of his texts is the attempt to tell his own story, despite oppression of various kinds.

The experience of migration is also one of the main themes in the writing of Chinese author Yan Ge, who writes in Mandarin and English. Her literature concerns life at the intersection of cultures, and people leaving one language behind while trying to put down roots in another linguistic sphere. Her books, which turned out difficult to review and pigeonhole, have earned her numerous awards. Her short story collection Elsewhere has recently been published in Poland.

The eminent Irish writer Colm Tóibín, nominated for the Booker Prize and other accolades, will also join us in Krakow. In his prose, he gives voice to the unseen weight of life – the small failures, the silent longings, the moments that seem too insignificant to be transformed into narratives, and yet cannot be forgotten. His books such as Brooklyn, Nora Webster and The Magician, won the hearts of readers in Poland.

Sensitivity to detail characterises Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir’s writings. The Icelandic novelist shows that hope arises from small, almost imperceptible gestures, such as fixing a leaking tap or tending to a garden. Her novel Ör (The Scar) was recently published in

Poland and won the Nordic Council’s Literary Prize. The book shows that even in the most hopeless moments, one can find the words to start again.

Chloe Dalton’s autobiographical work titled Raising Hare: A Memoir was a result of an unexpected event. In her book, the British international affairs expert, who works as an advisor to politicians, tells the story of rescuing a baby hare and the bond that connected her with the wild animal. The story makes us rethink our relationship with nature and come up with new ways to respect our own and others’ freedom.

As is tradition, the festival will feature a wide range of interesting Polish writers. Dariusz ‘Brzóska’ Brzóskiewicz, Urszula Jabłońska and Łukasz Orbitowski will discuss the dream, which is specific to the counterculture, of living outside the system. Weronika Murek, Robert J. Szmidt and Adam Ubertowski will talk about the non-obvious visions of our country shared in recent literature. Weronika Gogola, Jan Pucek and Ziemowit Szczerek are going to take a broader look at the Central and Eastern Europe and its characteristic stories. Magdalena Salik, Marek Baraniecki and Michał Cetnarowski will reflect on the specificity of Polish post-apocalyptic literature.

‘One would be hard-pressed to list all the writers we will meet at the Conrad Festival, seeing how the programme is richer than even last year’s one. Krakow will host a plethora of internationally renowned writers – not all of them enjoy widespread popularity in Poland, but nevertheles, meeting them will be worth your while. The list includes Kamel Daoud, Oleksandr Myched, Hanna Nordenhök, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Faruk Šehić, Emily St. John Mandel and Daniel Wisser. Check out the programme on the festival website and read the books that we are going to talk about this October. We are convinced that a spark of hope burns in each of them,’ says Carolina Pietyra, executive director of the Conrad Festival and director of the Krakow Festival Office, which organises the event together with the City of Kraków and the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation.

In addition to meetings with authors and discussions, the Conrad Festival also features industry meetings as part of the Book Congress and Reading Classes streams – a series of workshops hosted by literature scholars. After a years-long hiatus, the Word2Picture stream also makes a come-back to bring together the book and audiovisual industries and to invite people to explore works based on literature – including films, games and animations. The festival will also feature activities for children and families, as well as film screenings. For the eleventh time, the Conrad Award for the best prose début will be awarded to the best author.

Check out the Conrad Festival channels:

WWW

Facebook

Instagram

Spotify

Conrad Festival is organised by: Miasto Kraków, KBF – operator programu Kraków Miasto Literatury UNESCO, Fundacja Tygodnika Powszechnego.

Financed by: Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego – Fundusz Promocji Kultury.

Strategic partners: Tygodnik Powszechny, Allegro, Teatr im. J. Słowackiego w Krakowie.

Media patrons: Trójka – Program Trzeci Polskiego Radia, Radio Kraków, Wyborcza.pl, Książki. Magazyn do czytania, Czas Literatury, Kraków.pl.

New voices and dramatic reading

The CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists) programme selects the most interesting representatives of new European prose. Thanks to the translations developed by talented translators, their works can be presented to readers at international literary events. During this year’s Conrad Festival, we will meet three emerging artists: Eliška Beranova from the Czech Republic, Lieven Stoefs from Belgium and Pia Prezelj from Slovenia, whose stories were able to reach Polish readers thanks to translations by Paulina Zając, Marta Talacha and Aleksandra Wójcik. The stories presented in the first prose releases by these young European writers open us up to other worlds – rooted in different languages, fantasies and places, even though they could seemingly happen anywhere. The authors will read excerpts from their texts and, together with their translators, talk about the experience of writing and translating, as well as the unique relationship between writer, translator and story.

