Vilenica International Literary Festival

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Mednarodni literarni festival Vilenica

Vilenica International Writers’ Gathering, Društvo slovenskih pisateljev, Tomšičeva 12, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://www.vilenica.si

dsp@drustvo-dsp.si

Phone386 (0) 1 251 4144

Founded bySlovene Writers’ Association

Organised bySlovene Writers’ Association, KUD Vilenica Art Society

Maja Kavzar, Assistant

maja.kavzar@vilenica.si

The first Vilenica International Writers’ Gathering was organised in 1986 by the Slovene Writers' Association and Veno Taufer, though it has originated in 1980 with literary meetings organised by Municipality of Sežana in the karst caves of Vilenica. Later the event has developed into an important Central European event which hosts more than 100 guests every year.

History

From the first Vilenica gathering until today, over 1,500 guests from more than 50 countries have participated in the event. Many of them have been writers and essayists, as well as translators, editors, journalists, philosophers, publishers and others who are interested either privately or professionally in the literature of the Central European countries and the works they produce. Thoroughly Central European from the outset, the Vilenica Gathering has developed from the early days when it strove for political freedom to a 21st-century event involved in the resistance against linguistic and cultural uniformity in Europe.

In organising this event, the Slovene Writers’ Association and the KUD Vilenica Art Society co-operate with various organisations including Municipality of Sežana, Kosovel Culture House Sežana, the Sežana Caving Association, the Lokev Community Council and the Tourist Association of Štanjel.

The Vilenica International Writers' Gathering is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia, the Central European Initiative (CEI), Sežana Municipality and private sponsors.

Programme

The highlight of the event is the Vilenica International Literary Awards ceremony. In 2006 the Vilenica Grand Prix was conferred on Serbian poet Miodrag Pavlović, while Slovene writer Mojca Kumerdej received a Vilenica Crystal for best short story. The motto of Vilenica 2007 was 'Who is afraid of the truth of literature?' and the festival opened with the leading Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. Next to the CEI Round Table, the 5th International Comparative Literature Colloquium took place there. The Vilenica Grand Prix went to Goran Stefanovski. In a bid to promote lesser-known literatures, the 2006 Vilenica Gathering featured a panel on Basque literature entitled 'To Write in Euskera: the Basque Language, Today and Tomorrow', and the organisers also published the first Vilenica Anthology, dedicated on this occasion to contemporary Basque literature. Another panel scrutinised the historic, political and literary dimensions of relations between neighbours. Entitled 'Who Can Hear One's Neighbour's Story?', the debate, sponsored by the Central European Initiative (CEI), pointed to the need for self-criticism.

The CEI Fellowship for Writers in Residence

The Central European Initiative Fellowship of € 5,000 is addressed to young writers from 18 CEI Member States and is intended to be used for a three-month residence in any CEI Member State of the candidate’s choice. In 2006 its first recipient was Goce Smilevski (Macedonia) who spent three months in Slovenia and Italy, completing a writing project. In 2007 a poet, writer, translator and literary critic Marianna Kiyanovska from Lviv (Ukraine) was awarded the fellowship, while in 2008 the grant was bestowed to a story and essay writer Ivana Sajko (Croatia), and in 2009 to the Serbian author Dragan Radovančević. The Fellowship international jury selects three shortlisted applications. The candidates are guests of the Vilenica festival when the fellowship winner is announced at one of the festival events.

Publishing

The Vilenica Almanac presents the programme of the event together with a list of all participants, information about the Vilenica International Literary Award winners and extracts from their work, a selection of poetry or prose by authors invited to the event (published in the original language, in Slovene and in one of the major languages) and a survey of how the Gathering has developed since the earliest days. A book of work by the previous year's winner translated into the Slovene language is presented at Štanjel Castle.

Venues

Next to literary meetings organised in the karst caves of Vilenica various readings and other events now take place at different locations in the Karst region, in Lipica, in the old church in the village of Lokev; in the Kosovel Cultural House at Sežana; in the medieval castle of Štanjel and in Ljubljana Castle.

See also

• Vilenica International Literary Awards
• KUD Vilenica Art Society

External links

• Vilenica International Writers' Gathering website (in English)
• Vilenica 2001 poetry readings video archive on VideoLectures.Net
• Central European Initiative Fellowship information