At tonight's opening ceremony, the Central European Initiative in cooperation with the Slovenian Writers' Association, will present a writer's scholarship aimed at promoting young authors to Ajla Terzić from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Until Saturday the festival will feature 39 literary readings at 19 venues across Slovenia and beyond the border with Italy. As many as 42 authors from all over the world will present their works.

The organisers, the Slovenian Writers' Association and the Cultural Society Vilenica, have decided to give special attention this year to Hebrew literature and authors who, for various reasons, do not write in their homeland and their mother tongue.

The peak of the festival will be Saturday's ceremony at the cave that gave the festival its name, where David Albahari, a Canada-residing Serbian writer of Jewish origin, will receive the main festival prize with President Danilo Türk delivering the keynote speech.

Last year, the prize went to Romanian writer Mircea Cartarescu.