Literature Week of the Kaleidoscope of Culture takes place from 17 to 23 September at SPENS and other locations in Novi Sad, bringing almost a hundred events for all ages – theatre, music and, of course, literary programmes, book sales and exchange, literary evenings, public readings, conversations with authors and many others. This kind of literary festival will bring together the most significant regional and European names in the field of literature and other artistic practices that arise from literature.
The central event of the literature week is Booktown, a unique concept in this part of Europe that turns SPENS into heaven for the lovers of the written word. During the weekend, on 17 and 18 September, the Booktown will offer an answer to the question of why books are important to us through more than 50 programmes, many of which deviate from the established ways of literary promotions. Theatre plays, children’s operas and public readings for young and old, musical performances, literary debates and the fair programme will be followed by the audience at SPENS, on the Main Stage, Kadica Stage, and in the amphitheater of SPENS.
During Booktown, we will be able to enjoy the undiscovered skills of Voja Brajović and Zijah Sokolović who will read poetry and fairy tales to the youngest and most demanding audience. The legendary Voja Brajović will recite the verses of Mika Antić, Čika Jova Zmaj, Duško Radović, Brana Crnčević and other poets. One of the favourite regional actors, Zijah Sokolović, will read the multi-award-winning fairy tales of the celebrated author Selma Parisi to the youngest. Children will also be delighted by Leontina and ‘Čarolija’ choir, the children’s choirs ‘Kolibri’ and ‘Zvončići’, as well as the now well-known children’s operas of the Visoko C Association – ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’.
Booktown will be the epicentre of events for adults as well, because Vedrana Rudan, Vladimir Pištalo, Slavimir Stojanović Futro, and the famous Montenegrin comedians The Books of Knjige are coming, and we will hear from the first person about the life and work of the famous author from Novi Sad Végel László. In addition to this, we are expecting a farewell concert of Zoran Predin and Lačni Franz, the monodrama ‘Reče mi jedan čoek, ćeraćemo se još, kad budem mlađi’ performed by Petar Božović and many other events.
Unfortunately, due to the illness of a member of the ensemble of the Serbian National Theatre, the premiere of Kokan Mladenović’s play ‘Što na podu spavaš’ has been cancelled.
At the ‘Literature Night’ event, when the audience will hear in an intimate atmosphere excerpts of the literary works of the authors with whom they will talk afterwards. Rosella Postorino (Italy), Rada Pavel Gheo (Romania), Ljuba Arnautović (Austria), Stevan Bradić (Serbia) will participate, Ben Clark (Spain), Cornelia Hülmbauer (Austria), Sophie Daull (France) and Nataša Kramberger (Slovenia) will participate. Each writer will be in one location with moderators and actors throughout the evening, and the audience will change locations every full hour.
The public will be able to buy books on Book Fair, trade on Book Exchange, and rent at the City Library stand. Visitors will be able to join the City Library, which will give away 50 memberships during both days of the Suburbium.
Apart from the Suburbium of the Petrovaradin Fortress, events will be held throughout the city during the Literature Week.
Every day at one of the Novi Sad markets, actors and actresses will recite poetry at the stalls at the request of customers in the ‘Jukebox Poetry by the Kilo’ performance. During Literature Week, poetry will be heard in the morning at Najlon, Kvantaš, Riblja, Futoška, Detelinarska, Limanska, Satelitska and Petrovaradinska markets.
In the Svilara Cultural Station, there will be a discussion ‘Fifty Years of the ‘Book of Blam’: What Have We Learned from Aleksandar Tišma?’. Promotions of books, translations and anthologies will also be held in the Egység Cultural Station, Digital Youth Centre and the Novo kulturno Naselje.
At the international prose festival ‘Prosefest’ significant writers from the region and beyond, will read their works and talk to the audience from 19 to 23 September, in the Cultural Centre of Novi Sad and Novi Sad high schools, ‘Laza Kostić’, ‘Jovan Jovanović Zmaj’, ‘Svetozar Marković’ and ‘Isidora Sekulić’. Kristian Novak (Croatia), László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), Andrew Crumey (Scotland), Aleš Šteger (Slovenia), Venko Andonovski (North Macedonia), Senka Marić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Ana Vučković (Serbia) and Marjan Čakarević (Serbia) will speak at the festival.
‘Literary Machine’ – literary parties, ‘duet’ poetry readings, public discussions about the position of the independent publisher in the modern economic time, dedicated to the latest voices of the local and international literary scene, will host local and world authors at several locations in the city from September 19 to 23.
At the Bulevar Books bookstore, literary marathon – a reading of stories and poems from the book ‘Novi Sad’s Literary Guidebook’, a publication that represents an artistic tribute to the urban areas where Novi Sad writers live or spend time, will be held. The book is both an anthology of contemporary Novi Sad literature and a monograph of Novi Sad. Thirty authors will participate in the marathon, including Slobodan Tišma, Filip Grujić, Sava Damjanov, Nebojša Milenković, Bojan Krivokapić, Vladimir Kopicl, Vitomirka Trebovac, Siniša Tucić, Maja Solar and others.
Partners of the Kaleidoscope of Culture 2022 are Erste Bank, IDEA, DDOR, A1 Srbija and Heineken Srbija.
Photo: Vladimir Veličković
