All events are free and provided with a simultaneous translation into Polish
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Saturday, 22 February
7:00 p.m.
Venue: National Museum in Kraków
Al. 3 Maja 1,
Kraków 30-062 Poland
Concert
Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble Kraków in co-production with the 10th international literature festival odesa as part of the “Interactions Series” concert series.
Piotr Peszat – “Untitled Folder #4” for sampler, percussion, saxophone, and cello
Piotr Peszat – “Real Life Proof” for clarinet, percussion, piano, and violin
Daniel Glaus (*1957) “Sing against the breaking night”
For female voice and instrumental ensemble
World premiere
Christina Daletska, voice
Spółdzielnia Muzyczna Contemporary Ensemble Kraków: Małgorzata Mikulska – flute; Tomasz Sowa – clarinet; Krzysztof Guńka – saxophone; Paulina Woś – violin; Barbara Mglej – viola; Jakub Gucik – cello; Aleksandra Płaczek – piano; Aleksander Wnuk – percussion
“How am I supposed to write a score of forgiveness after hearing the table songs of murderers?” (S. Zhadan)
The Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko, Lesya Ukrainka, Tania Maliarchuk, and Serhiy Zhadan and the Romanian-German poets Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger and Paul Celan provided inspiration for the Swiss composer’s work. He was particularly impressed by the unshakeable hope and confidence that manifests itself in their texts – despite all the repression and destruction by the Russian army – and leads, or may lead, to a great will to persevere. The composition is characterized by a preoccupation with the painful, ancient history of the country and the tension created by the constantly changing occupying powers.
The instruments of the ensemble and the voice of the soloist merge into a constantly changing soundscape. The compositional work on this piece is characterized by an exploration of the parameters of approach and distance: a large-scale heterophony in which the instruments more or less follow the voice. Rapid, multi-tonal appoggiaturas use echo effects to create a chordal level in addition to the linear weave, which in turn is characterized by a differentiation and metamorphosis of timbral shades, and thus opens up wide sound spaces.
Selected poems from the volume »Skrypnykivka« (Chernivtsi, 2023) by Serhiy Zhadan serve as the textual basis, forming a superficial layer. As a background, the composer has put together a collage of text fragments from the aforementioned authors and names of people killed in the war.
The composer dedicates his work to all the victims of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law.
Monday, 24 February
11:00 a.m.
Venue: Pałac Potockich
Rynek Główny 20
31-005 Kraków, Poland
Welcome: Hans Ruprecht [Switzerland] and Ulrich Schreiber [Germany], festival directors, and Szymon Kloska [Poland] from KBF and the Conrad Festival
Opening speech by Marko Martin [Germany]: Notes on communication between Western and Eastern Europe in times of war
A formulation by Czesław Miłosz about the difference between Eastern and Western
intellectuals serves as a jumping-off point for writer Marko Martin, who delves into the
question of why certain warning signs from the east of the continent were ignored. Instead of hammering home a culturally pessimistic philosophy of doom, however, Martin sheds light on a web of keen minds – from Miłosz and Václav Havel to Serhiy Zhadan – for whom the rupture and fragility of democracies is not the exception, but the rule. Today, these Eastern European experiences are absolutely essential in counteracting the authoritarian temptation now spreading even in the West.
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Language: English, Polish
3:00 p.m.
Reading on the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of the war
Ukrainian authors Yuri Andrukhovych and Andrey Kurkov, as well as Francesca Melandri will read texts by poets killed in the war, including Volodymyr Vakulenko, Maksym Kryvtsov, and Victoria Amelina.
The festival will be providing financial support to the initiative of the Ukrainian poet Ilya Kaminsky and others, who founded the NGO Poems Not Bombs in Odesa. Through the 2023 foundation of their poetry studio in Odesa, they have set themselves the goal of encouraging children’s curiosity and creativity by organizing writing workshops and poetry reading sessions. Their website is www.poemsnotbombs.org, and the project can be supported with donations directly via PayPal: Eveningodesa@gmail.com
Moderation: Ulrich Schreiber
Language: Ukrainian, Polish, English
4:30 p.m.
