This year’s edition of the festival offers audiences as many as nine book premieres – including novels, biographies, poetry, and literature for younger readers. Each publication will be accompanied by talks and meetings that will offer an opportunity not only to take a closer look at the texts themselves, but also to explore the broader social and cultural contexts in which they were created. It will also be a great opportunity to meet and talk with authors, translators, and readers.  

The 18th edition of the Lublin-based Different Sounds organised by Workshops of Culture is already ahead of us, as is the 12th edition held as part of East of Culture – a project carried out by the National Centre for Culture with funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and by three cities in eastern Poland – Lublin, Białystok, and Rzeszów.

Among this year’s upcoming premieres are books that shed light on the most intimate recesses of memory, expand the boundaries of imagination, and take a close look at human lives – historical, fictional, and forgotten.

In his monumental “Czas miedzi” (trans. Siniša Kasumović), Slobodan Šnajder reconstructs the dramatic saga of his own family, set against the history of the 20th century – from Slavonia to the wartime fate of the Balkan Germans – creating a portrait of Europe torn apart by ideologies. Meanwhile, Birutė Jonuškaitė’s “Lista obecności” (trans. Agnieszka Rembiałkowska) is a kind of primer for reading women who come from different eras and different levels of culture.

“Gwiazdozbiór Kury” by Sofija Andruchowycz (trans. Andrij Saweneć) is a fairy-tale journey through the Carpathians, full of magic, humour, and wisdom about life, sure to delight both children and adults. In a similar vein – though in the shadow of a contemporary tragedy – Ołeksandr Myched (trans. Andrij Saweneć), in “Kotek, Kogutek, Szafka”, tells a story of war, survival, and tenderness during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The biographical strand features the moving story of Maya Deren. Oksana Łuszczewska’s book “Ta Maya, co filmy kręciła” (trans. Wira Romanyszyn) portrays the outstanding avant-garde director and bears witness to the power of dreams. In “Mój pierwszy schron” (trans. Zbigniew Dmitroca), Igor Pomierancew interweaves memories, reportage, and essays, giving voice to his own memories and to the traumas of contemporary Ukraine.

There will also be something for lovers of literary experimentation. “Tom & Tom” by Wasyl Słapczuk (trans. Halina Surowiec) explores writing, literature, and the life of a creator. “Jak zostałam świętą” by Tania Malarczuk (trans: Anna Łazar) is a book about the transformative power of literature and the power of imagination, but also a satire based on observations of the psychological types of post-Soviet man, viewed from a broad queer perspective.

Also worthy of attention is “Solea Minor” by Evelin Márton (trans. Daniel Warmuz) – a lyrical, grotesque dystopia about the last remaining fragment of the world, loneliness, prophecy, destiny, and the struggle with “mad desires”.

We will meet the authors (except for the authors of “Gwiazdozbiór Kury” and “Jak zostałam świętą”) and translators of the aforementioned books during this year’s edition of the festival. All literary meetings will take place at the Workshops of Culture in Lublin at Grodzka 7 and 5a.

About the Wschodni Express publishing series

The aim of “Wschodni Express” is to present Polish readers with the latest literary works from Poland’s eastern neighbours, addressing the issues most relevant to these societies, while maintaining a critical distance and a sense of humour in their perspectives on Europe, themselves in Europe, and Europe within themselves.

The Wschodni Express series primarily publishes prose and essays spanning a wide range of genres, as well as poetry. Our authors include some of the most prominent writers from Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania, such as Jurij Andruchowycz, Andrij Bondar, Oleksandr Bojchenko, Andrij Lubka, Hałyna Kruk, Mykoła Riabczuk, and Natalka Śniadanko, as well as writers who are still unknown in Poland. Our books include, among others, short stories by Ołeh Sencow, a director and prose writer who spent five years imprisoned in labour camps in present-day Russia. We are proud to collaborate, among others, with Bohdan Zadura, one of Poland’s foremost translators of Ukrainian prose and poetry.

The name of the series refers to such famous “literary train” projects as the European Literaturexpress Europa 2000 – more than one hundred writers and poets from 43 countries travelled from Lisbon to Berlin – and the Ukrainian Potyah76 (Train 76), an online magazine devoted to the culture of Central and Eastern Europe.