New voices from Europe. Meeting with CELA writers

24 October (Friday), 7:00 p.m.

Guests: Eliška Beranová, Pia Prezelj, Lieven Stoefs, Marta Talacha, Aleksandra Wójcik, Paulina Zając

Venue: Spółdzielnia Ogniwo

Europe in Translation and meeting with translators

Is a European reading community possible thanks to translation? And if so, can translators act as ambassadors for new phenomena, previously unheard voices, and previously untold stories? What do we gain by opening ourselves up to other points of view by reading? During the meeting, they will talk about the challenges facing young translators and interpreters, about translation as a job, a passion and an art. The panel will be hosted by Jerzy Jarniewicz – known both as an eminent translator and as an undisputed authority in translation studies.

Europe in Translation. Meeting with CELA translators

25 October (Saturday), 4:00 p.m.

Guests: Patrycja Chajęcka, Zofia Kręc, Amina Niepsuj-Wood, Aleksander Podgórny, Marta Talacha, Justyna Sterna, Magdalena Ukrainets, Aleksandra Wójcik, Paulina Zając Host: Jerzy Jarniewicz

Venue: Potocki Palace

CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists) is an international literary talent development programme supporting young writers, translators and literary professionals to build international careers and reach European audiences through workshops, mentoring, translation and showcasing their works at literary festivals.

Organisers: The City of Kraków, Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature programme, CELA, Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation.

Partners: Potocki Palace, Spółdzielnia Ogniwo

The CELA project has received funding from the European Union within the framework of the Creative Europe programme and from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Photograph: CELA

Olga Górska – resident of Radom. Author of Nie wszyscy pójdziemy do raju (Wydawnictwo Drzazgi, 2022). Winner of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Award and the Literary Prize of the City of Radom, participant of the Visegrad Literary Residency in 2024. Columnist and short story writer. She has a soft spot for The Lion King, music and literature.

Ishbel Shatrava (born in 1981) – playwright and writer. She has published two books: the award-winning Toń (Wydawnictwo Cyranka, 2023) and Wyrok (Wydawnictwo Cyranka, 2025). Her works have been staged in Poland and Germany. Winner of numerous awards, finalist of the Nike Literary Award. She lives in Kraków.

Małgorzata Żarów (born in 1988) – writer, winner of the Gdynia Literary Award for her debut novel Zaklinanie węży w gorące wieczory (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2022). Every once in a while, she writes short stories and essays for Pismo. She lives in Warsaw.

Congratulations!

On Friday (10 October), Poetry Night participants will attend two meetings with authors. Nasim Łuczaj and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe will talk to readers at 6:00 p.m. Nasim Łuczaj, a poet in residence at Wisława Szymborska’s apartment, lives between London, Glasgow and the Podkarpacie region. Tang, the volume of poetry she has been working on, brings together seemingly distant worlds: China in the Tang Dynasty era and Kraków in Young Poland times. Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe has been living in Kraków as part of the Heaney-Miłosz residency programme. In her award-winning debut Auguries of a Minor God, she told a story of a refugee family living their lives in a new and unfamiliar world. The two poets will discuss how oscillating between countries and languages impacts their creative process and what role literary residencies play in it. At 7:30 p.m., attendees will join a meeting with the winners of the 13th Duży Format Foundation Poetry Contest: Ewelina Kuśka and Paulina Janssen. The meeting will be hosted by Rafał T. Czachorowski.

Saturday’s (11 October) events will focus on…capturing moments, or more precisely, the finale of the Record the Time competition for youth aged 12-18 and the screening of competition films at the Potocki Palace. Afternoon will bring numerous poetry meetings. At 4:00 p.m., you can join the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of Grażyna Wojcieszko’s creative endeavours. At 5:00 p.m., Antonina Tosiek, winner of the Wisława Szymborska Award, will meet her readers. In an interview with Olga Sabała, the poet will talk about experiencing another human being, writing emotions, preserving memory and (im)mortality. The series of talks about poetry will culminate in a meeting with Marcin Sendecki at 7.30 p.m., which will be hosted by Agata Puwalska. The starting point for the conversation of the two poets will be Sendecki’s latest volume Węgierskie morze.

