Sharing the Wor(l)d

The Vilenica festival has been successful at obtaining project funds from the Creative Europe 2014-2020 programme initiative. In 2014 the Vilenica festival successfully applied for EU funds with the Sharing the Wor(l)d project – a collaborative project with the renowned Irish Cúirt Festival (managed by the Galway Arts Centre) and the Croatian Festival of World Literature (Fraktura publishing house), revealing the importance and the quality of the festival that is proven again and again both domestically and internationally.

The two-year project generated EU funds in the amount of approximately 200,000 EUR. This will enable us to continue to leave a mark in the international realm and plan additional activities, such as residencies for writers, a festival guest exchange, “kitchen readings”, a travelling book exhibition, residencies for young domestic and foreign critics, live broadcasts of domestic literary readings to partner festivals, art exhibitions, literary interviews, round tables, concerts, and various programmes for children and young adults.

The Vilenica Festival also collaborates with the Litterae Slovenicae project – a book series published by the Slovene Writers’ Association (Društvo slovenskih pisateljev, DSP/SWA). In May 1963, the SWA released the first issue of the magazine Le Livre Slovène. This was a response to the need expressed by the Slovene PEN Centre, the Slovene Association of Literary Translators, and the SWA itself to independently present Slovene literature, literary life, and Slovene culture as a whole to international audiences. Over 45 years, 85 editions were published, comprising 108 issues. Initially, the magazine published texts primarily in French, largely also in German, and occasionally in English. The 1970s saw the first publications in Italian and Russian, while Spanish was added in the 1980s. In 1991, the magazine was renamed Litterae Slovenicae.