For authors, it can be the ticket to a great career; for readers, it can guarantee a satisfying read. Authenticity in literature is the theme of this year's Conrad Festival. ‘Some try to fabricate it, but mostly without success. ...is a rare good but also the most desirable one. We may not be able to define it precisely, but sometimes it can be captured on the fly. This autumn we will look for authenticity not only in fact-based literature but also in fiction or even in pure fiction,’ declares Olga Drenda, creative director of the festival. We will trace the signposts together with writers from around the world. Lauren Groff will talk about the experience of living in contact with both beautiful and terrifying nature, Karl Ove Knausgard will ask a question about the limits of the real in the fictional stories described by him, Cheon Myeong-kwan will demonstrate the power of the fairy-tale convention exposing the problems of contemporary societies, and Claudia Pineiro will reflect on genre prose as a critical tool towards the reality around us. The Malopolska Garden of Art will also feature Sebastian Barry, Lars Saabye Christensen, Claudia Durastanti, Andrei Kurkov, Antoine Sénanque, Adania Shibli, Tatiana Țîbuleac or Eliot Weinberger. Conversations with Polish filmmakers will be an important highlight of the festival. We will once again host Olga Tokarczuk, who will talk about authenticity in non-literal prose full of metaphors and symbols. We will also meet Kalina Błażejowska, Andrzej Stasiuk or Natalia Fiedorczuk and Eliza Kącka, discuss being a reporter (Beata Chomątowska, Artur Domosławski and Radosław Wiśniewski), the authenticity of making things up (Adam Kaczanowski, Barbara Sadurska and Natalka Suszczyńska) and describing the present (Jul Łyskawa, Jacek Paśnik and Dominika Słowik), and we will immerse ourselves in reading as part of the Reading Lesson with Katarzyna Kubisiowska or Marek Rabij. The program contains many more items: Conrad’s Inferno – a lecture by Michał Komar, events for children, a film stream at the Pod Baranami cinema, the New Woman. (NON)New Reality. Lotte Laserstein exhibition at the Nuremberg House, literary meetings at the Cervantes Institute and the Goethe-Institut Krakau, the Book Congress... The Conrad Prize for the best prose debut will also be granted for the 10th time.

„Karnet” 10/2024

For more information about the main program and accompanying events, see HERE