Literature Starts with Discussion
As we believe that literature starts with discussion, just like discussion can start with literature, we are cordially inviting you to the literary world written by our guests. As the meeting place of the most brilliant minds of modern writing, Lublin City of Literature Festival showcases the exceptionality of literary forms and voices. It is the variety and fusion of poetry, prose, non-fiction, and world literature in Polish translation that create an aesthetic mosaic illustrating the whole range of human emotions.
Literature – written, spoken, read, displayed, interpreted on stage – combines various arts and can be understood in many ways – by anyone. The City of Literature is the space of freedom – freedom of thought, which allows all to engage in dialogue, in conversation, in which the words we speak can amaze us, as they amaze our interlocutors.
PROGRAMME
Centre for Culture in Lublin/ 12 Peowiaków Street/ lublinmiastoliteratury.pl / free admission
September 25/ Thursday
10.00 am Workshops for Teenagers. Hosted by: Sylwia Chwedorczuk / registration: miastoliteratury@ck.lublin.pl
11.00 am A children’s meeting with Grażyna Lutosławska. Moderator: Magdalena Krasuska / The Jasna Room
4.30 pm Iwona Boruszkowska – a meeting about Sofia Yablonska. Moderator: Aleksandra Zińczuk / The Jasna Room
6.00 pm Opening Discussion: “What Does Literature Start With?”. Guests: Joanna Mueller, Jacek Giszczak, Karolina Sulej, Paweł Sołtys. Moderator: Bogna Świątkowska / Main Auditorium
8.00 pm The Opening of the Festival Club: Danse Macabre Takeover – DJ set / The Kameralna Room
September 26 / Friday
10.00 am “Hidden in the Language. Let’s Talk About Words and Meanings” – Workshops for Teenagers with Elżbieta Janota and Paulina Rzymanek, translators and book podcasters (“Już tłumaczę – podkast o książkach”)
registration: miastoliteratury@ck.lublin.pl
11.00 am Workshops for Teenagers: Michał R. Wiśniewski / registration: miastoliteratury@ck.lublin.pl
10.00 am-12.00 pm Kids Area / The Wild Room / room 016
4.00 pm Aleksandra Zbroja – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Aleksandra Kanar / The Kameralna Room
5.00 pm Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska – The Master of Short-Form Content – a discussion on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short stories volume. Moderator: Bogusław Wróblewski / Main Auditorium
5.30 pm Antonina Tosiek – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Ivan Davydenko / The Kameralna Room
6.00 pm Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Grażyna Lutosławska / Main Auditorium
7.00 pm Joanna Ostrowska – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Magdalena Łuczyn / The Kameralna Room
7.30 pm Małgorzata Lebda – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Aleksander Wójtowicz / Main Auditorium
9.00 pm Eyes Made of Glass – concert / The Kameralna Room
September 27 / Saturday
11.00 am-3.00 pm Kids Area / The Wild Room / room 016
12.00 pm A Meeting with the Lublin City of Literature Award Nominees. Moderator: Piotr Paziński / Main Auditorium
1.00 pm Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak and Michał R. Wiśniewski / Hieronim Łopaciński Municipal Public Library / Branch No. 2
1.30 pm Literature’s Landscape: Stanisław Łubieński, Małgorzata Lebda.
Moderator: Aleksander Wójtowicz / Main Auditorium
2.00 pm Maksim Znak – The Voice from Behind the Bars: Aleh Harbuz, Iryna Kozikowa – Polish PEN Club. Moderator: Justyna Czechowska / The Kameralna Room
3.00 pm Andrzej Dybczak – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Grażyna Lutosławska / The Kameralna Room
3.30 pm Mariusz Szczygieł – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Wojciech Kruszewski / Main Auditorium
4.00 pm Jadwiga Graboś and Marta Listewnik – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Sara Akram / The Black Room
4.30 pm The Power of a (Weak) Collective? A meeting about the queer-feminine* magazine LesBiLans. Moderator: Jolanta Sienkiewicz-Prochowicz / The Kameralna Room
5.00 pm The Poets of Silesia: Wojciech Brzoska, Maciej Melecki, Krzysztof Siwczyk – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Olga Drenda / Main Auditorium
6.00 pm Biography Panel: Sylwia Chwedorczuk, Weronika Kostyrko, Monika Śliwińska.
Moderator: Anna Kowalczyk / Main Auditorium
7.30 pm Ziemowit Szczerek – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Paweł Hadrian / Main Auditorium
8.00 pm Poetry SLAM. Hosted by: Ivan Davydenko, Maciej Tuora / The Kameralna Room
September 28 / Sunday
11.00 am-3.00 pm Kids Area / The Wild Room
12.00 pm A Meeting with Lublin City of Literature Award Nominees. Moderator: Agnieszka Budnik / Main Auditorium
1.30 pm Daryna Hladun – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Aleksandra Zińczuk / Main Auditorium / In English with simultaneous interpretation into Polish
2.00 pm Life Sewing: Aleksandra Zielińska, Ewa Wieżnawiec. Moderator: Anna Marchewka / The Kameralna Room
3.00 pm Patrycja Sikora-Tarnowska – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Jolanta Sienkiewicz-Prochowicz / The Kameralna Room
3.30 pm At the Book’s Margin – a panel discussion on publishing market. Participants: Karolina Bednarz, Jacek Dehnel, Piotr Kikta, Aleksandra Zińczuk. Moderator: Rafał Rutkowski / Main Auditorium
4.00 pm Jerzy Jarniewicz – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Sara Akram / The Kameralna Room
5.00 pm Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – meet-the-author session. Moderator: Bartosz Wójcik / The Kameralna Room / In English with simultaneous interpretation into Polish
6.00 pm Lublin City of Literature Festival Award Gala / Main Auditorium
Feel invited to an exceptional meeting at the very source of literature. Feel free to take part in a broadly understood discussion which transcends the boundaries of modernity. A quotation from Azar Nafisi captures this idea perfectly: “But the miraculous aspect of great books is their ability to both reflect and transcend the prejudices of the author as well as their time and place.” (Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times, 2022; https://lithub.com/the-power-and-necessity-of-reading-dangerously/).
The Festival is based on four pillars, which reflect different types of world-view and, when perceived simultaneously, show the world’s harmony. For that reason, poetry, prose, non-fiction, and literary translation are the fields representing this order. From 25-28 September 2025, invited writers will speak during dozens of events: meet-the-author sessions, panel meetings, and workshops – all taking place at the Centre for Culture in Lublin. Many events will be interpreted live into Polish Sign Language.
Translated by Agnieszka Tchórzewska
