Bratislava Book Festival
You won’t find any trash at BRaK!
Bratislava Book Festival or BRaK is a celebration of beautiful books. In the first half of May in the capital of Slovakia it presents the best of production of writers, illustrators, book graphicians and typographers from Slovakia and surrounding countries.
The Slovak metropolis will turn into a place enliven by good books. Distinguished personalities of the domestic and international literary scene, book illustration and design, authorial meetings, exhibitions, concerts, creative workshops and more than three dozen great publishing houses.
The Bratislava Book Festival once again provides visitors with a multi-sensory experience of the book. The ninth edition of the largest international book art presentation in Slovakia will be marked by the theme “Do not be afraid not to grow”, which will be developed in various platforms by interesting guests and other great creators.
Taking place May 11th to 15th back again in renewed Nová Cvernovka in the wider city centre of Bratislava, tenths of independent publishing houses from Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine will present their work – besides there is also a manifold accompanying programe. Many book industry entities will take part in the event, including numerous Central European publishing houses, bookstores, libraries, writers’ organizations, and cultural institutions.
There are many readings, author meetings, exhibitions and discussions, theater productions, concerts and workshops taking place at the festival. A lot of different genres will be presented – fiction, poetry, drama, non-ficition and art critisism, comic books and books for children.
We tend to label the part of the book production with the “trash books” label, which we consider to be the foreground, unoriginal and unworthy of our attention and which, moreover, in most cases is characterized by a large overproduction. The organizers of the festival conceived this idea as part of their very opposite intention: to create space for the best that has been done in Slovakia and in the surrounding countries in the field of book creation.
BRaK is a celebration of the book and all the creative and working tasks associated with it: from the authorship of the text, through illustration, graphic and typographic editing to binding, printing and printing with dozens of guests from all over the world, authors, publishers, illustrators, designers, but especially with readers. The idea of the event is not based on a conservative belief that in today’s rapidly media world it is necessary to defend a traditional book by force – power. On the contrary, one of its goals is to follow the transformations and current forms of the book, influenced by the dynamics of contemporary life.
This year, international guests include David Piovesan, Jana Rakúsová, Barbora Baronová, Jiří Hlinka, Antoinette Koleva, Karolína Voňková, Aurélia Garová, Tereza Maco, Karina Golisová, Marek Hudec, Jindřich Janíček, Ján Kralovič, Liliya Omelyanenko, Katarína Poliačiková, Barbara Sigmundová, Lucia Žatkuliaková and many more. You will also have a chance to meet with illustrators and their new works, so if you are near Bratislava the first half of May, do not hesitate to attend this great festival.
BRaK – Bratislava Book Festival was established in 2013 to create space for small, independent book creators and their works. The ambition of the festival is to present a credible picture of what is happening in the Central European book space, with an emphasis on the part of publishing production, which is not based solely on the demands and expectations of the consumer market. The focus of his attention is the interest in the current forms, transformations and functions of the book medium. BRaK is equally a festival of writers, publishers, translators, book graphic artists, illustrators, bookbinders, typographers and all other professions and crafts connected with books. The event takes place in cooperation with the Literary Information Centre and the Transbook project.
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