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The idea for the festival was given by poet Lucija Stupica, who felt in the early 2000s that the existing Slovenian literary festivals (Vilenica, Medana) lacked reflection on poetry and dialogue between poets and critics.

Since the essence of this festival lies in direct confrontation of critics, poets and translators of poetry, the organisers decided on the name "pranger", the pillory - a device put in mediaeval squares to publicly expose somebody.

The festival remains faithful to its original idea of inviting three literary critics to each choose three Slovenian poets and to promote their poetry as part of the festival, which will close at the weekend.

The nine selected poets will be invited to take part in a debate which takes a critical look at their poetry, while a selection of their poems are read at the festival and translated into a foreign language, this year into Russian.

The festival will open with an exhibition on poetry and ideology at the Trubar Literature House in Ljubljana and a debate featuring poets Renata Šribar and Miklavž Komelj, festival director Urška P. Černe told the press before the festival.

The second day will be dedicated to contemporary Russian poetry, featuring Russian poets Victor Ivanov and Kirill Korchagin as well as translator of Russian poetry into German Hendrik Jackson, TV Slovenija Moscow correspondent Andrej Stopar and Slovenian translator from Russian Borut Kraševec, among others.

The festival will close on Saturday with the awarding of the EUR 1,500 Stritar Prize to an up-and-coming Slovenian literary critic by the Slovenian Writers' Association. This will be the first time that the award is given out as part of the festival.