The 26th Vilenica International Literary Festival, organized by the Slovene Writers´ Associationand the Vilenica Cultural Society will be held from 7 to 11 September. On the evenings before the Festival, with events in Ljubljana, Koper, Celje, Maribor, Gorizia (Italy), Sežana, Bilje and Trieste, as well as during the regular and accompanying programme in Lipica, Štanjel, Sežana, Lokev, and in the Vilenica Cave, the Festival will play host to approximately 30 authors from more than 20 countries; in addition, there will be a number of academics, editors, publishers and cultural mediators from Central European and other countries.
A special place at the Festival is held by both the recipient of the Vilenica International LiteraryPrize and the spotlight on the Slovene author. Besides the grand Vilenica prize we will present, at the Štanjel matinee, the Crystal Vilenica for the best contribution to the Vilenica Almanac; we will also present the winners of the Young Vilenica, which will be awarded by the Vilenica Cultural Society. In cooperation with the Central European Initiative, for the fifth time in a row, a young author will receive a CEI Writers-in-Residence Award.
The theoretical component will revolve around the motto Read Me Live! The theme will be held under the microscope during the CEI round table and the 9th International Comparative Literature colloquium.
Literature from Turkey will be in the foreground and presented within the framework of the project “Lesser-Known Literatures of Europe at Vilenica.” Authors’ visits will be accompanied by the publication of an anthology entitled İstanbul Türküsü (Listening to Istanbul) – already the sixth in the Vilenica Anthology series.
This year’s Festival, and the joint project of four European festivals supported by the European Commission (Culture Programme 2007-2013), will be accompanied by launching a live literature webpage, Read Me Live.