Andriy Kurkov [Ukraine]: Texts on War
February 2022: The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine begins. Three years later, the people of that country are still under attack and have suffered unspeakable crimes and losses. How to carry on and keep fighting when everything has changed, and there’s no end to the war in sight? Andriy Kurkov’s journalistic texts, notes, and diary entries show how the war is becoming more and more integrated into people’s everyday lives.
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Language: English, Polish
6:00 p.m.
Andrzej Stasiuk [Poland] and Yuri Andrukhovych [Ukraine]
Twenty years ago, Yuri Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk published two essays on Central Europe, a literary double portrait of a landscape that they had travelled through together. Travelling on foot and by car between the Beskids and Bukovina, through Polish, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, and Ukrainian territory, they – ethnographers, map readers, reporters, and poets all at once – created a new terrain: literary Central Europe. While Andrukhovych discovers fragments of a sunken world in the ruins of former Galicia and tells a “family saga”, Stasiuk appears as a surveyor obsessed with perception and gifted with a magical eye. What remains of the discovery of this Europe after two decades?
Moderation: Ziemowit Szczerek
Language: English, Polish
7:30 p.m.
Francesca Melandri [Italy]: »Cold Feet«
What does war mean? And what happens if you fight on the wrong side? Francesca Melandri tells the story of her own father – and gives voice to the silence of an entire generation. In the winter of 1942/43, Italian soldiers fled from the Red Army in shoes with cardboard soles. Thousands of them froze to death. It is only when images and sites of war in Ukraine become omnipresent at the start of 2022 that it becomes clear that it was above all Ukraine where her father had been. What did he really experience there; why was he there at all?
“Francesca Melandri masterfully interweaves human destinies with the great history of Europe.” – Andriy Kurkov
Moderation: Andriy Kurkov
Language: English, Polish
9:00 p.m.
Judith Hermann [Germany]: The Frankfurt Poetry Lectures and »Summerhouse, Later«
In the Frankfurt Poetry Lectures, Judith Hermann talks about her childhood in unconventional circumstances, about divided Berlin, family ties and elective affinities, and long, happy summers by the sea. She reflects on the construction of narratives and questions the reliability of memory. She will read the story “Red corals” from the book that established her success, »Summerhouse, Later«.
Moderation: Hans Ruprecht
Language: German, Polish
Tuesday, 25 February
3:00 p.m.
J. S Margot [Belgium]: »Mazzel tov« and »Minjan«
For six years, student Margot accompanies the children of the Jewish Orthodox Schneider family: She gives tutoring and cycling lessons, comforts them in crisis situations, and always has a sympathetic ear. Through her close contact with daughter Elzira and son Jakov in particular, Margot gains ever deeper insights into a closed world whose strict commandments and centuries-old traditions fascinate and alienate her at the same time. Even when the children leave home, she remains deeply attached to the family.
In »Minjan« (tr: Minyan), J. S. Margot talks about the encounters she had in the Orthodox Jewish community after the publication of her book »Mazzel tov«: Mosje the cook from Hoffy’s in Antwerp, the photographer Dan, Esther, the quirky, Hasidic mame who defends the necessity of taboos and argues with Margot about ultra-Orthodox upbringing and schooling.
Moderation: Olga Szmidt
Language: English, Polish
4:30 p.m.
Jeroen Theunissen [Belgium] »I, Cartographer«
In 2017, the author set off on a six-month hike from the southwest of Ireland to the Bosporus. He was following in the footsteps of the Briton Patrick Leigh Fermor, who travelled on foot from Holland to Constantinople in 1933, crossing Europe. The Europe that Theunissen travels through is struggling with many problems: climate change, nationalism, and the refugee crisis. »I, Cartographer« is many books in one: a report on a long journey and an attempt to understand our world. In »I, Cartographer«, Theunissen draws a personal map of Europe.
Moderation: Wolfgang Martin Roth
Language: English, Polish
6:00 p.m.
Adam Michnik [Poland], Marcus Welsch [Germany], Marko Martin [Germany]: On European East-West relations
Adam Michnik, Marcus Welsch, and Marko Martin discuss European East-West relations, how they developed historically – especially after Charter 77 and the Solidarność movement in 1980 – and how they see the present. They also look at the future of these relations in view of the political upheavals since the occupation of Crimea and the war perpetuated by Russia in Ukraine since February 2022, as well as since October 7, 2023.