About the Literary Eastern Express project

Five books (Sofija Andruchowycz “The Hen Constellation”; Wasyl Słapczuk “Tom & Tom”; Oksana Łuszczewska “That Maya Who Made Films”; Ołeksandr Myched “Kitten, Rooster, Cupboard”; Tania Malarczuk “How I Became a Saint”) will be published as part of the Literary Eastern Express (LEE) project. It is being implemented as part of the European Union’s “Creative Europe” programme. Its aim is to promote the literature, culture, and art of Eastern Europe by publishing high-quality works by contemporary Ukrainian authors in print, as well as in e-book and audiobook formats. The activities are intended to introduce Polish readers to writers and artists previously unknown on the Polish market, support cultural and linguistic diversity, and provide Ukrainian refugees with access to high-quality literature. In 2024-2026, 16 works will be translated from Ukrainian into Polish as part of LEE.

The Literary Eastern Express project is part of the European Capital of Culture 2029 programme.

Schedule of literary meetings

Thursday, July 3

16:00–17:00 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Slobodan Šnajder “Czas miedzi” (translated from Croatian by Siniša Kasumović).

Participants: Slobodan Šnajder – author, Siniša Kasumović – translator, Agnieszka Krawiec – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, HRV, PJM

The novel “Czas miedzi” is considered Slobodan Šnajder’s magnum opus. At the heart of the book is the story of the author’s family, particularly his father, who was conscripted into the Wehrmacht during World War II. But the Croatian writer’s work is more than a family saga. It is also a powerful historical novel about generations caught up in the dramatic events of the past and condemned to inherit the conflicting fates of their ancestors. Šnajder draws on his own biography to capture two hundred years of conflict and divisive ideologies. In the process, he reconstructs a world that has fallen apart. Kempf leaves his homeland with his fellow countrymen in search of a better future. They settle in Slavonia (a historical region in eastern Croatia, situated between the Sava and Drava rivers). Years and generations pass, and the Germans make Slavonia their home. But in 1940, when Europe is once again at war, this minority is called upon to fight for the Reich, for a country that is now foreign to them.

The book was praised by numerous reviewers. The French “Le Monde” wrote: “Like Olga Tokarczuk, Šnajder has created a novel about a Europe that has lost its diversity and been destroyed by fascism, communism, and, in more recent times, nationalism… A contemporary epic”. Journalists at the Croatian newspaper “Jutarnji list” were equally enthusiastic. “It is undoubtedly the most important novel in Croatian literature of recent years”, they wrote.

Slobodan Šnajder (born in 1948 in Zagreb) is a Croatian writer and journalist, author of short stories, plays, and essays. He studied philosophy and English philology. He was a co-founder and editor of “Prolog”, a journal about theatre. His play “Skóra węża” was published in the journal “Dialog”, and in 1999 it was presented to audiences in Kraków and Warsaw. The novel “Czas miedzi” has been translated into Slovenian, Macedonian, German, Italian, Dutch, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and English, and has received numerous awards, including the Meša Selimović Award, the Mirko Kovač Award, the Radomir Konstantinović Award, and the “Kočić’s Pen”. The author lives and works on one of the islands of the central Adriatic.

Siniša Kasumović (born in 1966 in Osijek) is a translator who graduated in sociology from the University of Łódź. He works at a music school in Skierniewice, runs two music associations, and occasionally plays bass guitar during jazz events in Skierniewice. From 2018 to 2021, he wrote short columns for the local newspaper “ITS”. He began translating literature in 2009. Initially, he translated Polish literature into Croatian (Stasiuk, Miłosz, Varga), and since 2018 he has translated Croatian literature into Polish. Around 10 books have been published in his translations so far. He is still waiting for his literary debut.

17:30–18:30 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Sofija Andruchowycz “Gwiazdozbiór Kury” (translated from Ukrainian by Andrij Saweneć).

Participants: Andrij Saweneć – translator, Jacek Podsiadło – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, PJM

Gwiazdozbiór Kury is a warm and humorous story by Sofija Andruchowycz for readers of all generations. It tells of an extraordinary friendship that connects generations, people, and animals, set in the heart of the Carpathians. Old Maria and her beloved hen Mariczka set off on a journey through a dark forest, where surprises, dangers, and magical encounters await them. It is a story about courage, loneliness, and hope, showing that even in the darkest places, light can be found, and inviting us to reflect on what truly matters. In 2017, the book was included on the White Ravens list of the International Youth Library in Munich. Andrij Saweneć’s Polish translation is being published in two versions. The print edition reproduces the graphic design of the original edition, with illustrations by the book’s originator, writer and illustrator Mariana Prochaśko, who created collages from her own drawings and photographs by Olena Subacz. In the audio version, the text is read by acclaimed actress, author, and journalist Beata Jewiarz.

