 Mar 1 2024 - Mar 22 2024

 Ljubljana

The 21st international literary festival Fabula will bring to Ljubljana last year's winner of the Booker Prize Georgi Gospodinov, Catalan poet and writer Pol Guasch, Czech writer Lucia Faulerova, Serbian author Milena Marković, Russian writer Marija Stepanova and Bulgarian author Kapka Kasabova.

This year's guests share lyrical language. Women authors tend to be more focussed on the past, while the men typically look towards the future, portraying apocalyptic and utopian pictures of the world, the festival's head Aljaž Koprivnikar says.

Running under the theme What Shapes Us, the festival will question the time loop of both the past and the future, which shapes both the individual and society.

New to this year's festival is an international residency programme for up-and-coming young authors, Fabula Hub Balkan Literary Odyssey, in collaboration with partner festivals in Croatia and Serbia.

The selected author will enjoy a month-long residency, journeys between Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade, and the publication of his/her literary work with test translations into Croatian and Serbian.

The author in focus of this year's Fabula Hub and the international residency programme is Guasch, who will also be present at the opening event.

The festival, organised by the publisher Beletrina in cooperation with the Cankarjev Dom arts centre, will be accompanied by a number of events and activities for all age groups.