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Language: English, Polish
7:30 p.m.
Robert Menasse [Austria]: On Europe
Robert Menasse explains and defends the European idea, but also calls on us to criticize and overcome the systemic contradictions of the Union. The alternative we face is not complicated: Either we succeed in what is historically unique, namely, the construction of a post-national democracy, or we are threatened with a relapse into the Europe of nation states. In many member states, politicians who no longer (want to) learn from the experiences of the founders are stirring up a new nationalism. Today, Europe is once again at a crossroads. What will the world of tomorrow look like?
Moderation: Wolfgang Martin Roth
Language: English, Polish
9:00 p.m.
Andrzej Stasiuk [Poland]: »Crossing«
June 1941, a few days before the Wehrmacht invades the Soviet Union. An escape to Russia is underway, shaped by the dreamy, nocturnal river landscape. Now, it seems strange and threatening, as motorcycles, trucks, and tanks roll through it, and German words buzz through the air. Back in that village, at the end of his life, the narrator’s father can no longer remember being a child here.
Moderation: Michal Koza
Language: Polish
Wednesday, 26 February
3:00 p.m.
Urszula Honek [Poland]: »White Nights«
The talk with Urszula Honek will focus on her prose debut, »White Nights« (2022). With these thirteen stories, which are linked by a thematic arc, the award-winning poet has created a vibrantly poetic portrait of people in a sleepy village on the edge of the Beskid Mountains. The question of where she finds the strength for her quiet contemplation in the face of the world’s turbulent events will be one of the topics of the evening.
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Language: Polish
4:30 p.m.
Radu Vancu [Romania]: »Kaddish«
Radu Vancu’s poetry collection »Kaddish« is based on a true and shocking story: The young poet Miklós Radnóti was killed by the Nazis and thrown into a mass grave. After the end of the war, his widow, Fanni Gyarmati, salvaged his corpse from the mass grave and found a diary in his breast pocket that contained his final poems, soaked through by his rotting body. She rescued the poems – literally bringing them back from the grave. »Kaddish« is a long poem about memory, about death and life.
Moderation: Jakub Kornhauser
Language: Romanian, Polish
6:00 p.m.
Sofia Andrukhovych [Ukraine]: »Amadoka«
In her trilogy »Amadoka«, the author interweaves past and present in a Ukrainian family story, from the 1920s to the present day. The title of the trilogy, »Amadoka«, refers to the largest lake in Europe, which is said to have existed on the territory of Ukraine in the Middle Ages. In »The Story of Sofia«, the concluding volume, Andrukhovych brings together all the threads of the trilogy and shows that we can only understand Ukraine’s present if we know its history.
Moderation: Katarzyna Trzeciak
Language: English, Polish
8:00 p.m.
Poetry Night
Tomas Venclova [Lithuania], Kristiina Ehin [Estonia], Urszula Honek [Poland]
Tomas Venclova (*1937, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian poet, writer, and translator and was a founding member of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. After teaching in the USA and Europe, he now lives in Vilnius once again. He will read his poems in Lithuanian.
Kristiina Ehin (*1977, Estonia) is a poet, translator, singer, and songwriter. She represented Estonia at the satellite event of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. From 2015 to 2016, Ehin was Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of Tartu. She will read from her book »Planeta pożeraczy serc«.
Urszula Honek (*1987, Poland) The young, multi-award-winning poet published her first collection of stories (»White Nights«) in 2022.
Language: Lithuanian, Estonian, English, Polish
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Thursday, 27 February
3:00 p.m.
Klementyna Suchanow [Poland]: On Freedom and War
Russia is not only inundating Ukraine with murderous attacks. It is waging an insidious, hybrid war against the entire democratic West. The full extent of this war is only gradually being recognized. Klementyna Suchanow, author of a biography on Gombrowicz and an expert on Latin America, uncovers the surprising connections between arch-Catholic sects and Russian agents in Poland in her book »To jest wojna« (Eng. »This Is War«, 2023). What prospects does the fight against infiltration have, and who should lead it? Are freedom and democracy still effective forces against the authoritarian movements gaining strength around the world?
Moderation: Olaf Kühl
Language: Polish
4:30 p.m.