Sofija Andruchowycz (born in 1982 in Ivano-Frankivsk) is a Ukrainian writer, translator, and journalist. She graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Printing in Lviv. She is the author of Lato Mileny (2002), Starzy ludzie (2003), Kobiety ich mężczyzn (2005, Polish edition 2007), Siomga (2007, Polish edition 2009), Felix Austria (2014, Polish edition 2016), Amadoka (2020), and Katananche (2024). She is a co-editor of the journal “Czetwer” and has translated books by, among others, Manuela Gretkowska, J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, Tony Judt, Ayn Rand, and Kazuo Ishiguro. She has received scholarships from the Polish-German “Homines Urbani” scholarship project and the “Gaude Polonia” scholarship programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the “Smoloskyp” Literary Award (2001), the “Litakcent of the Year” Award (2014), the “BBC Book of the Year” Award (2014), the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Award (2015), the Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award (2017), and the Sholem Aleichem Award (2023).

Andrij Saweneć (born in 1977 in Kornyn, Ukraine) is a translator and translation scholar. He graduated from Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State Pedagogical University and the European College of Polish and Ukrainian Universities. He received his doctorate from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, where he also taught. He is the author of the monograph Poezja w przekładzie: „ukraińska” Szymborska (2006) and numerous articles on translation studies. His Ukrainian translations include novels by Ernest Hemingway and Salman Rushdie, as well as three selections of poems by Wisława Szymborska. He edited and translated the Polish-Ukrainian poetry anthology Lublin z dala, Lublin z bliska (2017). His Polish translations include, among others, Jurko Hudzi’s poem Barykady na Krzyżu (2014), a selection of columns by Mykoła Riabczuk, Poprzednie życie (2018), and the long-form interview Worochtarium (2019) by Jurij Andruchowycz, Ołeksandr Bojchenko, and Orest Drul. He is a co-editor of the Wschodni Express publishing series.

Friday, July 4

16:30–17:00 | “Between Black and White” – opening of the exhibition of drawings by Daiva Kairevičiūtė | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – ground floor POL (exhibition open: July 3-6 | 10:00–18:00)

The exhibition invites visitors to see, in large-format drawings, a field full of allegories, where female figures create images saturated with elements of drama, tragicomedy, and mystery plays. Line, colour, light, and rhythms composed through bodies come together to build the choreography of an event. In her drawings, the artist, by way of a negative, creates figures containing elements of both the aesthetically “divine” and the “chthonic-demonic” worlds, existing within the souls and thoughts of each of the figures.

Daiva Kairevičiūtė (born in 1971) is a graphic artist, painter, and photographer who lives and works in Vilnius. She is a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association. She actively participates in national and international exhibitions.

17:00–18:00 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Birutė Jonuškaitė “Lista obecności” (translated from Lithuanian by Agnieszka Rembiałkowska).

Participants: Birutė Jonuškaitė – author, Agnieszka Rembiałkowska – translator, Jadwiga Graboś – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, PJM

Seventy poems – written by the author in the margins of life over more than a decade – form a kind of primer for reading women. The figures appear in alphabetical order: from the Altruist to the “life-weary, grey-haired and ‘assumed into heaven’” woman with three asterisks. They come from different eras and different levels of culture – from the goddess Liethua, Saint Veronica, and a whole series of Veronicas, to the nameless inhabitant of a sarcophagus in Reims, Manon and Madame Butterfly, rural women of the 19th century, and 20th-century Lithuanian and Latvian cultural figures. Among them are emigrants, artists and cleaners, villains and friends, beloved relatives. They search for their identities, create and destroy, fall in love, betray and suffer from betrayal, cast spells on the world, give birth, die, accompany others in dying, remember. They “materialise” in the narrative, which is not always told from their perspective, but is always empathetic – they monologue, dialogue, or simply emerge from a detail, an impression, an artefact.

