Genre Literature Years active 1991-present | Location(s) Prague, Czech Republic Founded by Michael March | |
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The Prague Writers' Festival is an internationally acknowledged social occasion for great thinkers and eager readers to share important philosophical ideas. The festival takes place annually in springtime in Prague. In 2005 it had its second brief appearance in Vienna, and it has aspirations to expand to New York City and Athens. It gains considerable media coverage, and many of the events are broadcast via the internet. Every year several internationally distinguished writers are presented. In the recent past, these have included John Banville, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Salman Rushdie, Irvine Welsh, William Styron and Nadine Gordimer.
Contents
History
"The Prague Writers' Festival 2011 is an annual event with a long tradition, presenting the world of literature as a place of social and cultural dialogue. The Festival originated in late-seventies London, when Michael March (PWF‘s President) began organizing international poetry readings at Keats House. As allowed by the Helsinki Accords, writers from the former Soviet Bloc were invited to participate. Immediately following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the readings relocated to Prague, which was “a natural host and meeting place for writers.” Writers from various countries are invited to Prague as some kind of crossroad between East and West to present their work and their culture to an international audience in the form of discussions and readings. The first Prague Writers’ Festival took place at Valdštejn Palac in May 1991 and was themed “Wedding Preparations in the Country.” Over the next twenty years, Prague Writers‘ Festival became increasingly more an essential event in Prague‘s cultural scene. Now, it is "one of the most engaging cultural events in Prague and one of the most notable literary events in Europe."
Activities
The main media partner of the PWF is the British daily newspaper The Guardian, which often refers to festival events, issues and news on its cultural pages. The PWF can be seen from anywhere around the world connected to the internet – interested people can see both streamed live broadcasts and archived broadcasts on their monitors.
The main focus of the festival is its annual public readings. Every evening during the event, authors take the stage. They engage in conversation and read excerpts from their work, each writer reading in his native language while Czech and English translations are simultaneously broadcast through headphones or read by actors onstage. Authors engage in other support actions such as book signings in bookstores, concerts or film projections.
Each day a new conversation, dedicated to a literary or political subject, is held. The hour-long discussions are followed by questions from the audience, inviting free interaction between thinkers and artists, writers and audience.
As a cultural foundation, Prague Writers’ Festival is engaged year-round in many, diverse cultural activities. The PWF Foundation publishes books and helps to organize concerts (Ed Sanders and the Plastic People of the Universe) and movie screenings (Heresy and Rebellion in Aero cinema), as well as art exhibitions (Dada East?, World in 1968). Its activities also focus on students, cooperating for example with students from Charles University, Masaryk University and Prague College of Journalism.
Educational Dimension
Prague Writers’ Festival offers discount tickets and other perks to high school classes. PWF also partners with principals and teachers of local schools to present talented young writers with the annual Walter Serner Short Story Prize.
The festival has been connected for many years—by virtue of its focus on humanities, languages and literature—with numerous Czech universities and with New York University in Prague. Festival activities are focused on students, cooperating for example with students from Charles University, Masaryk University and Prague College of Journalism.
The festival often asks its participating authors questions regarding politics and society. It is the hope of PWF that the event will initiate discussion of important issues and contribute to the creation of a socio-political consciousness.
The festival‘s archives are available to the public online. www.pwf.cz gives access to a useful database of Czech and English texts. One of the major aims of the PWF Foundation is to secure funding for full digitization of its archives.