Vilenica International Literary Festival () is a festival dedicated to literature that was founded in 1986 in Slovenia. It takes place annually in several locations on the Karst Plateau in the Slovene Littoral, including inside Vilenica Cave. It is arranged by the Slovene Writers' Association together with the Cultural Centre Vilenica from Sežana. The highlight of the festival is the awarding of the Vilenica International Literary Prize to a Central European author for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing."
Background and events The festival was arranged for the first time in 1986 and was co-founded by Veno Taufer, who is still a member of the prize awarding jury. Originally it was simply called "Vilenica Festival" but since 2005 it is formally called "Vilenica International Literary Festival". From the outset, it was the outspoken purpose of the organisers to promote "cultural pluralism, tolerance and non-aggression", and at that time to provide an opportunity for the literary community from both sides of the Iron Curtain to meet and exchange ideas.
According to the statutes of the festival, it aims to be a "gathering of poets, writers, dramatists and essayists as well as editors, publishers and cultural managers and translators from Central European countries." Central Europe is loosely defined by the festival organisers as ranging "from the Baltic to the Adriatic, from Bern to Belgrade". The statutes notes that participants from countries outside Central Europe also are welcome to the festival. The official languages of the festival are Slovene, German and English. The festival incorporates many different events such as book readings in several different locations across Slovenia, discussions, seminars, a book fair and so on. The highlight of the festival is the ceremony in which the Vilenica International Literary Prize is awarded to a winner, announced beforehand, for "outstanding achievements in the field of literature and essay writing". The prize consists of a monetary gift of 10,000 euros (in 2016) and in addition, a book by the author is translated into Slovene and published in the country. The winner is chosen by a jury consisting of experts in the field of literature. Financial support for the award is given by the Government of Slovenia and the Municipality of Sežana, as well as by private sponsors. Apart from the main prize, two other awards are also handed out under the auspices of the festival. The Crystal Vilenica award is similarly to the main prize awarded to an author from Central Europe, but by a jury consisting of the festival guests and not the organisers. The winner is awarded a minor piece of art and an invitation to participate at the Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, Ireland. The Young Vilenica award is given by the Cultural Centre Vilenica to three young writers from different age categories. The winners are awarded crystal pens and get their work published in the "Young Vilenica Almanac". The winners also get the opportunity to participate at the International Poetry Festival in Limerick, also on Ireland.
The festival takes place in several locations, including inside Vilenica Cave near the villages of Lokev and Lipica on the Karst Plateau in the Slovene Littoral. The main event of the festival, the ceremony of awarding the Vilenica International Literary Prize, takes place inside the cave. The award ceremony for the Crystal Vilenica prize is inside Štanjel Castle. The festival usually takes place in early September.
Vilenica International Literary Prize winners Recipients of the Vilenica International Literary Prize, the most prestigious prize given at the festival. Year Picture Laureate Country 1986 Fulvio Tomizza Italy 1987 Peter Handke Austria 1988 Péter Esterházy Hungary 1989 Jan Skácel Czech Republic 1990 Tomas Venclova Lithuania 1991 Zbigniew Herbert Poland 1992 Milan Kundera Czech Republic/France 1993 Libuše Moníková Czech Republic/Germany 1994 Josip Osti Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995 Adolf Muschg Switzerland 1996 Adam Zagajewski Poland 1997 Pavel Vilikovský Slovakia 1998 Péter Nádas Hungary 1999 Erica Pedretti Switzerland 2000 Croatia 2001 Jaan Kaplinski Estonia 2002 Ana Blandiana Romania 2003 Mirko Kovač Croatia 2004 Brigitte Kronauer Germany 2005 Ilma Rakusa and Karl-Markus Gauß Switzerland (Rakusa) and Austria (Gauß) 2006 Miodrag Pavlović Serbia 2007 Goran Stefanovski Republic of Macedonia 2008 Andrzej Stasiuk Poland 2009 Claudio Magris Italy 2010 Dževad Karahasan Bosnia and Herzegovina 2011 Mircea Cărtărescu Romania 2012 David Albahari Serbia 2013 Olga Tokarczuk Poland 2014 László Krasznahorkai Hungary 2015 Jáchym Topol Czech Republic 2016 Dubravka Ugrešić Croatia 2017 Yurii Andrukhovych Ukraine 2018 Ilija Trojanow Bulgaria/Germany 2019 Dragan Velikić Serbia 2020 Mila Haugová Slovakia 2021 Josef Winkler Austria 2022 Amanda Aizpuriete Latvia2023 Ottó Tolnai Serbia/Hungary2024 Miljenko Jergović Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia2025 Georgi Gospodinov Bulgaria2026 Serhiy Zhadan Ukraine
References
External links Official site