LIT-DATING: Programme for Literary Mediators

The programme’s aim is to connect Slovenian and foreign translators, publishers and literary promoters in order to stimulate even more lively exchange between European languages and Slovenian literature and thus enable the way for the latter to access into the major and smaller literary markets, where it is, despite its high quality, less present. Festival Vilenica, with its distinguished place among European festivals, helps establishing links between foreign publishers, literary agents, Slovenian authors and publishers.

In the spirit of this year’s Czech focus, we decided to give priority to inviting translators, publishers and organizers of literary events from the Czech Republic.

Lenka Kuhar Daňhelová

Lenka Kuhar Daňhelová: Photo © Ewa Kotarbińska

Lenka Kuhar Daňhelová (1973) is a poet, prose writer, publicist and translator. She published the novel Cizinci (2004; Foreigners) and several collections of poetry, most recently Hořem (2014; Through suffering) and Jaka neśmrnost? (2020; What Immortality?). She has translated more than twenty books of contemporary poetry, prose and non-fiction from Polish and Slovenian into Czech. She is the founder of the author’s association Stranou/Aside, which has been organizing the European Poets Live International Festival since 2008.

Aleš Kozár

Aleš Kozár: Photo © Jitka Hanušová

Aleš Kozár (1975) is translator and a literary historian. He studied bohemistics and slovenistics at Charles University in Prague. He translated many prominent Slovenian authors into Czech language, e.g. Lojze Kovačič (Zgodbe s panjskih končnic, Kristalni čas), Goran Vojnović (Čefurji raus!, Moja Jugoslavija), Boris Pahor (Nekropola), and Drago Jančar (In ljubezen tudi). He also writes poetry and short stories.

Petr Minařík
Petr Minařík (1975) is a Czech publisher, screenwriter, cultural organizer and journalist. In 1995, together with Pavlo Řehořík, he founded the publishing house Větrné mlýny, which initially focused on theatre literature, but gradually also began to publish Czech and translated fiction and poetry, audio books and the literary magazine Rozrazil. In 2000, he founded the festival Měsíc autorského čtení (Month of Author’s Reading). The festival traditionally takes place in July, in the Husa na Provázko theater in Brno, where one Czech writer and one writer from the visiting country read every evening. The festival gradually became the largest literary event of its kind in Central Europe and spread to other cities in the Czech Republic and abroad (Ostrava, Bratislava, Košice, Lviv, Wroclaw). Minařík is a long-time employee of Czech television. He is the author, co-writer and director of several documentaries. Between 2012 and 2022, he also wrote the column Minaříkův týden (Minařík’s week) as part of the weekend weekly Týden v regionech (Brno). He publishes his articles in numerous Czech printed and online publications.