The meeting with poetry on Sunday (12 October) will start with the premiere of Robert Król’s volume Życie jest droższe The poet’s work tells a tale of fear and hope, of intimacy, and of a language that has no power to heal, yet it makes reality more familiar through names and allows us to understand more. The interview, which will start at 2:30 p.m., will be hosted by Antonina Tosiek. At 4:00 p.m. we will listen to the poetry by Urszula Kozioł. During the Landscape of Memory meeting, we will listen to the poems by the winner of the Nike Literary Award and many other accolades, presented by numerous authors, including Józef Baran, Beata Bronakowska, Karina Caban, Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar, Bronisław Maj and Anna

Piwkowska. The meeting will be hosted by Bronisław Maj. Sunday’s poetry events will end with a conversation with Polish poets – Katarzyna Zechenter and Ida Sieciechowicz. Both authors are members of the Association of Polish Writers Abroad. The meeting, hosted by Anna Marchewka, will take place at 6:00 p.m.

Poetry Night at Potocki Palace is organised by the City of Kraków, Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature programme, Wisława Szymborska Foundation, Duży Format Foundation, Trzeci Tor Film Association, Podgórze Cultural Centre, SABAS Artistic Salon and the Department of Culture of the City of Kraków

The aim of the residency is to enable artists associated with Kraków to work on their personal literary projects.

Elżbieta Łapczyńska was made famous by the Gdynia-nominated Mowy chleba and the aforementioned Bestiariusz nowohucki (Conrad Award, nominations for the Nike Literary Award, Paszport Polityki Award, Gdynia Literary Award and the Capital City of Warsaw Literary Award). Winner of the Adam Włodek Award, shortlisted for the Gdynia Drama Award and a scholarship holder of the City of Kraków in the field of theatre and literature. She is a member of the Sfinga girls’ writing collective.

The residency programmes of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature are aimed at writers, poets, journalists, translators and scriptwriters from all over the world who want to better understand the international publishing market and showcase their work to new audiences, all while looking for a quiet space and decent conditions to work on their own literary projects. The programmes stem from a belief in the profound value of cultural exchange in literature between different language circles.

“Tokarczuk and Sonmez’s unusual and highly topical conversation will take place at a time when the world is in need of reflection. PEN members and lovers of literature will be able to listen to the thoughts of these two writers on the pressing challenges of our time. They will be joined by Margaret Atwood, whose voice on freedom of expression will resonate strongly during the Congress.’ Romana Cacchioli, Director of PEN International Office

The International PEN Federation is delighted to invite everybody to the Opening Ceremony of the 91st PEN International Congress, which will take place on 2 September at the Kijów Cinema in Kraków. Its focal point will be a conversation between President of PEN International Burhan Sonmez and Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel Prize laureate, Polish writer and activist, who has consistently expressed her opposition to political repression and wrote about the price people pay for wars and authoritarian regimes.

The event, which is titled ‘Memory, Migration and Myth in Today’s Literature’, will also be attended by the Vice-President of PEN International Margaret Atwood, a prominent writer with a long-standing commitment to freedom of expression and environmental justice, who will present a speech joining us remotely.

The opening ceremony will take place on 2 September from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

This year’s Krokodil Festival was held for the seventeenth time under the headline Under Pressure. The invited guests included authors from Serbia, Poland, Sweden and Czechia.

The special event of the festival was the Poland in My Heart presentation dedicated to the contemporary Polish literary and artistic scene. One of the main guests of the event was Dorota Masłowska. The list of invitees also included writer and journalist Małgorzata Rejmer and the Krakow-based participant of the CELA international literary talent development programme, Barbara Woźniak.

The first day of the festival was devoted to networking for CELA programme participants. They had the opportunity to share experiences, gain new contacts and strengthen existing relationships. The main topics for discussions included support measures for authors and translators, as well as working with publishers. During the event, Anna Gulińska showcased the flagship projects of Kraków UNESCO City of Literature: KMLU Award, the KMLU Patronnage Programme and the Krakow Convention.

The second day of the event focused on workshops. During a class aimed at festival organisers, our representative shared best practices concernig the organisation of the Miłosz Festival and the Conrad Festival. The list of participants featured organisers of events such as Bookstan (Sarajevo), Bookstar (Skopje), Reading Sofia (Sofia), International Book Fair and Literary Festival Book World Prague (Prague), and Fabula Festival (Ljubljana). The workshop focused on developing the idea of building a European network of literary festival organisers. It is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2027. Until then the group will focus on conceptual work and preparations.