Santiago Roncagliolo [Peru/Spain]: »The Year the Devil Was Born«
Viceroyalty of Peru, 1623. In a city full of crime and corruption, plagued by bad omens and uncertain winds, Alonso Morales, a novice of the Holy Office, witnesses the arrival of evil and discovers how difficult it can be to distinguish between good and evil. In his novel, Santiago Roncagliolo brings a dark era full of intrigue and the ghosts of superstition and idolatry to life.
Moderation: Pieter van Os
Language: Spanish, Polish
6:00 p.m.
Anna Weidenholzer [Austria]: »Here Drifts My Potato Heart«
Anna Weidenholzer’s second novel, »Der Winter tut den Fischen gut« (tr: Winter is Good for the Fish), was nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. In her new collection of stories, »Hier treibt mein Kartoffelherz« (tr: Here Drifts My Potato Heart), she paints the picture of an illustrious society with masterful strokes. In it, the certainties of everyday life gradually threaten to slip away and begin to settle into small, absurd moments full of humour and poetry.
Moderation: Hans Ruprecht
Language: German, Polish
7:30 p.m.
Mina Hava [Switzerland]: »For Seka«
»For Seka« is Mina Hava’s debut novel, published in 2023 (Suhrkamp). In her novel, the young author explores the history of her Bosnian family and draws on her own research into people in the diaspora and their reception abroad. The newspaper »Neue Zürcher Zeitung« writes: “What is true in Mina Hava’s debut novel is the frantic standstill of fear. […] Anyone who writes like this can write about anything.”
Moderation: Hans Ruprecht
Language: German, Polish
9:00 p.m.
Mariann Bühler [Switzerland]: »Shift in the Rock«
In her debut novel, »Shift in the Rock«, the Swiss author tells the story of three characters who know nothing about each other, but whose lives gradually become intertwined. In her linguistically dense debut, Mariann Bühler observes how change finds its way, and shifts that were never intended sometimes even move mountains.
Moderation: Hans Ruprecht
Language: German, Polish
Friday, 28 February
4:30 p.m.
Pieter van Os [Netherlands] »Hiding in Plain Sight«
Polish Catholics thought she was one of them. A devoted Nazi family took her in as if she were their own daughter. She fell in love with a German engineer who built airplanes for the Luftwaffe. What nobody knew, however, was that Mala Rivka Kizel had been born into a large Polish Orthodox Jewish family in Warsaw in 1926. Thanks to a combination of luck and her exceptional chameleonic talents, she was the only member of her family to survive the Second World War. Mala’s story is one of identity and the meaning of it, in the past and today.
Moderaton: Wolfgang Martin Roth
Language: English, Polish
6:00 p.m.
Jakub Małecki [Poland]: »The Quake in Us«
Many authors of Poland’s middle generation are still dealing with the traumas of the last World War as well as the Soviet and German occupation. Jakub Małecki is one of them. In his new novel, »The Quake in Us«, he tells a story of intergenerational wounds and interweaves them with elements of magical realism, skilfully revolving around a family secret. What makes this author so popular with younger readers? Is it his narrative craft and the subliminal topicality of the historical subject matter? Or is it the fascination that family stories hold?
Moderation: Łukasz Wojtusik
Language: Polish
7:30 p.m.
Paavo Matsin [Estonia]: »Gogol’s Disco«
Europe in the near future: The newly founded Russian Tsarist Empire has forcibly annexed the entire Baltic region, wiping out every trace of Estonian culture in the process. Viljandi, a formerly tranquil town in the heart of Estonia, has become a gathering place for all kinds of bohemians and miscreants trying to escape the new tsarist empire.
One morning, master thief Konstantin Opiatovich robs a man on the tram who turns out to be the great Russian writer of Ukrainian descent Nikolai Gogol, back from the dead after some 170 years. Together with a bunch of dodgy yet charming petty criminals and thieves, Opiatovich tries to use the revenant for his own purposes – but Gogol refuses to go along with their plan and unleashes a nightmarish caper for his kidnappers that plunges the whole of Viljandi into chaos.
