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Discussions with Małgorzata Lebda, Harry Josephine Giles, Joelle Taylor, Jelena Glazova and Krzysztof Czyżewski – the Miłosz Festival programme is here! During the event, held between 29 June and 6 July 2025, readers will have the opportunity to meet almost 70 authors. Debates, poetry readings, concerts, audiovisual presentations, workshops, performances… this year’s programme abounds with myriad poetry initiatives.Events are held at a few different venues; entry is free, but booking is required.
The motto of this year’s Miłosz Festival is “THIS” – the title of one his most important late poems, says Szymon Kloska, curator of the event. “THIS” is an old poet’s confession of his sense of humankind’s helplessness in the face of impending doom. This doom is presented as an inevitable part of our experience. Still, the poem seems to contain a hidden question: could our awareness of this thing the poet doesn’t dare name perhaps be a source of strength or hope?
Once again we have invited creative and activist circles from Kraków to shape the festival with us. As in previous years, festival meetings aren’t just held at the Potocki Palace: many events are held at Spółdzielnia Ogniwo, the Decjusz Villa and the home of the Kraków Branch of the Polish Writers’ Association, co-organiser of the festival, explains Maria Świątkowska, manager of the event. This year we are introducing many fascinating formats, she adds. As well as the traditional debates and poetry readings, we will also host performances, slams, spectacles, open mic events and concerts. We are determined to present poetry in all its formats.
Start of the festival: Romana Bobrowska Studio S-5 and the Decjusz Villa
This year’s festival kicks off on 29 June. The Romana Bobrowska Studio S-5 hosts Adam Ziemianin’s concert Polish Poets transmitted by Radio Kraków; there will also be the Second Night of the Mega Zine – a poetry competition and real-life editing of the Miłosz Festival almanac. All Sunday events are held at the Decjusz Villa. The programme includes meetings with poets, including Dagmara Kraus from Germany and Krzysztof Lisowski, as well as a discussion on Miłosz’s poetry volume THIS and finding traces of the Nobel laureate’s work in the latest poetry. The day closes with a discussion with poets nominated for the Wisława Szymborska Prize: Urszula Honek, Stanisław Kalina Jaglarz, Ola Lewandowska, Antonina Tosiek and Joanna Żabnicka.
Guests from abroad
Versopolis, a network of almost 40 European literary festivals supporting young poets and promoting their work outside their home countries, makes its mark during the celebration of poetry in Kraków. As part of our work with the network, this year we welcome the acclaimed spoken-word poet and performer Joelle Taylor, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Polari Book, and the Montenegrin poet Vladimir Đurišić. The audience will also meet Harry Josephine Giles whose volume Tonguit has been shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, as well as Penny Boxall, holder of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature Residency Programme. During her residency, the poet has been working on her performance Replaying the Tape; she presents its premiere at the Miłosz Festival.
The festival also hosts Myroslav Laiuk, winner of the Ukrainian LitAkcent prize, presenting Bakhmut, a collection of reportages from the front in Ukraine. Other guests include the multi-award winning Wayne Miller from the US and the translator Viktor Melnyk, author of the first translation of Juliusz Słowacki’s drama Kordian into Ukrainian. The Latvian poet and artist Jelena Glazova talks about her work and presents an audiovisual project.
Polish poetry
As usual, the festival celebrates the most important Polish poets working today. This time we welcome Małgorzata Lebda, winner of some of the most prestigious awards including the Gdynia Literary Award, the Wisława Szymborska Prize and the Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński Poetry Prize for Best Volume of the Year ORPHEUS. The audience will also meet Darek Foks, author, filmmaker and audiovisual artist, and Kasper Pfeifer, poet and holder of a scholarship of the Minister of Science and Higher Education Krzysztof Czyżewski, author, director, animator of intercultural activities and co-founder of the Borderlands Foundation, will deliver the traditional masterclass.
