The sixth edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL) will be inaugurated on the 6th of February at the Kanakakkunnu, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Run under Currents of Change theme, the festival will take place till the 9th of February hosting discussions, conversations, and debates with Indian and international speakers. This year’s edition will feature several Polish authors and academicians.

On the 6th of February at 11 am acclaimed Polish crime writer, Zygmunt Miłoszewski will participate in the panel entitled The Polish Noir. The writer will be in the dialogue with Krzysztof Korzyk.  The audience will be able to listen to Zygmunt Miłoszewski on the next day as well, on the 7th of February at 5 pm as a panelist of Why I write along with Ana Merino, Manuel Vilas, and Amanda Michalopoulou.

Urszula Honek, known for her poetry and short stories, longlisted for the International Booker Prize (2024) will participate in the following panels:

4 pm, 7th of February, Languages of War with speakers Yuriy Serebriansky, Lyuba Yakimchuk, moderated by Krzysztof Hoffmann

6 pm, 7th of February, Carpathian Reverie with Krzysztof Hoffmann and Weronika Szwebs

The following panels with Polish participation will also take place:

Krzysztof Czyżewski and Małgorzata Czyżewski’s conversation The Bridge Builders moderated by Parvati Salil, will occur on February 6th at 3 pm.

1 pm, 8th of February, The Man of Many Hats with Krzysztof Czyżewski and Parvathy Salil

6 pm, 8th of February, The God of Freedom with Yuliya Musakovska, Krzysztof Czyżewski

Krzysztof Hoffmann, critic, translator, and director of the Literature Affirmation Centre at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań will speak also at the following panels:

1 pm, 7th of February, Breaking Boundaries with speakers Dinko Telećan, Manuel Vilas, Amanda Michalopoulou

5 pm, 9th of February, Voices of Resistance with speakers Lyuba Yakimchuk, Weronika Szwebs, Yuriy Serebriansky.

For more information about the program, please follow: https://www.mbifl.com/schedule.html

Polish Speakers participating in the festival:

Krzysztof Czyżewski is a Polish author, philosopher, culture animator, theatre director, and editor. He is the Co-founder and president of the Borderland Foundation and director of the Centre “Borderland of Arts, Cultures and Nations” in Sejny. He also initiated an International Center for Dialog on the Polish-Lithuanian border. He initiated several intercultural dialogue programs in Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia, Indonesia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the USA. He received several awards, including the Jerzy Giedroyć Prize, the Dan David Prize, the Ambassador of European Year of Intercultural Dialog and the Tischner Award. He works as a lecturer and visiting professor at Rutgers University and the University of Bologna.

Małgorzata Sporek-Czyżewska is a cultural animator, theater director and publisher. She graduated in Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw and in Theater Studies at the Theater Academy in Warsaw. In 1981-83 she was a member of the “Gardzienice” theatre. Co-founder of “Borderland”, she is currently director of the Borderland Foundation. She runs the publishing program of the Borderland Publishing House, as well as artistic and educational programs. Since the opening of the International Dialogue Center in Krasnogruda in 2011, she has embodied the concepts of a centre for intercultural practices aimed at cooperation with residents of multicultural cities and regions in the world.She has been awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit to Lithuania. Together with the Borderland team, she is a laureate of the Princess Margaret European Culture Award (Amsterdam).

Urszula Honek – author of four poetry books: “Sporysz”, “Pod wezwaniem”, “Zimowanie”, “Poltergeist”, and of a short story collection “Białe noce”, translated into English by Kate Webster (“White Nights”, MTO Press, 2022). The recipient of the Stanisław Barańczak Award, the Kościelski Award, and the Conrad Award, she was longlisted for the International Booker Prize (2024) and a finalist of the Prix Grand Continent (2022). She is from Racławice near Gorlice.

Krzysztof Hoffmann, critic, translator, and director of the Literature Affirmation Centre at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). He works in the AMU Department of Poetics and Literary Criticism, where he co-founded the MA program in Creative Writing and now directs the Creative Writing BA. He is the author and Co-author of 2 books and over 200 critical texts (reviews, interviews, and research papers). He collaborates with the Jagiellonian University Center for Avant-Garde Studies (Kraków) and translated major works from English. He serves as the editor of several journals.

Krzysztof Korżyk, PhD, in his primes, Associate Professor at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Department of Languages. Accomplished academic, linguist, philosopher, and cognitivist. Presented his insights and ideas concerning language, mind and culture on learned conferences in Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania and USA as well as in the numerous papers in the professional journals and edited volumes.Spiritual wanderer exploring multiverses of mind and its projections, symbols and signs afficionado, arrant admirer of letters and those who wield their powers. Willing to do much to ensure this power grows and the voice of its masters is heard in every corner, as it is meant to be.

Zygmunt Miłoszewski, is a top-selling Polish novelist, journalist, and scriptwriter. He achieved international success with his crime trilogy starring Prosecutor Szacki, and his work has been adapted for cinema and television. Previously he was a journalist and editor for the Polish edition of Newsweek. He is an author of novels, features and short stories. All of Miłoszewski’s books have been translated into a number of languages, including English, French and German.A Grain of Truth (“Ziarno Prawdy”) was awarded the High Calibre Prize for the Best Polish Crime Novel of the Year 2011 (“Nagroda Wielkiego Kalibru dla najlepszej polskiej powieści kryminalnej i sensacyjnej roku 2011”).

Weronika Szwebs is a literary scholar and translator, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Philology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan. Her main research interests involve contemporary Polish literature, translation studies, the reception of Polish literature abroad and the theoretical discourse of the humanities. Author of a monograph Translation of Theory. Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Edward Said and Samuel Butler in Polish and numerous articles are in literary studies. She translated books and papers from authors such as Julian Baggini, Rita Felski, Kenneth Goldsmith, Hans Gumbrecht, Donna Haraway, and Silvan Tomkins.