On March 21, declared World Poetry Day by UNESCO, poetry is in full swing in Ljubljana with a 24-hour-long reading of poetry.
The storytelling festival takes place in Cankarjev dom Cultural and Congress Centre and at other venues in Ljubljana and Slovenia. It is the central event of this kind in Slovenia.
The Vzkrik Festival of Drama Writing provides mentors for authors to develop their drama writing, and their resulting work is later presented in the form of reading performances, followed by discussions with the artists.
Fabula, organised by the publishing house Beletrina, is the largest and most important literary festival, not only in Ljubljana, but in the whole country, if not an even wider region.
Slovene Book Days is an all-Slovenian festival taking place in early spring in Ljubljana and partner towns.
Book Night is the largest event aimed at popularising reading and reading culture in Slovenia. The national and international project is based on voluntary work and self-organisation and has marked every night of April 23, the World Book Day, for several consecutive years.
On April 23, the World Book Day, Zvezda Park hosted a traditional book fair, which in the recent years has changed its location as well as timing in the scope of the Slovene Book Days.
Etc., a festival of socially engaged literature for young people, is conceived as a web of events, focused on a chosen collection of books, authors and topics. Every year, a wide team of high school pupils, students, experienced editors and other stakeholders in the field of literature strive to find new and fascinating approaches of presenting their books, authors and topics to the public.
The fair calls attention to the variety and high quality of Slovenian academic publishing, the latest achievements in science and interdisciplinary development direction in higher education, while it also strives to introduce academic books to a wider audience.
Library under the Treetops is a recognised and well-attended parade of free reading, browsing and enjoyment on different public spaces around the country, popular among all generations of Slovene and foreign visitors.
The one-day-long Children’s Book Festival is a day of books for children.
On the Bookstore Night, which has been taking place since 2014, bookstores keep their doors open long into the night, while the visitors can also enjoy a varied cultural programme and take advantage of special offers: for every book purchase they receive a book as a gift. The Bookstore Night includes bookstores from Ljubljana, with several bookstores from Koper, Celje and Maribor also taking part.
The Pranger Festival is a unique confrontation of critics and poets which strives to strengthen a cultured yet critical dialogue about literature, with the aim of safeguarding the dignity of art and a professionally balanced reception.
During its open day, the Ljubljana City Library organises day-long socialising activities in the Oton Župančič Library, with guided tours from morning to evening, as well as a variety of workshops for all generations, reading actions, bestowment of recognition awards to all participants of the Reading City project, literary and other plays and a closing concert.
This small, but charming and cherished international festival, blends literature with music.
At midsummer, the Cankar peak of Rožnik hill in Tivoli Park is transformed into a magical celebration of literature.
The Poletje na platnu in med platnicami (Summer on the Silver Screen and between the Book Covers) Festival focuses on the meeting point of film and literature and has taken place at the open-air cinema of the Slovenian Cinematheque at the Metelkova Museum Plaza since 2018.
The largest and the most recognisable international poetry festival in this part of Europe has been successfully bringing together poetic verse and promotion of Slovenian wines of the highest quality for twenty years.
The Vilenica International Literary Festival is a traditional meeting of poets, novelists, drama and essay writers from Central Europe, organised since 1986.
The Tinta Comics Festival brings together diverse authors from the Slovenian comics’ scene with the intention of popularisation of comics’ art, it presents the highest achievements and the diversity of contemporary Slovenian comics’ production, as well as project going beyond comics and entering the vivacious dialogue with simultaneous art.
The Ignor Festival connects literature, sound, visual arts and performance.
Since 1972, the fair has, in 35 editions, brought together more than a hundred publishers, tens of thousands of visitors, international guests, local and foreign authors, and schools.
The sales illustration fair brings together illustrations of the most prominent Slovenian authors across generations and artistic styles.
The best poetry and short stories of up to 2,500 words will be awarded with £10,000. The texts should be unpublished. The competition is international, for writers aged 16 and over, and the language of submitted works must be English. The cost of registration is £18, by the end of November the price is lower. Deadline for applications: January 28, 2022. More online!
Ljubljana was awarded the permanent title of UNESCO City of Literature (which unites cities where literature has a special role) in 2015, and today we are pleased to announce that three other cities joined the fast-growing international network of cities of literature. The number of literature cities committed to promoting the sustainable development of literature and reading culture has increased from 39 to 42, with Jakarta (Indonesia), Vilnius (Lithuania), and Gothenburg (Sweden).
13. 10. / 15.30 / Portorož Filmmakers are looking for ideas also in literature. With the desire for a more structured connection between the two worlds (film and literature) the office of Ljubljana, UNESCO City of Literature together with the Slovenian Cinematheque in June 2021 announced a competition for the stories that could become a movie. A three-member commission - Luka Marčetič, Matjaž Ivanišin and Marina Gumzi - reviewed the applications and selected the works of Ana Svetel, Matjaž Jamnik, Sara Štern, Jedrt Lapuh Maležič and Luna J. Šribar. They were presented on the stage of Slovenian Film Festival by Boštjan Napotnik - Napo! For the event, we prepared a booklet which contains all five stories, presentations of their authors and the justifications of the commission. We added texts of Marcel Štefančič jr. who writes about writing with film and filming with words, and Urša Chitrakar, who writes about the copyright aspect of the use of literary works in films.
UNESCO Cities of Literature are celebrating the International Translators' Day on 30 September This day will be marked with a joint project (between Nottingham, Odessa, Utrecht, Leeuwarden, Reykjavik, Bucheon, Granada, Dublin, Iowa City, Edinburgh, Manchester, Krakow, Kuhma, Ulyanovsk, Heidelberg, Quebec City, Tartu, and Nanjing) with a poem that we have translated into the languages of many cities of literature around the world. In cooperation with the Society of Slovenian Literary Translators, we prepared a translation of W. S. Merwin's poem From the Start. September 30 is also his birthday.
