On Saturday in Vilnius, at the Museum of Applied Art and Design, the literary festival "Open books" will present the latest works of 30 Lithuanian writers. Professor Tomas Venclova, Herkus Kunčius, member of the international PEN club, and Birutė Jonuškaitė, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Writers' Union, will have a face-to-face discussion.
The organizers of the festival announce that the Belarusian journalist, writer, Nobel Prize laureate Sviatlana Aleksijevič, who confirmed her participation in the festival at the end of last year, will no longer come to Lithuania due to the circumstances in Belarus and health problems.
"Sviatlana's participation in our festival was coordinated back in November last year, when the circumstances in the world were completely different. Until the last day, it was hoped that she would be able to come and that all obstacles would be overcome. Today we already know that we will not see her at this year's festival. Svetlana conveys her most sincere apologies to all Lithuanian readers and hopes to come to Lithuania as soon as circumstances permit. We, for our part, quickly changed the program and, continuing this year's theme of freedom, we are hosting a discussion about how the freedom of the creator is transferred to society. Professor Tomas Venclova, Birutė Jonuskaitė and Herkus Kunčius will take part in the discussion", says the festival organizer Ieva Davydenko.
At the festival held for the second time, visitors will be able to meet and chat live with the most famous Lithuanian writers of today, who published books in 2019-2020. Sigitas Parulskis, Vytautas Landsbergis, Jurga Tumasonytė, Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, Marijus Povilas Elijus Martynenko, Gabija Lunevičiūtė, Herkus Kunčius and others will present their latest works in the "Authors' Gallery" of the festival. The "Authors' Gallery" meetings will be moderated by two literary experts - Jūratė Čerškutė and Audrius Ožalas.
There will be no shortage of news at the festival - the still very "fresh" book about director Arūnas Žebriūnas will be presented by film critic Rūta Oginskaitė, and Genutė Bončkutė–Petronienė will talk about the features of her new psychotherapeutic novel "Pekelk mane aukštai". Fans of Aušra Kaziliūnaitė's work will have the opportunity to be among the first to hear poems from the yet-to-be-published book of poems "There is no sea". And two contemporary young novelists - Saulius Vasiliauskas and Lina Simutytė - will present their newly published books of short stories. The festival program includes a very relevant discussion about adolescent literature and its features with the strongest authors of adolescent literature in Lithuania: Ilona Ežerinyte, Kotryna Zyle, Justin Žilinskas, Vytautas Varanius, Viktorija Urbonaite and Viktorija Aprimaite.
The special guest of the festival is Jan Fabre, a performance creator, sculptor, painter, theater director, choreographer, opera producer, scenographer and playwright from Belgium who has become famous over the past few decades. The conversation about his work will be moderated by theater expert Elona Bajorinienė, and on October 9, 10, 11, everyone will be invited to see a sketch of this artist's play "Night Writer" created especially for this festival together with the Lithuanian National Drama Theater (LNDT), based on the facts of his life.
The purpose of the "Open books" literary festival, which is being held for the second time, is to review the works of Lithuanian authors published in recent years or still planned to be published, to meet with the most famous foreign and Lithuanian art creators and critics, and to discuss the most relevant topics of today.
The idea of creating a festival dedicated to literature came to like-minded people Ignas Staškevičius, Mykols Katkas, Gintautas Bartkas, Šarūnas Skyris, Violeta Jurgaitiene and Gintars Steponas Vyšniauskas, who are not only constantly interested and read themselves, but also often receive requests to recommend which books are worth devoting their time to.
