Programme

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Sunday, February 28th, 14:00 – 16:00, Galerija Srečišče (Hostel Celica):

Meeting of the ELit project partners

The ELit Literaturehouse Europe establishes an observatory for European contemporary literature focusing chiefly on: research, discussion and publishing results concerning literary trends across Europe, as well as the inter-cultural communication of literature within Europe and the dissemination of literature among the diverse cultural spaces within Europe. It enables writers to introduce their works in other linguistic areas and to discover new opportunities for publishing based on digital media.

ELit Literaturehouse Europe regularly organizes European literature youth meetings, European writers’ reading tours sessions, workshops for young writers and the European Literature Days in the Wachau/Lower Austria. ELit Literaturehouse Europe promotes literary transfer in Europe with guest appearances by European writers in other countries.

At the website www.literaturehouse.eu and trough ebook- and book on demand publications ELiT Literaturehouse Europe will introduce literary trends in Europe and publish and discuss texts on European issues in cultural policy.

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A variety of side events will take place before and during Fabula 2016. The traditional Prose-a-thlon will continue this year as well, in as many as 5 cities all across Slovenia (Kranj, Solkan, Ljubljana, Maribor, Krško).

The “Fabula before Fabula” series of events will be held on three consecutive Thursdays in February: on the 11^th in Novo mesto, on the 18^th in Maribor and on the 25^th in Trieste. Detailed programme is available here.

A number of events dedicated to the festival’s topic (“The Newcomers”) and the refugee crisis will take place during the festival itself. You’ll be able to attend round table debates, public discussions, presentations and author interviews, etc.

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Prose-a-thlon before Fabula

Please note our new locations in Maribor, Krško and Ljubljana

This year’s 13^th edition of the World Literatures – Fabula 2016 festival will be held from February 27 to March 7 in Ljubljana. As it has become traditional, the festival itself will be preceded by Prose-a-thlon, a series of events where everybody can present their short fiction and compete to reach the grand final and win a cash prize. The readings, which will be held at clubs in five Slovenian cities, will be hosted by Boštjan Gorenc - Pižama and Sašo Stare:

10. februar ob 19.00 - Kranj - Layerjeva hiša

11. februar  ob 19.00 - Solkan - Mostovna

23. februar ob 19.00 - Ljubljana - Pritličje

25. februar ob 19.00 - Maribor - Klub KGB

26. februar ob 19.00 - Krško - MC Krško

28. februar ob 20.00 - FINALE: Ljubljana - Kavarna Moderna

The grand finale between the winners of the five initial readings will be held at 20:00, on February 28, at the Moderna Cafe inside the Ljubljana Museum of Modern Art (Windischerjeva 2).

PROSE-A-THLON RULES AND CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION:

1. Prose-a-thlon is intended for everybody who would like to present their short story to the public.

2. You do not need to apply in advance in order to participate.

3. The subject of the story is not determined in advance and is left to the individual decision of the author.

4. At each Prose-a-thlon reading, three authors will be selected as winners and will thus place in the final round of the short story competition.

5. Authors may participate at multiple Prose-a-thlon events, provided they did not place among the three winners at a prior event.

6. Participating authors will have no more than seven minutes to present their short story.

7. The manner of presentation is up to the author.

8. Authors will qualify for the final round based on audience votes and the votes of an expert jury that will consist of representatives of Beletrina Academic Press and the local coordinating organization, and a randomly selected audience member.

9. PRIZES: initial rounds: 1^st to 3^rd place: book prizes; finale: 1^st place: 800 € plus book prize; 2^nd and 3^rd places: book prizes.

You don’t need to apply in advance – just come to the venue, bring your story and participate!

For more info on the Prose-a-thlon and the rules of participation, see Beletrina’s Facebook profile and the festival’s website.

Come visit us!

Further info on the Prose-a-thlon:

T: + 386 1 200 37 17

E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

W: www.festival-fabula.org

Contact person: Darja Demšar

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“When you’re a foreigner, a newcomer, a displaced person, your memories inside your head are your only home. Everything else is foreign.” Lojze Kovačič, 1928–2007

The title of this year’s topic was inspired by Lojze Kovačič, who was never able to shake the feeling of foreignness, the feeling shared by as much as a third of the global population, according to the International Organization for Migration. Newcomers of all types are undoubtedly part of our common experience and migration one of the most important phenomena of our time. Migrants aren’t stopped by oceans, nor fences or walls. The inflow of immigrants into Europe, which used to be a boon to the economy, has not ceased for the past couple of decades. For the longest time, immigrants had been coming in silently and gradually, until they started drowning en masse in the Mediterranean. However, the constant crisis in the Maghreb and other parts of Africa and the culmination of the Middle Eastern conflict of interests finally resulted in endless lines (or “swarms”, as put by the British Prime Minister) of migrants young and old, educated and uneducated, who are seeking new opportunities or merely a place where they could live in peace that their home countries with their shattered infrastructure and communities are not able to provide any more.