On the final day of the festival, participants took part in meetings with authors and discussions with Polish writers, whose works were released in the Balkans. They talked about potential international cooperation focused on inviting authors to literary festivals in Europe.

We came back from Serbia with a lot of new knowledge and inspirations. We are sure that the relationships established during that trip will pay off in future literary projects.

Emily Barr, British author of young adult books will come to the City of Kings in September as part of a residency collaboration between five UNESCO Cities of Literature: Krakow, Barcelona, Quebec, Bucheon and Norwich. During her stay, she will work on a new literary project

Emily Barr wrote eight young adult novels. The latest – The Other Girl was released in May this year. Her first young adult book, The One Memory of Flora Banks, has been translated into 27 languages, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted for the YA Book Prize. She wrote twelve novels and two science fiction books under the pen name Evie Green. She is currently working on two new novels and exploring the world of screenwriting.

During the residency, she will be working on a new literary project. She will receive a stipend of 6,000 PLN gross paid in instalments during and after her stay. All flight and accommodation costs will be reimbursed.

The programme has writers and translators from Kraków, Barcelona, Norwich, Quebec and Bucheon taking alternating residencies in the five cities. This year, the Norwich-based artist will come to Krakow.

During the fifth edition of the programme, young literary translators from Norwegian, Italian, Arabic and Catalan into Polish will be able to hone their skills.

The invited translators will work individually for six months, starting on 1 January to 30 June 2026, on a translation from a foreign language into Polish under the guidance of an experienced translator.

In the upcoming edition of the Translatorium, the list of mentors features Karolina Drozdowska (Norwegian), Tomasz Kwiecień (Italian), Hanna Jankowska (Arabic) and Anna Sawicka (Catalan).

Scope of the programme:

1. Individual work with a mentor on a specific text which has not been translated before. Consultations can take place in person and on-line, on a schedule agreed with the mentor – approximately 5-10 hours per month.

2. Understanding the market and the environment. A weekend class organised by the Jagiellonian University Translation Studies Centre and the Association of Literary Translators on taking the first steps in the literary translation market, the inner workings of the market and the basics of copyright law for translators.

The programme should result in a text which is approximately 25 pages long. The details of each project will be discussed by the mentors and their mentees.

Submit your applications and questions about the programme to:

The Translatorium mentoring programme is organised by: Krakow Festival Office – operator of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature programme and partners: Jagiellonian University Translation Studies Centre, Association of Literary Translators, NORLA, an official institution of the Norwegian Ministry of Culture, and the Italian Cultural Institute in Krakow.

The writer published her debut prose novel Я и есть революция [‘I am the Revolution’] (Пфляўмбаўм) in 2021. She left for Ukraine in the same year and moved to Poland in May 2024. She is currently working on an auto-fiction novel about the experience of forced emigration and exile and life in a frontline city. In her texts, she explores themes of trauma, loss, emigration, political resistance, loneliness and interpersonal relationships.

The matron of the residence is Janina Katz (1939-2013), a Krakow-based writer, poet and translator. In 1969, she was forced to leave Poland in an aftermath of an anti-Semitic campaign. She spent the rest of her life in Copenhagen. She has won many prestigious literary awards in Denmark. She has translated works by Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, Sławomir Mrożek and other artists into Danish.

The Janina Katz residency programme is held under the patronage of the municipal project Krakowianki, Open Krakow and Krakow for Equality. The initiative is part of Kraków UNESCO City of Literature’s year-long programme of literary residencies.

The slogan of this year’s Miłosz Festival is the title of one of the Nobel Prize winner’s most poignant late poems – TO’, says Szymon Kloska, curator of the event. The poem is the old poet’s confession of helplessness in the face of an encounter with inevitable evil. This evil appears to be an inalienable part of our experience. The question intrinsic to the poem is whether the awareness of the presence of what the poet does not dare name is in fact a source of power or hope.

Festival opening: Romana Bobrowska Studio S-5 and Villa Decius

As a prelude to the festival, we will meet on 28 June at the Krakow branch of the Association of Polish Writers for the Second Night of the mega Zine – a poetry competition and real-time editing of a one-day-only book and almanac of the poetry festival in the Royal City. Romana Bobrowska Studio S-5 will host the Polish Poets concert by Adam Ziemianin, broadcast by Radio Krakow. Sunday’s events (29 June) will take place at Villa Decius. The programme of the day features meetings with poets – Dagmara Kraus from Germany and Krzysztof Lisowski, as well as a discussion around Czesław Miłosz’s volume TOand the traces of the Nobel Prize winner’s works in recent poetry. The day will conclude with a debate with the nominees for the Wisława Szymborska Award: Urszula Honek, Stanisław Kalina Jaglarz, Ola Lewandowska, Antonina Tosiek and Joanna Żabnicka.