In »Gogol’s Disco«, cult author Paavo Matsin takes aim not only at the Estonians’ fear of their powerful neighbour, but also the torn relationship between Eastern and Western culture. With his anarchic humour and numerous references to the pop culture of the Beatles era, he succeeds in conjuring up an atmosphere in which this fear becomes tangible and at the same time is reduced to absurdity.
Moderation: Łukasz Wojtusik
Language: Estonian, English, Polish
9:00 p.m.
Open call by the international literature festival odesa for a worldwide reading of texts by imprisoned Algerian author Boualem Sansal on 6 April 2025
The Algerian author Boualem Sansal was arrested at Algiers Airport on 16 November 2024 on his return from France. Since then, there have been neither official reasons for the arrest nor any charges against him. The state-controlled Algerian media has renounced his attitude towards political and religious developments in Algeria as well as his statements on geopolitical issues, such as the country’s western border with Morocco and the Western Sahara conflict. The 75-year-old author, who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2011, the Grand Prix du Roman de l’Académie Française in 2015, and the Prix Méditerranée in 2021 for his novel »Abraham ou La cinquième Alliance« (tr: Abraham, or The Fifth Alliance), among others, could be sentenced to several years in prison. His latest novel, »Vivre: Le compte à rebours« (2024; tr: Life: The Countdown) tells facets of Algeria’s history against the backdrop of a global dystopia. Sansal made his debut with »Le serment des barbares« (1999; tr: The Oath of the Barbarians), which was celebrated by the local press for its playful use of the French language.
Despite his dismissal from the civil service in 2003 and the permanent observation that followed, the author lived with his family in Boumerdès, near Algiers. He published without the protection of a pseudonym and repeatedly intervened in current political debates. He continued to live in Algeria, even though his books were banned there at times, even though he repeatedly criticised the Algerian government and warned of the dangers of Islamism, and even though many of his colleagues had long since emigrated to Europe.
In order to emphasise international solidarity with the author and the demand for his immediate release, the international literature festival odesa and the signatories below are calling for a worldwide reading of his texts. The goal is for Boualem’s texts to be read in public spaces, on public transport, in parks, as well as in schools, universities, and theatres. Participants in the worldwide reading can freely choose the texts to be read. We suggest novels and articles in which Sansal intervenes in public debate.
Individuals and institutions who would like to participate with a reading on 6 April 2025 are requested to send us the following information by 30 March at the latest: organiser name, location, time, participating readers, event language, and a website link, if applicable.
Supported by
Anthony Appiah, USA
Sigrid Bousset, Belgium
Brian Castro, Australia
Jennifer Clement, USA/ Mexico
John M. Coetzee, South Africa/ Australia
Hemant Divate, India
Andrei Kurkov, Ukraine
Anthony Appiah, USA
Carmen Boullosa, Mexico
Stefan Hertmans, Belgium
Judith Hermann, Germany
Burghart Klaußner, Germany
Jakub Maleki, Poland
Marko Martin, Germany
Paavo Matsin, Estonia
Francesca Melandri, Italy
Kallia Papadaki, Greece
Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Ghana
David Van Reybrouck, Belgium
Janna Teller, Danmark
Jeroen Theunissen, Belgium
Stephan Thome, Germany
Ian Wedde, New Zealand
Anna Weidenholzer, Austria
Eliot Weinberger, USA
Yang Lian, China/ UK
Haris Vlavianos, Greece
Moderation: Ulrich Schreiber
Language: English, Polish
Saturday, 1 March
3.00 p.m. ( Kyiv time)
Venue: V. Vasylko Odesa Academic Music and Drama Theatre Pastera St, 15, Odesa, 65000, Ukraine
Valeriy Puzik [Ukraine] on literature during the war
As a soldier who was involved in the defence of the country from the first days of the war and whose entire book edition was burnt after a rocket attack on Kharkiv, Valeriy knows what it is like to create something when explosions can be heard nearby. How does the word transform into the sound of war? How does the word turn into the sound of war? Can literature be a weapon? The conversation with Valeriy Puzik, a writer, film director and artist, is an opportunity to hear first-hand stories and understand how art helps us to understand reality. We will talk about the role of the artist in war and the importance of literature in wartime. During his three years of service at the front, Valeriy was able to realise many artistic projects. He wrote several books, created paintings, photos and videos.
Moderation: Svitlana Bondar
Language: Ukrainian