For almost a year, we’ve been witnessing a crisis that we can’t even give a name to, much less resolve; we sometimes call it a humanitarian disaster, sometimes a security crisis, and reactions to it range from the quietly hostile to the openly hostile. Assertions of the limits of various European countries to receive the newcomers are gaining legitimacy and becoming the voice of reason in the minds of many, and the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, which had been sealed off from the world for too long during the Cold War, are showing no understanding and are being openly racist, forgetting about the mass migrations that occurred immediately after World War II and in the 1950s.

Newcomers, refugees, nomads and migrants will thus be the focus of the events that make up this year’s Fabula festival. The topic is also connected to the numerous displaced authors and intellectuals, from Nietzsche, Mickiewicz, Heine and M. Yourcenar to our contemporaries, Hemon, Rushdie, etc. This will also provide a context for a consideration of the increasingly nomadic aspects of the academia.

Virtually all segments of the festival, from Fabula before Fabula to Young Fabula, with their participants, visitors and guests coming from across Europe, from the “Balkan migrant route” to the Europe’s Europe in Brussels and the traumatized and terrified Paris, will ponder, study, give meaning to, write, draw and listen to – the newcomers.

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In this year’s edition, Fabula again focuses on younger audiences, with our programme again tailored to an age group that we consider somewhat neglected, at least in matters of reading culture and events related to it. If last year saw us focus on the pupils of the final elementary school triad, we now focus on high school students, whom we address through comics and by focusing the festival on the currently extremely pressing issue of refugees (The Newcomers). We are collaborating with the Design and Photography High School (Srednja šola za oblikovanje in fotografijo) and Poljane High School, as well as Ljubljana Asylum Centre, as youngsters currently staying there are also invited to participate. In addition to the festival comic A Letter to Adna (Pismo Adni) that will be received as a gift by all participants, high school students will attend a comic workshop and competition, which will result in a piece of graffiti that the kids will create in Trnovo, specifically at Trnovski pristan 7-9, as the concluding event on Saturday, March 5. Furthermore, Valentin Vodnik Homestead (Vodnikova domačija) in Šiška will exhibit both comics from the workshop and illustrations from A Letter to Adna by Samira Kentrić.

YOUNG FABULA INVITES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN A WORKSHOP TO CREATE A COMIC ON THE SUBJECT OF “THE NEWCOMERS”

DO YOU LIKE TO DRAW OR WRITE?

It’s fun to read comics, but it’s even better to create them. We invite you to attend a World Literatures – Fabula 2016 creative comic workshop mentored by graphic designer and illustrator Samira Kentrić. Through discussion, the mentor will introduce the participants to the comic medium. This will be followed by a brainstorming session for ideas and later by the creation of short comics on the subject of “THE NEWCOMERS”, which is also the focus of this year’s festival. The workshop will introduce the participants to the basics of comic language and help them play with the possibilities offered by comic drawing. The objective of the workshop is for groups of participants to create short comics. Everybody is welcome at the workshop – those who like to draw, as well as those who prefer writing. You can apply as an individual or as a group. The participants will meet with the mentor on three occasions:

• 15:00 to 16:30, February 4
• 15:00 to 16:30, February 11
• 15:00 to 16:30, February 25

at the location of the Design and Photography High School (Gosposka 18, Ljubljana).
The workshop will conclude and the best comics teams will be announced at 17:00, on Thursday, March 3, at the Vodnik Homestead (Vodnikova 65, Ljubljana), which will also exhibit the comics.

Between 13:00 and 16:00, on Saturday, March 5, authors of the winning comic, mentored by graffiti artist Jurij Lozić (Zek Collective), will paint their comic on a public wall in the centre of Ljubljana for passers-by to see.

The number of workshop participants is limited.

Please apply with Tina Deu at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than February 1, 2016.

Come create with us!

All workshop attendees will receive the comic A Letter to Adna by Samira Kentrić that will be published to accompany this year’s festival. In addition to that, the winning team will also receive a special prize.

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Prior to the official opening of Fabula, three Thursdays in February will be reserved for Fabula before Fabula, a series of events hosted by three cities in Slovenia and Italy.

This year’s Fabula before Fabula will consist of two readings and a film screening. These events, taking place prior to the official opening of the 13^th edition of Fabula, will also focus on the festival topic (“The Newcomers”) and on the matter of refugees:

– 19:00, Thursday, February 11, Goga bookshop in Novo mesto: “To Leave One’s Tribe”. Gabriela Babnik and Andrej E. Skubic will talk about their latest books, Intimate (Intimno) and Games without Frontiers (Igre brez meja) respectively, that deal with refugees and the racism they face. The event will be hosted by Agata Tomažič.

– 18:00, Thursday, February 18, Salon uporabnih umetnosti (Maribor): Nino Flisar and Vesna Milek will have a discussion titled Home Is where I Write. The talk will be accompanied by musical numbers performed by Marko Mandir.

– 19:00, Thursday, February 25, Trieste: Following the premiere of documentary Tihotapci identitete (Identity Smugglers), Irena Urbič will talk to guests Ervin Hladnik Milharčič, lead actor and co-screenwriter, and Marija Zidar, director and co-screenwriter.

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