The Conrad Festival is an annual literary festival held in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

since 2009. It is organised by the ''

Tygodnik Powszechny ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' (, ''The Common Weekly'') is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sap ...

'' Foundation and the Kraków Festival Office and is supported by the Kraków Municipal Government and Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. It is the largest

literary festival A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

and was named after Polish-British novelist

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

. The festival hosts artists from around the world, the representatives of various cultures and worldviews, who create not only literature, but also film, theatre, music and the visual arts. Each year, it accompanies the Kraków Book Fair. Unlike other Polish events that deal mostly with Polish literature, the Conrad Festival is intended to be a festival on an international level. Its many illustrious guests have included: recipients of the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

Herta Müller Herta Müller (; born 17 August 1953) is a Romanian-German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was born in Nițchidorf (; ), Timiș County in Romania; her native languages are German and Romanian. Si ...

and

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...

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Rabih Alameddine Rabih Alameddine (; born 1959) is an American painter and writer. His 2021 novel ''The Wrong End of the Telescope'' won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Early life Alameddine was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. (Alameddi ...

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Yurii Andrukhovych Yurii Ihorovych Andrukhovych (, born March 13, 1960 in Stanislav, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian prose writer, poet, essayist, and translator. His English pen name is Yuri Andrukhovych. Andrukhovych is a representative of the Stanislav phenom ...

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, and

Olga Tokarczuk Olga Nawoja Tokarczuk (; born 29 January 1962) is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual. She is one of the most critically acclaimed and successful authors of her generation in Poland. In 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Pri ...

Programme council

The festival's artistic director was Michał Paweł Markowski a literary critic, publicist and professor at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

and the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. Its programme director was Grzegorz Jankowicz of ''Tygodnik Powszechny''. In 2024 it was announced that Markowski and Jankowicz would be replaced by Urszula Chwalba and

Olga Drenda Olga Drenda (born 1984) is a Polish anthropologist, cultural historian, translator, writer and author. She has an interest in popular culture, and everyday life and objects from late 20th century Poland covering the period of the Polish People's ...

respectively.

Festival concept

The concept of the Conrad Festival is based on two principles. Each day of the festival is devoted to a separate phenomena related to literature. The culmination of each day is a meeting with a foreign writer as well as many related events.

Conrad Award

Starting with the seventh edition of the Conrad Festival in 2015, the Conrad Award (whose monetary worth is 30,000 zloty) will be given. This prize will be awarded for debut books published in the previous year in Poland by up-and-coming writers. The city of Kraków is the main sponsor of this award, in partnership with the Book Institute, ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' Foundation and Kraków Festival Office. Nominations for this award are put forward by readers and publishing houses.

References

External links

Official Website of the Conrad Festival
*{{Cite journal , author = Antonia Lloyd-Jones , url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/14/krakow-unesco-city-of-literatre , title = Krakow's Story: A UNESCO City of Literature Built Out of Books , journal =

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

, date = 14 November 2013 Festivals in Kraków Literary festivals in Poland Polish literary awards