ICORN and Anzhelina Polonskaya at Bookstan in Sarajevo

Bookstan, the International Bookstore Festival of Literature in Sarajevo, will take place from July 4th to July 7th. This year’s festival has a focus on Germany and when ICORN was invited to participate it was therefore natural to also invite one of the ICORN residents in Germany; Polonskaya, who is a renowned Russian poet, came to Frankfurt two years ago, and her work has been extensively translated into German.

Focusing on the space that neither belongs to the east nor to the west, and authors who most often act in disturbed circumstances or are the second and third generation of emigrants, the Bookstan festival in its second edition devotes special attention to those who write in the German language, regardless of their origin or their immediate place of residence. The programme will take place the garden of the Buybok bookstore in Radiceva Street and at the Academy of Fine Arts, or in its gallery, where most literary presentations will be realized.

Among the other festival guests are Hanif Kureishi, John Freeman, Xiaolu Gio, Tijana Sila, Ilija Trojanow, Abbas Khider and Nell Veremey. Bookstan also promotes regional authors and publishing, from Macedonia, Slovenia and Croatia with Damir Karakaš, Rumena Bužarovska, Tihomir Jančovski, Goran Vojnović and Tadej Golob.

With attention to their international and domestic partners, they have also invited ICORN to speak about the work with persecuted writers and artists, seeking to further network those involved in producing and promoting books, and supporting authorship and literary translation. Wednesday July 4th ICORNs Programme Officer Marianne Hovdan will be onstage in a debate moderated by Šejla Šehabović, Poet and Director of Museum of Literature and Theatre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Anzhelina Polonskaya will share her experiences of working in exile and read some of her poetry.