Mid-2025 sees the release of several poetry volumes many of which will be launched at the Miłosz Festival. The audience will meet authors including Jakub Gutkowski, winner of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature award for his collection livestream, and Krzysztof Pietrala discussing his volume Ao Manao.
Audience favourite Republica Poetica makes a welcome return; during the event festival guests read poems in several languages. There will also be traditional conversations about poetry, discussing works by Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska and Krystyna Miłobędzka.
Multiple dimensions of poetry: for kids, music lovers, theatre fans
Organisers of the Miłosz Festival are keen to ensure all events are highly diverse, so the programme includes poetry workshops for kids and young people, the spectacle Drama in Three Poetic Acts, concerts and audiovisual presentations. Participants will discuss the Emultipoetry project Poems on the Walls, listen to open mic performances and visit Radio Kraków to mark the 90th birthday of the poet and translator Elżbieta Zechenter-Spławińska. The event closes with a real treat: a poetry concert by Ryszard Krynicki.
Awards and prize winners
As usual, the festival includes the presentation of the Wisława Szymborska Prize. The audience will meet nominees and, the day following the gala, the winner of the prize. We will also talk to nominees for the Gdynia Literary Award in the poetry category.
All events are free although booking is required; tickets will be available two weeks before the start of the festival from www.kbfbilety.krakow.pl and via the KBF: PLUS app. The programme is available here. Festival headquarters are at the Potocki Palace.
For the latest information, follow the festival’s social media [XX].
The event is organised by the City of Kraków, Kraków Festival Office, operator of the Kraków UNESCO City of Literature programme, and the Polish Writes’ Association.
Partners: British Council, Versopolis, Wisława Szymborska Foundation, Wisława Szymborska Prize, Decjusz Villa Cultural Institute.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the programme promoting readership 2025.
The public task is financed by the City of Kraków.
KBF is a municipal cultural institution which has been supporting creative industries, cultural tourism, the meetings industry and the recreation market for over twenty years. Its main activities include literature, film, music, visual arts, tourism, local initiatives, and education. The institution implement and promote major cultural events on the local, national and international scales including Misteria Paschalia, the Film Music Festival in Kraków, the Conrad Festival, the Wianki Music Festival and many other widely recognisable brands. It is also the co-host of the Potocki Palace, publisher of magazines and operator of the Kraków Culture, Kraków UNESCO City of Literature and Kraków Film Commission programmes.
Celebration of the poet’s birthday, outstanding international authors and the most important figures of the world of Polish poetry!
Cynthia Haven, Yang Lian, Monika Herceg, Katja Gorečan, Dmitri Strocev, Yolanda Castaño and Hinemoana Baker are just some of the poets joining us for this year’s Miłosz Festival. The event is slated to start on 30 June – the birthday of Czesław Miłosz. The programme of Rescue – this year’s celebration of poetry in Kraków, features meetings with authors, debates, performative readings, discussions on the works by Czesław Miłosz, Anna Świrszczyńska, Adam Zagajewski and Andrzej Sosnowski, as well as talks with numerous Polish poets of the younger generation. This is the most important event of the Year of Czesław Miłosz!
“The Miłosz Festival starts on 30 June, birthday of the author of ‘The Land of Ulro’. This year’s edition is going to be particularly long – it will run until 7 July,” says the Festival’s curator Szymon Kloska. Like every year, the event will be an interdisciplinary celebration of poetry. Once again, war and violence will be among the festival themes. Rescue is a volume that features some of Miłosz’s most important poetic texts written during the occupation. These accusatory and ruthless works ask questions about the attitude of those who witness violence, about passivity and opposing evil.
The book Czesław Miłosz: A California Life, the Polish edition of which will be officially released during the festival, will be showcased by its author Cynthia Haven. The acclaimed scholar will not only speak at a meeting concerning the Californian period of Czesław Miłosz’s life, but will also give a masterclass. These are not the only events dedicated to the poet’s oeuvre during the festival!
