BOOK

Zagreb Book Festival 2021

24. - 28.5.2021. | 17 - 22H

Since its founding in 2014, the Zagreb Book Festival has been designed as an annual literary event with the clear goal of encouraging reading and critical thinking. After six successful editions, it became an unavoidable point on the cultural and literary map of Zagreb and beyond. The seventh edition of the ZBF will be held under the name

I want your story!

The story we tell about ourselves, both to others and to ourselves, is a prerequisite for the perception of ourselves, the world, relationships and the environment. Our worldviews involved in our stories largely grow out of our own negative and positive prejudices.

We harmonize thinking, action, taking a position and even exclusion from society with our story. As much as prejudices are harmful and limit our openness to the world and the assumption of new experiences, we cannot avoid them because they serve as coordinates for movements within social conventions. They arise in the earliest childhood and follow us throughout life. Literature itself, in its essence, exposes stereotypes and gives us an immediate possibility of identification with others, opens a space in which we do not feel threatened and within which we can replace images of stereotypes with images of literary heroes, images of people. It is more than anything else capable of reshaping the reader’s understanding of himself and the world thereby reciprocally affecting his social behavior and self-awareness.

Literature gives us a framework in which we can see a more complete picture of human experience and historical events, make us more empathetic and far-sighted in order to be open to new experiences. We will reflect on this universal topic through about twenty events, panel discussions and discussions where we will host important domestic and foreign writers, scientists and journalists. Some of the guests who will join us are: Jul Maroh, Nebojsa Lujanovic, Vedrana Rudan, Korana Serdarevic, Monika Herceg, Boris Jokic, Dino Pesut, Ece Temelkuran, Robert Torre, Zoran Feric, Sena Puhovski, Barbara Matejcic, Rujana Jeger and others .

As part of this year's program, we will also host an important international project "Every Story Matters" which raises awareness of the role of literature, especially for children and youth, in building an open democratic society. Although European society implies diversity, it is not in fact reflected in all its segments: literature and the book world are still quite homogeneous in many respects. It’s not just a matter of who writes (and who is encouraged to write) but of who will be published, who stands on stage, who sits in the audience, how the characters in literary works are portrayed and which readers can identify with them.

The Every Story Matters project rests on the premise that everyone has the right to discover literature and create stories, regardless of their socio-economic or cultural background, gender, sexual preferences, or mental and physical abilities.Taking into account the specific period in which the whole world and thus all human activities are located, we will adjust the Festival to the recommended epidemiological measures so that authors and visitors can follow our program in a safe environment.

The festival will be held in the so-called "Hybrid edition" which includes both physical and online activities.

More info about the program find at https://www.zgbookfest.hr/ZBFeng