All Set for Jubilee Vilenica Literary Festival
All is set for the launch of the 20th jubilee Vilenica international writers' gathering at Lipica, home of the famous Lipizzaner horses in southwestern Slovenia. The festival, named after a Karst cave near Lipica, will take place between 7 and 11 September, the organisers said on Tuesday.
While Lipica will provide the main venue for the festival, the participants will also be welcomed in other places in Slovenia, including the western town of Nova Gorica and Slovenia's capital Ljubljana, the festival's programme director Miljana Cunta said.
The central event will take place in the Karst cave of Vilenica, where on 10 September the 2005 Vilenica Award will be given to Ilma Rakusa of Switzerland and Karl-Markus Gauss of Austria. The jury selected two laureates for the first time to mark the 20th jubilee of the writers' meeting.
Rakusa, whose oeuvre is extensive and includes poems, translations and essays, has received a number of international awards for her work. She translates from French, Russian and Hungarian, while she has also translated Yugoslavian author Danilo Kis.
An author and literary theorist, Gauss has also received numerous awards for his work, which has been translated into 14 languages. Since 1991 he has published and edited the magazine "Literatur und Kritik". He also writes for a number of other Austrian magazines and papers.
The Vilenica Award has previously been bestowed on authors Fulvio Tomizza, Peter Handke, Milan Kundera, Josip Osti, Pavel Vilikovski, Erica Pedretti, Ana Blandiana, Mirko Kovac and Brigitte Kronauer, among others.
At the ceremony, the Crystal Vilenica Award will also be given to an author featured in the Vilenica Almanac, who will be selected by the guests of the festival. Former Crystal Vilenica winners include authors Nicole Mueller, Kaca Celan, Ales Debeljak, Dubravka Ugresic and Gregor Strnisa.
Vilenica, organised by the Association of Slovenian Writers (DSP) and the Vilenica Culture Association, is famous for numerous literature readings, debates and presentations. This year these will feature around 30 authors from 23 European countries.
The festival will officially be opened by one of the founders of Vilenica, poet and translator Veno Taufer. He is to hold a debate with poet Ivo Svetina, this year's winner of the Veronika Award for the best collection of poems, Cunta said.
According to Cunta, the centrepiece of this year's Vilenica will be reflections on the social and cultural diversity in Europe, focusing on Central Europe. The main round table, hosted by author and academic Ales Debeljak, will also follow this concept.
At the round table "Crossroads of Literature: East and West", representatives of foreign culture centres in Slovenia will talk about the promotion of their country's literature in the world. The featured centres include the Charles Nodier French Cultural Institute, Goethe Institute and the British Council.
For the third time, Vilenica will also host the International Comparative Literature Colloquium, organised by the Slovenian Association for Comparative Literature. This time, the participants will discuss hybrids in literature and the dialogue between theory and literature.
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