Krakow UNESCO City of Literature hosts the 15th edition of Poetry Night at Potocki Palace

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