International guests

Versopolis, a network of nearly 40 European literary festivals which supports young poets and promotes their work beyond the borders of their home countries, will leave a mark on this year’s poetry festival in Krakow. As part of our collaboration, we will host renowned spoken word performer Joelle Taylor, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and Polari Book Prize, and Montenegrin poet Vladimir Đurišić. The festival audiences will also encounter Harry Josephine Giles, whose volume Tonguit was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, and Penny Boxall, a scholarship holder of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature International Residency Programme. The poet has been working on her performance Replaying the Tape during her stay in Kraków, and Polish viewers will see its premiere at the Miłosz Festival.

We will also be joined by Ukrainian LitAkcent Award-winning poet Myroslav Laiuk, who will talk about his book Bakhmut with reports from the frontline in Ukraine, Wayne Miller

(United States), winner of numerous awards and scholarships, and translator Viktor Melnyk, author of the first translation of Juliusz Słowacki’s drama Kordian into Ukrainian. Latvian poet and visual artist Yelena Glazova will talk about her reissued volume Weź swą gębę w garść, lesie and invite readers to an audiovisual show.

Polish poetry is doing well

Every year, the festival features key Polish poets, whose works continue to garner attention. This time, we will invite Małgorzata Lebda, winner of the most important and prestigious awards, including the Gdynia Literary Prize, the Wisława Szymborska Award and the ORPHEUS Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Poetry Award for for the best volume of the year. Our readers will also get an opportunity to meet Darek Foks, writer, filmmaker and visual artist, Kasper Pfeifer, poet and scholarship holder of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists, and Krzysztof Czyżewski, writer, director and animator of intercultural activities, co-founder of the Borderland Foundation, who will also present a traditional master class during the festival.

This year brings a number of long-awaited releases, some of which will be available for the first time at the Miłosz Festival. The attendees will meet Jakub Gutkowski, winner of the KMLU Award for the livestream volume, as well as Krzysztof Pietrala, who will talk about his Ao Manao.

Of course, we could not skip the much-loved Republica Poetica, where festival guests read poems in several different languages, as well as the traditional talks on poetry, including the works of Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska and Krystyna Miłobędzka.

The Many Facets of Poetry – for children, music aficionados and theatre lovers

The organisers of the Miłosz Festival made sure to prepare a variety of events, including poetry workshops for children and youth, the Drama in Three Poetic Acts performance, concerts and audiovisual shows. Festival participants will also talk about the Emultipoetry project, which brought Poems on Walls,, they will listen to poets battling it out during Open Mic-style meetings, and will visit Radio Krakow at the anniversary celebration with Elżbieta Zechenter-Spławińska. But that is not all – the final treat, a concert of poetry by Ryszard Krynicki, comes at the end.

Awards and winners

As always, the Wisława Szymborska Award will be presented during the festival. Readers will meet the nominees, and on the day after the award gala they will come for a special meeting with the winner. We will also talk to the nominees for the Gdynia Literary Award in the Poetry category.

Admission to all events is free of charge with a complimentary pass available two weeks before the festival at and via the KBF: PLUS app. The event programme is available at . The festival centre will be located at the Potocki Palace. Make sure to check out the festival’s social media pages [LINK].

The Miłosz Festival is organised by: City of Kraków, Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature programme, and the Association of Polish Writers

Partners: British Council, Versopolis, Wisława Szymborska Foundation, Wisława Szymborska Award, Villa Decius Institute for Culture

The event is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Promoting Readership 2025 programme.

The public task is funded by the City of Kraków.

The KBF is a municipal cultural institution that has been active for nearly thirty years, developing creative industries, cultural tourism, the MICE industry and leisure sectors. It focuses on literature, film, music, visual arts, tourism, local initiatives and education. It organises and promotes large-scale cultural events with local, national and international scope, including the Misteria Paschalia Festival, Kraków Film Music Festival, Conrad Festival, Wianki – Celebration of Music and a number of other world-famous festival brands. The KBF is also one of the hosts of the Potocki Palace, publisher of a number of magazines and operator of the Krakow Culture, Krakow — UNESCO City of Literature and Krakow Film Commission programmes.