Ljubljana/Rogaška Slatina - The 19th Pranger Festival will kick off Wednesday evening with a poetry night at the Trubar House of Literature in Ljubljana. Taking place in the capital and in Rogaška Slatina in the east, the festival will see discussions on poetry and translation criticism, as well as presentation of the Stritar Prize for up-and-coming literary critics.

The opening night will feature readings by Nina Dragičević, Neža Zajc, Kristina Hočevar, Meta Kušar, Kristina Kočan in Jernej Županič, along with Ukrainian poets Eugenia Chuprina and Ivan Baidak.

Several poetry collections will be put up for discussion, including Nina Dragičević's award-winning collection To Telo, Pokončno (This Body, Upright). The discussions will take place from 7 to 9 July at the Rogaška Slatina Culture Centre.

On Friday, Ana's Mansion in Rogaška Slatina will host a ceremony for this year's Stritar Prize for up-and coming literary critics given out by the Slovenian Writers' Association.

The foreign language in-focus this year is English. Nada Grošelj, moderator of the round table discussion on English as a translation language in poetry, says it will most likely take place on 13 October at the ZRC SAZU building in Ljubljana. Guest speakers will be authors Jernej Zupančič and Erica Johnson Debeljak.

The yearly conceptual debate has been postponed to autumn due to a cancellation by one of the guest speakers, festival manager Urška P. Černe has told the STA. This year's main topic will be Poetry and Anger. Slovenian literature is full of anger, but no one reflects on it, she said.

The Critics Studio, also a part of Pranger, will take place in Ljubljana and Maribor in October and November. It will include workshops on literary and translation criticism led by Urška P. Černe and Maja Šučur.