Birutė Jonuškaitė was born into a Lithuanian family in the Sejny region. She is a poet, prose writer, essayist, and translator. She graduated in journalism from Vilnius University. She writes novels, short stories, and poetry, and translates Polish literature into Lithuanian. She translates contemporary Polish poetry and has translated novels by H. Krall, J. Dehnel, and M. Tulli,  as well as works by J. Rudnicki, M. Guśniowska, J. Korczak, M. Duszka, and B. Gruszka-Zych. She served for many years as president of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union.  She was one of the first researchers of the work of Czesław Miłosz in independent Lithuania. She has received numerous literary and cultural awards. In 2006, she was honoured with the Witold Hulewicz Award for bringing Polish and Lithuanian literature closer together, as well as with the Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2020, she received the Baltic Council Award for her literary work.  In 2025, she received the Medal of the Order “For Merits to Lithuania” for her exceptional command of the Lithuanian language and her artistic portrayal of the inhabitants of her region. Her short stories and poems have been translated into English, Polish, Georgian, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, German, Spanish, French, Slovak, Slovenian, Greek, Czech, and Croatian. In Poland, her poetry collection Dziecko o posiwiałych oczach (2004) and the novels Maranta (2020) and Maestro (2022) have been published.

Agnieszka Rembiałkowska (born in 1980) is a Baltic studies scholar, academic teacher affiliated, among others, with the University of Warsaw, translator, and editor. She has been publishing literary translations from Lithuanian (less frequently from Latvian) since 2005. She has participated in translation seminars and workshops and has co-organised the Spring of Poetry festival in Warsaw since 2016. She is a member of the Association of Literary Translators. She received the translation award of the international literary festival Poezijos pavasaris (2018) for her translations of poetry books by Sigitas Geda, Nijolė Miliauskaitė (with Alina Kuzborska), and Vladas Braziūnas; she was also the recipient of the Algis Kalėda Award (2022). She was nominated for the European Poet of Freedom Award (2020, for her translation of the poetry collection Właśnie: by Agnė Žagrakalytė) and the Gdynia Literary Award (2021, for her translation of the novel Maranta by Birutė Jonuškaitė).

 18:30–19:30 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Igor Pomierancew “Mój pierwszy schron” (translated from Russian by Zbigniew Dmitroca).

Participants: Igor Pomierancew – author, Zbigniew Dmitroca – translator, Ludwika Włodek – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, ENG, PJM

Igor Pomierancew’s work is not unknown to Polish readers. His works have been published numerous times in leading literary and socio-cultural journals and have also appeared in book editions, including the anthology Radio Swoboda and the bilingual edition KGB i inne wiersze. The collection Mój pierwszy schron is his latest book, published in Kyiv in 2023. It consists of several dozen spirited prose pieces: short stories, memoirs, reportage pieces, and columns. Its main themes are the author’s childhood and youth, the pandemic, old age and death, and the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The author, a retired Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist living in Prague, remains spiritually and emotionally connected to Ukraine, as he spent his youth in Bukovina.

Igor Pomierancew (born in 1948 in Saratov) is a poet, prose writer, essayist, radio journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He grew up and studied in Chernivtsi, where he has been associated with the Meridian Czernowitz festival for many years. From 1978 onwards, he emigrated to the West, living successively in Germany, England, and the Czech Republic. For forty years, he was associated with international radio broadcasters, including the BBC and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

In his literary work, he works with the four elements: water (Późny zbiór – a book about wine), earth (Czernowitz. Черновцы. Чернiвцi), air (Słyszycie mnie? – a radio diary), and fire (Homo Eroticus – love poetry). His poetry and prose have been translated into Ukrainian, English, Polish, Czech, German, and other languages. He is also a documentary filmmaker, including films devoted to the war in Ukraine (Szew. Psycholog na wojnie, Amputacja).

Zbigniew Dmitroca (born in 1962) is a poet, translator, satirist, prose writer, and playwright. He is the author of five volumes of poetry, the limerick collection Alfabet imion, and more than seventy books for children. He has translated or co-translated more than twenty volumes of poetry, including works by Akhmatova, Brodsky, Khodasevich, and Tsvetaeva, as well as the anthology of contemporary Russian poetry Radio Swoboda. He is the creator, author, and actor of the one-man suitcase theatre company Teatrzyk jak się patrzy. He has collaborated with Radio Lublin and the Polish Radio Two. His work has appeared in “Akcent”, “Czas Literatury”, “Fraza”, “Kresy”, “Literatura”, “Literatura na Świecie”, “Odra”, “Przekrój”, “Twórczość”, “Wyspa”, and “Zeszyty Literackie”. One of his children’s books was published in Turkey and two in Ukraine.

