On September 24-25, the "Open Books" festival will be held in Vilnius for the third time, which this year welcomes an even more diverse program: well-known authors from abroad, meetings with famous Lithuanian writers, a discussion club, and the presentation of the works of young poets. The organizers of the event promise that this year the festival will be aimed at a wider audience who wants to broaden their horizons in contemporary literature, as well as professionals who value new ideas and how the book market is rapidly changing, as well as those who value the opportunity to communicate with writers and embark on a literary adventure. .
This year, the Open Books festival will expand to two days and spaces and will present various corners of literary life, ideas and creators. "We will dedicate the first day of the festival to the presentation of the works of young, noteworthy authors, who were selected for the program by the poet, Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, deputy chairwoman of the Writers' Union, and on the second, the main day of the festival, the thirty best authors who have published books this year will be presented to the visitors of the event - the authors will be interviewed by professional moderators. A discussion forum related to literature will be held in a separate hall, the event will be attended by famous writers and literature specialists from abroad. We will also maintain the tradition of the festival by giving readers the opportunity to live face-to-face with their favorite writers in a cozy teahouse, and for the biggest gourmets - to meet at the literary dinner "PrisiMENU", for which, along with conversations about books, a menu inspired by literary works has been prepared restaurant "Gastronomika" chef Liutauras Čeprackas," says Jurga Mandrijauskaitė-Ruškienė, who started working as festival director this year.
Famous guests from abroad
This year, Open Books will feature Philippe Claudel, one of the most significant French writers, who has been awarded important prizes - for his novel "Brodek" he was awarded the Goncourt Prize of Lycée students and the Independent (now Man Booker International) foreign literature prize , he was also awarded the Goncourt prize for short stories. His work is well known to Lithuanian readers - three of his novels "Pilkosios sielos", "Brodekas" and "Shuns Archipelagos" have been translated, and his novel "Pilkosios sielos" became the translated book of the year in Lithuania. Allegorical images and today's current affairs intertwine in the works of this writer, he examines human nature without avoiding dark strokes, raises important moral questions, and his books are often compared to the works of Franz Kafka.
For those interested in book publishing, the presentation by Heiðar Ingi Svansson, a guest from Iceland, should be interesting. The president of the Icelandic Publishers' Association, the head of the country's Literary Center and the publisher "Open Books" will introduce the participants to Icelandic book publishing, which is often described as phenomenal, with particularly deep traditions. He will also share insights on how the book publishing business is changing around the world, how the pandemic has changed it, and what to expect in the future.
It is expected that the program will be filled with other guests from abroad in the near future.
A literary look at current topics
The organizers of the "Open Books" festival say that in these pandemic times, it is a challenge to organize a festival that will include guests from abroad, but they have no doubt that it will be a great opportunity for literature lovers to gather again at a live event, which many have already missed. "This is not only an opportunity to meet again live at the literary festival, but also to talk about what happened in literature and not only in this year. During the discussions, book publishing professionals will talk about how the pandemic has changed the publishing business, how it will change in the future, and guests from abroad will talk not only about literature, but also about the topical issues that pervade it today - for example, Phillipe Claudel often talks about fear of otherness, anxiety when dealing with another culture, newcomers, and this is very relevant in today's Lithuania", said A. Ožalas, the head of the festival program.
Although the main focus of the festival will be on meetings with writers, A. Ožalas suggests turning attention to the discussion forum that will take place during the festival. "A book publishing professional from Iceland will share his thoughts on what's happening in book publishing at the moment and give examples from Iceland - I'm sure it will be interesting not only for book publishing professionals, but also for other viewers, because this speaker is a very charismatic, interesting person . During the discussions, we will try to answer the questions, whether the prices of books in Lithuania are really too high and what constitutes their price, how our reading habits are changing, what new formats are entering our lives, how writers' copyrights are protected, what are the ways to present books in a more interesting way, and what else not yet used. Both publishing professionals, specialists in other fields, and book lovers will participate in these discussions, who will share their experiences", says A. Ožalas.
J. Mandrijauskaitė-Ruškienė says that despite the fact that the festival is planning many innovations and guests from abroad this year, the heart of the festival remains the Lithuanian "Author's Gallery". "This year, we looked at it very responsibly, only those authors selected by a competent commission will participate in it. We aim to make it an aspiration and a matter of honor for every author to enter this festival," she says. This year, the commission consisted of literary scholar Neringa Butnoriūtė, LRT cultural content editor Agnė Biliūnaitė, festival program manager Audrius Ožalas, representative of the festival council and one of the founders Ignas Staškevičius, the chairperson of the commission - festival manager Jurga Mandrijauskaitė-Ruškienė.
Well-known Lithuanian creators will participate in the festival. It has already been confirmed that Sigitas Parulskis, Aurimas Švedas, Akvilė Kavaliauskaitė, Dovydas Pancerovas, Donatas Katkus, Vaidas Jauniškis, Norbertas Černiauskas, Gintaras Grajauskas and many others will participate in Open Books.
Limited number of participants
The organizers of the festival say that they aim to make these two days an exceptional literary experience, where in addition to special meetings with representatives of the literary field, immediate communication is very important, a cozy atmosphere is created and the desire to expand the boundaries of one's literary knowledge, not forgetting the sense of adventure and play.
"This year, we are organizing the festival by defining a very clear number of festival participants: 300. We are doing this for several reasons - trying to protect ourselves from excessive traffic due to the pandemic, and at the same time we want to create a cozy event for an audience with exceptional taste," says J. Mandrijauskaitė. - Another innovation of this year's "Open Books" festival is that perhaps we will be the first in Lithuania, and maybe even in the whole world, to offer the festival visitor an individual, named ticket, which everyone can choose from three hundred different tickets on the festival's website www.openboooks.lt. It will be a kind of game, maybe making someone smile, and maybe make you think - what kind of reader am I? It took us a long time to create this custom ticketing system, but everyone who contributed to it felt great creative pleasure. We hope that our festival visitors will feel it too."
This year, the Lithuanian Culture Council, LATGA Association, Lithuanian Publishers Association, Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Lithuania, French Institute in Lithuania, Vilnius city municipality, LRT, Museum of Applied Arts, the exclusive advertising campaign of the festival is created by the book-loving team of the New! advertising agency.
The festival will take place on September 24-25. of Saturday event will be held at the Museum of Applied Arts and Design. Other details of the festival will be announced later. The festival is organized by Open Books.
