The sixth international literary festival "Vilnius lapai" will be held on November 11-14. The direction of this year's festival is Nordic literature, so festival visitors will have a unique opportunity to meet invited writers from Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The theme of this year's festival is "The search for the identity of the Baltic and Nordic countries." Through literature and conversations with writers, the festival organizers will encourage us to look for similarities and differences, common points of contact between us, Lithuanians, and our close neighbors in the Baltic countries and Scandinavia. What will we find more - similarities or differences? The answer should become clear in conversations with festival guests.
"The Baltic Sea not only separates us and the Scandinavian countries, but also unites us. Reading Scandinavian literature, for example, the books of Sofi Oksanen, the main guest of this year's festival, we can notice that the same and very relevant problems for us - the Soviet era, its legacy and traumas - have an impact on the other side of the sea as well. This year, this is exactly what we want to analyze - how the same problems are visible here and on the other side of the Baltic", says Rūta Kačkutė, the initiator and manager of the festival.
The great intrigue of this year's festival is that two famous Lithuanian authors will read excerpts from their new, unpublished or just published books. One of them - Marius Ivaškevičius - will read excerpts from his new, as yet unpublished novel "Tomas Mūras", which will appear in bookstores only in February next year. The second, Rolandas Rastauskas - RoRa, will read excerpts from his latest work "Venice Live".
Three women writers, three different kismo stories
In addition to Sofi Oksanen, three other very interesting women who represent the literature of the Baltic countries have been invited to the festival this year. The first one is the Lithuanian Paulina Eglė Pukytė, an interdisciplinary artist, known primarily as a representative of the visual arts, as well as an art critic, writer, playwright. This author, who has just published a new book, Lubinas ir Seradėlė, is a great example of living between different cultures. Festival visitors will be invited to travel together with the author between different art fields, to see our own culture as if from abroad, from the perspective of different cultures.
The second guest from the neighborhood is the Latvian writer Laima Kota, better known to Lithuanian readers as Laima Muktupavela, the author of the popular book "The Testament of Meadow Mushrooms". This year, her new book "Room" was published in Lithuanian, which tells the story of the Soviet era, the time of transition to independence.
"Enough time has passed since the Soviet era to be able to look at it from a distance. Children and teenagers who survived the Soviet era are now mature people and want to talk about their childhood experiences, about the transformation they went through and its consequences", R. Kačkutė presents the relevance of the topic.
The third guest is the Estonian poet and writer Maarja Kangro, who dared to publish an autobiographical novel based on her own diary about the difficulties of having a baby in her small country. In a meeting with the author, readers are invited to discuss motherhood, whether we are ready to portray and understand a woman writer as simply a woman.
Focus on Scandinavian literature
No one can deny the love of Lithuanians for Scandinavian literature, so the festival organizers want to show the widest possible range of it.
"We are very happy that Jo Nesbø, the most famous Scandinavian detective author, has agreed to participate in the festival remotely. By the way, although we have planned most of the events live and hope that nothing needs to be changed, like last year, we are ready to move the festival to the virtual space at any moment. On the one hand, it's a pity that last year we couldn't see the eyes of the visitors, but on the other hand, it was the most successful festival in terms of the number of visitors, because everyone could join the broadcasts on the Internet - both foreign Lithuanians and people living outside of Vilnius", says R. Kačkutė. .
Familiarity with Scandinavian literature begins with detective stories, but does not end there. When delving into the topic of identity, it would be difficult to find an author who articulates the search for identity better than Jonas Hasen Khemiri. The writer is the son of a Swede and a Tunisian, who grew up in the suburbs of Stockholm, and has personal experience with Swedish attitudes towards foreigners or people who look different.
"JHKhemiri raises very problematic questions that are also relevant for us. So far, there is very little literature written by people who have grown up and personally experienced what it is like to grow up in a blended family, and who share how it has shaped their culture and shaped their family relationships. Therefore, it is very fun to introduce this author, it is a new language in Scandinavian literature", R. Kačkutė introduces the author.
It will retain the main components, but there will also be innovations
The novelty of the festival is dialogues between writers. The aforementioned Estonian writer Maarja Kangas and the Belgian writer, playwright and actress Geneviève Damas are invited to the first dialogue about women as writers and about feminist literature in general.
On the last night, the festival will take the audience to the completely opposite side of the world and invite them to a meeting with the Mexican writer Fernanda Melchor. Although Mexico is geographically very far from the Nordic countries, the writer's new novel "Hurricane Season" perfectly continues the theme of identity. The novel tells about Mexican life, mafia wars and how today's youth are looking for themselves in such a culture.
"Vilniaus lapai" will also maintain the components of the festival already loved by the audience: "Literarium" with Aldona Vilutyte will delight with performances and poetry experiments, children and young people will be invited to creative workshops on the topic of comics and graphic novels, which will be led by Akvilė Magicdust, a comic creator already known to Lithuanians and author of comics , psychologist Tatiana Goldberg from Denmark. The tradition of showing a screen adaptation of one of the presented literary works will be continued.
in 2016 The "Vilniaus lapai" festival that started in XNUMX attracted huge interest - full halls, media attention, it managed to gain the trust of the literary community. Last year's pandemic that unexpectedly struck and paralyzed the entire cultural field did not ruin the festival. The festival is organized together with partners by the Lithuanian Reading and Cultural Literacy Association. This year is the sixth time that literary fans will meet their favorite authors.