Saturday, July 5

15:00–16:00 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Evelin Márton “Solea Minor” (translated from Hungarian by Daniel Warmuz).

Participants: Evelin Márton – author, Daniel Warmuz  – translator, Zośka Papużanka – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, HUN, PJM

What book would you take to a deserted island? Dżemme reads an encyclopaedia, tends the cemetery, gazes out at the endless horizon, and talks to seals. But Solea Minor is not entirely deserted. It is also inhabited by an eccentric shopkeeper, his wife, who is more cat than woman, and a host of other extraordinary characters who form clans. On the island, the last remaining fragment of Earth to survive the end of history, everything follows its own rules. Only the fulfilment of a prophecy – the arrival of the blue-eyed E’Lama – will change Dżemme’s life. Will they find a common language, and will the cemetery keeper come to believe in miracles? Evelin Márton’s lyrical, grotesque, and humorous book is a story about loneliness, destiny, the search for truth, and the struggle with “mad desires”. The dystopian reality of Solea Minor may equally reflect the fate of small communities or speak of life in a post-pandemic world exposed to ever new threats.

Evelin Márton (born in 1980) − writer, journalist, and editor associated with the literary magazine “Helikon”. She studied art history at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and trained in athletics in her youth. She lived in Bucharest for more than a decade, but as she says: “My homeland is language; I can take it with me wherever I go, because it lives within me”. She made her debut in 2008 with the collection of novellas Bonjour Leibowitz, followed by the collection Macskaméz (Cat’s Honey, 2011), the novels Papírszív (Paper Heart, 2012) and Szalamandrák éjszakái (Nights of Salamanders, 2015, translated into Romanian), and most recently Farkashab (Wolf Foam, 2022). She is the recipient of several awards, including the László Csiki Award (2016), the Award for Contributions to Contemporary Hungarian Transylvanian Culture (2017), and the Zsigmond Kemény Scholarship (2019).

Daniel Warmuz (born in 1987) − a graduate in Polish and Hungarian studies from Jagiellonian University. He lived in Budapest for several years. He graduated from the postgraduate literary translation course at the Balassi Institute in Budapest. He researches, translates, and promotes Hungarian literature. He is the author of academic articles, essays, and reviews. His interests include contemporary literature, theatre, and translation studies. In his free time, he takes photographs. In 2013, he appeared in the play 174/B. Az igazság szolgái (174/B. In the Service of Justice) by the PanoDráma theatre group. He is a two-time winner of the translation competition organised by the Sándor Petőfi Museum of Literature in Budapest (2013, 2015) and the recipient of the Adam Włodek Award presented by the Wisława Szymborska Foundation (2019). In 2022, he received the Angelus Central European Literature Prize for Translators for his translation of Zoltán Mihály Nagy’s novel Szatański pomiot.

16:30–17:30 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Wasyl Słapczuk “Tom & Tom” (translated from Ukrainian by Halina Surowiec).

Participants: Wasyl Słapczuk  – author, Halina Surowiec – translator, Łukasz Wojtusik  – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, UKR, PJM

Wasyl Słapczuk’s novel Tom & Tom, now being presented to Polish readers, might be called a great metatext. Its greatness lies not in the book’s length, but in its subtle, multilayered play with literature and within literature. Słapczuk has made great literature itself the protagonist, allowing it to express itself anew – by embodying it in the title character, Tom. In the original, his name is Roman, while the word in Ukrainian simply means “novel”. It is therefore a novel about literature, a powerful love cantata dedicated to the word and the mystery of the creative process. The symbolism of the fortress-house introduced in the first part of the novel is reinforced and multiplied in later sections. It is crucial to understanding the novel as a whole as a microcosm of the narrator and his characters. The house can be a labyrinth and a voluntary prison for a creator committed to productivity; it can also be a place where wounds are healed in a country engulfed by war.

Wasyl Słapczuk (born in 1961) – poet, prose writer, literary critic, literary scholar, and translator from Volhynia. He was seriously wounded while serving in the military in Afghanistan. He is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry and several volumes of novels and short stories. In Poland, his works published in print include the selection of poems Wieczorne słońce (2019) and the novels Kobieta ze śniegu (2012), Księga zapomnienia (2014), nominated for the semi-finals of the Angelus Central European Literature Award, and Ten sam kurz drogi (2021). He is also the author of collections of literary criticism, essays, and books for children. He has received numerous literary awards, including the Taras Shevchenko National Prize. He has been awarded the “Meritorious for Polish Culture” badge.