We will talk with Croatian author Monika Herceg, laureate of this year’s European Poet of Freedom Literary Award of the City of Gdańsk, about her Okres ochronny. In her poems, this acclaimed Croatian artist of the young generation weaves a story about her personal experience of war and being a refugee. In addition to poetry, she writes plays and works as an editor and screenwriter.
Yang Lian, one of the most important authors of contemporary Chinese poetry and a well-known advocate for freedom of expression will showcase his work to the festival audience. Recently, he won the Zbigniew Herbert International Prize for Literature. It showcases a vast vision, a poetry so dense and rich that it evokes a sense of strangeness. It is a precious feeling and a challenge to encounter the unknown sensibility, to plunge into a new world,” was how poet Krystyna Dąbrowska, a member of the Award Jury, described his work.
During the eight-day festival of poetry in the heart of Krakow, participants will meet artists from different cultural backgrounds. We will be hosting Syrian poet Rasha Habbal (who will talk about her new book Czego jeszcze nie zaczęliśmy), Slovenian author Katja Gorečan, Belarusian author Dmitry Strocev, as well as Latvian poet Inga Gaile and Latvian poet and translator of Czesław Miłosz’s works Māris Salējs. Spanish author Yolanda Castaño, Hinemoana Baker from New Zealand, Riga-born Semyon Chanin and German authors – Birgit Kreipe and Nadja Küchenmeister – will also join us during the festival.
As part of the Critical Balance stream, we will meet the doyens of Polish poetry who will talk about their latest volumes and their creative endeavours to date. The list of invited guests includes Joanna Oparek, Marcin Sendecki and Marcin Baran. The festival also offers an opportunity to discover the latest volumes of poetry. Some of the premieres include volumes by Agata Puwalska, Anna Matysiak, Mariusz Grzebalski, Marcin Podlaski, Paweł Stasiewicz, Marcin Melecki and others.
The year 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of one of the most important Polish poets of the 20th century – Anna Świrszczyńska. It is also the best opportunity to revisit the work of this distinguished author, who was promoted by Czesław Miłosz himself both in Poland and in the English-speaking world, especially in view of a resurgence of her poetry, which will be covered in detail by Katarzyna Szopa, author of the phenomenal monograph Wybuch wyobraźni. Poezja Anny Świrszczyńskiej wobec reprodukcji życia społecznego.
Andrzej’s poetry will feature prominently in the event’s programme. His poems will be read by Joanna Łępicka, Agata Puwalska, Przemek Suchanecki, Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało and Radosław Jurczak, and the poet will talk about his work with Joanna Orska and Radosław Jurczak.
Poetic releases
A number of book premieres, including volumes of poetry, will await the festival goers. The Land of Urlo and Rescue, reissued by the Znak publishing house, are true treasures for lovers of Miłosz’s poetry. The readers will also have the opportunity to read the collection of the poet’s letters to Tymoteusz Karpowicz, written in 1965-2003. Volumes by international authors, including Hinemoana Baker, Natalia Belchenko, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Glück, Katja Gorečan, Rasha Habal, Dmitri Strocev and Pablo Neruda, will also be available for purchase. The festival will also see the releases of publications by Polish authors, including Marcin Baran, Zygmunt Fick, Wojciech Kopiec, Joanna Oparek, Agata Puwalska, Marcin Podlaski, Marcin Sendecki, Andrzej Sosnowski, Paweł Stasiewicz and Adam Zagajewski.
Admission to all events is free of charge with a complimentary pass available two weeks before the festival at kbfbilety.krakow.pl and via the KBF: PLUS app. The full programme for the event will be available soon at miloszfestival.pl. The festival centre will be located at the Potocki Palace.
The Miłosz Festival is organised by: The City of Kraków and the Krakow Festival Office, operator of the Kraków: UNESCO City of Literature programme.
