Vilenica International Literary Festival

Infobox Venue

History

Launched in 1986, the Vilenica International Writers' Gathering is an independent event organised jointly by the Slovene Writers’ Association and the KUD Vilenica Art Society. It originated in 1980 with literary meetings organised by Sežana Municipality in the karst caves of Vilenica. The first international meeting in 1986 was organised by the Slovene Writers' Association and Veno Taufer, and this later developed into today's important Central European event which hosts more than 100 guests every year.

From the first Vilenica International Literary Prize in 1986 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 Sežana Municipality, 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.

Venue, Branch

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.

Programme

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.

International cooperation

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. In that year too a new € 5,000 CEI fellowship for writers in residence was awarded for the first time. Its first recipient in 2006, Macedonia's Goce Smilevski spent three months in the CEI member state of his choice (Slovenia) completing a writing project. 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.

See also

Vilenica International Literary Award