Halina Surowiec (born in 1981) – literary historian, Polish philologist, and translator from Ukrainian. She is passionate about the literature of the eastern borderlands. She is the author of the monograph Sen o Ukrainie, devoted to the Ukrainian school in Polish literature of the interwar period. Her Polish translations include Na brzegu Jarynia by Aleksander Kondratiew and the novel Zniewolona, based on the television series that has enjoyed enormous popularity in Poland. She co-translated Zapiski o Annie Achmatowej by Lidia Chukovskaya, among other works. She prepared for publication the correspondence between Yevhen Malaniuk and Jerzy Giedroyc (1948–1963), a selection of Józef Łobodowski’s journalism, Poeta wobec ruchów sejsmicznych historii, and wrote the afterword to the first collected edition of Opowiadania podolskie. Przed wschodem księżyca by Julian Wołoszynowski.

17:45–18:45 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Oksana Łuszczewska “Ta Maya, co filmy kręciła” (translated from Ukrainian by Wira Romanyszyn).

Participants: Oksana Łuszczewska – author (online), Wira Romanyszyn – translator, Rafał Szczerbakiewicz – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 5a – 2nd floor POL, UKR, PJM

Oksana Łuszczewska’s moving story Ta Maya, co filmy kręciła introduces young readers to Maya Deren, the Kyiv-born director, actress, screenwriter, and photographer. In the face of antisemitic pogroms, Maya and her family emigrate to the USA, where she discovers a passion for photography that leads her into the world of avant-garde cinema. The author shows how imagination and determination help Maya overcome life’s difficulties, while Olena Vasyna’s imaginative illustrations capture the extraordinary atmosphere of her work. This is not only a biography, but also a story about the power of dreams and how passion can shape a life and influence world culture.

Oksana Łuszczewska – Ukrainian writer, author of 60 books for children and young adults, translator, literary scholar, and member of the Ukrainian PEN Club. She completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Georgia in the USA, where she taught children’s literature. She prepared reviews of translated books for the American section of IBBY and wrote about Ukrainian children’s literature for the “IBBY European Newsletter”. She is the author of the libretto for the musical Mysz Szusza Show. Her books have been published in Ukraine, the USA, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Poland. She is the recipient of numerous literary competition awards, including the Of Earth and Sky poetry competition (2020). In 2017, her story Wiatr spod słońca was included on the White Ravens list of the International Youth Library in Munich, while the British edition of her book Cicha noc, mój astronaucie was included among the five best books of 2024 by “The Financial Times”. She is the founder and curator of the creative group “STORY+JA” and teaches creative writing courses.

Wira Romanyszyn – holds a PhD in the humanities, graduated from Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University in Drohobych, and is a teacher of Polish as a foreign language and a translator. From 2004 to 2019, she worked at the Igor Meniok Polish Studies Research and Information Centre at Drohobych University. From 2008 to 2016, she coordinated international cooperation for the “Alter” Artistic Association. She was a recipient of a Józef Mianowski Foundation scholarship (2010) and the “Gaude Polonia” programme scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland (2014).

Sunday, July 6

13:00–14:00 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Ołeksandr Myched “Kotek, Kogutek, Szafka” (translated from Ukrainian by Andrij Saweneć).

Participants: Ołeksandr Myched – author, Andrij Saweneć – translator, Ryszard Kupidura – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, UKR, PJM

Kotek, Kogutek, Szafka – the events of this fairy-tale story take place in the town of Borodianka near Kyiv during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The story intertwines the lives of Grandma Liza, her granddaughter Sonia, and their extraordinary household companions – the Cupboard, the Rooster, and the Kitten, who become silent witnesses to destruction and survival. In the background are memories of the past, wartime trauma, and tenderness contained in small gestures of everyday life. It is a story about the strength of family bonds, love for one’s homeland, and the struggle for survival – both of life and memory. The inspiration for the book was a real symbol of resilience: a wooden cupboard that survived the Russian bombardment of Borodianka. The author is writer, cultural scholar, and soldier Ołeksandr Myched, who himself lost his home in the bombardment of Hostomel. Thanks to the extraordinary illustrations by Kyiv-based illustrator Żenia Połosina, the book was included among the winners of the 6th International Illustrated Book Contest NAMI CONCOURS 2023.

Ołeksandr Myched (born in 1988 in Nizhyn) – Ukrainian writer, cultural scholar, cultural manager, curator, educator, and translator. He is a member of the Ukrainian Center of the International PEN Club. He graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and holds a PhD in the humanities. He is the author of 10 books of prose, two of which have been published in Poland: Zmieszam z węglem twoją krew. Zrozumieć ukraiński wschód (2023) and Kryptonim dla Hioba. Kroniki inwazji (2025). His book The Language of War was included among the best books of 2024 by the British newspaper “The Telegraph”. He was curator of the literary programme at PinchukArtCentre (2010–2012), the literary programme at GogolFest (2012–2013), and numerous exhibitions. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he lived with his family in Hostomel near Kyiv for four years. His home was destroyed by a missile during the first week of the invasion. He currently serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

14:30–15:30 | Wschodni Express | Book premiere: Tania Malarczuk “Jak zostałam świętą” (translated from Ukrainian by Anna Łazar).

Participants: Anna Łazar – translator, Marta Odulińska – moderator | Workshops of Culture, Grodzka 7 – patio POL, PJM

The book consists of several stories whose characters move between them, above all accompanied by the omniscient voice of the narrator. At the centre is a girl who is both the protagonist and the sole creator of the plots. She invents worlds, male and female characters. In an instant, she changes the prevailing hierarchies and reveals intrigues. It is a book about the transformative power of literature and the power of imagination, but also a satire based on observations of the psychological types of post-Soviet man, viewed from a broad queer perspective. The action takes place, among other settings, in a boarding house that is constantly expanding, in a small town where the female protagonists are surveilled by a self-appointed committee responsible for maintaining order, and in an apartment with fluid boundaries, where geysers appear in the hallway, accompanied by volcanic rabbits. The boarding house is deliberately flooded from time to time so that people can canoe through it. In the town, the fact that two women – perhaps mother and daughter, perhaps lovers – own a telescope and possess an unexpected intellectual depth causes a sensation. What comes to the fore is unfettered girlhood fantasy, expressed through the ability to create worlds in text.

Tania Malarczuk (born in 1983 in Ivano-Frankivsk) – Ukrainian writer, essayist, and journalist. She graduated in Ukrainian philology from Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University. She is the author of several prose books. She has received numerous awards, including the Vilenica Crystal (2013), the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Award (2013), the BBC Book of the Year Award (for the novel Zapomnienie, published in Poland in 2019), the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize (2018), the Uznam Literary Award (2022), and the Jeanette Schocken Prize (2024). Her works have been translated into Polish, German, English, Romanian, Czech, and Belarusian. She publishes columns on the websites of Deutsche Welle and Die Zeit Online. She has lived in Vienna since 2011.

Anna Łazar – curator of the international artistic cooperation programme Wolne Słowo as part of the Gdańsk City of Literature project, project creator, writer, translator, and lecturer at the Maria Konopnicka and Maria Dulębianka Postgraduate Gender Studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (since 2020) and at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (since 2019). She edited the book about the art of Aleksandra Kubiak, Zrobię serce, published by BWA Zielona Góra in 2022, and is a translator (including Ilya Kaminsky’s Republic of the Deaf and, as co-translator, Oksana Zabuzhko’s Planet Wormwood). She has curated numerous art exhibitions. She worked in public diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as deputy director and acting director of the Polish Institutes in Kyiv (2008–2014) and Saint Petersburg (2015–2018), and as a curator at the Museum of Art in Łódź (2021–2022). Since 2025, she has been director of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.

More information about the festival: www.nck.pl/projekty-kulturalne/projekty/wschod-kultury

Organisers of East of Culture – Different Sounds:
Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, National Centre for Culture, City of Lublin, and Workshops of Culture in Lublin

Honorary patronage over the project was provided by the Mayor of Lublin – Krzysztof Żuk.

Media patrons: Trójka – Program Trzeci Polskiego Radia, Polityka, Onet, TVP Kultura, nowamuyzka.pl, TVP 3 Lublin, Polskie Radio Lublin, Gazeta Wyborcza, Kultura Enter
Sponsors: Browar Zakładowy, Strabag

The East of Culture – Different Sounds festival supports gender equality in the music industry as part of the Keychange network.