Lit Link festival is an international literary festival dedicated to a shared dedication and appreciation of contemporary literature. Along with some of the most inspiring voices of the Croatian and regional literary scene, this year’s guests are writers, editors, and publishers from France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland, all connected through French language.

This year’s participants:
Writers: Emilienne Malfatto (France), Lucie Rico (France), Philippe Marczewski (Belgium), Robert Prosser (Austria), Andrej E. Skubic (Slovenia), Marija Andrijašević, Ivana Bodrožić, Željka Horvat Čeč, Marinko Koščec, Sandra Antolić, Nora Verde, Marko Pogačar, Srećko Horvat, Zoran Žmirić, Tatjana Gromača, Zoran Ferić, Bojan Žižović & Želimir Periš.

Editors and publishers: Lisa Liautaud (Julliard, France), Gabrielle Cottier (Éditions des Syrtes, Switzerland), Clément Ribes (Gallimard, France), Claire Duvivier (Asphalte, France), Simon-Philippe Turcot (La Peuplade, Canada)

The programs are moderated by translator Chloé Billon, editor and publisher Julien Delorme, and writer Robert Perišić.

INTERNATIONAL GUESTS:

Lucie Rico (1988) is a writer, screenwriter and film director from Perpignan in the south of France, living and working in Paris. After multiple years of working in publishing and online media, Rico has completely devoted herself to literature and (primarily short) films, and her first novel, Le Chant du poulet sous vide, was awarded the Prix du Roman d’Écologie as well as the Prix Littéraire du Cheval Blanc. An eco-fiction with tendencies towards a kind of fairytalesque (or rather fablesque) absurd, this novel investigates the relationship between human and feathered animals, as well as the complex ambivalence in processes of production and consumption, societally naturalized to invisibility. This year’s publication by Lucie Rico entitled GPS, on the other hand, narrates a story of the disappearance of a young woman, navigating through topics of friendship, hope, lost trajectories and silent addictions. Rico also teaches creative writing at the University Clermont Auvergne.

Emilienne Malfatto (1989) is an award-winning photographer, journalist and writer, living and working between Iraq, France, and Latin America. While her photographs (published in various prestigious publications in the US and Europe) are often the result of long-term research, allowing her to look, in her own words, “behind doors, walls and veils” in conflict and post-conflict zones, the literary work of Emilienne Malfatto is weaved through dense poetic prose. Her first work Que sur toi se lamente le tigre (awarded the Goncourt’s prize for debut novel) tells the story of an impossible passion and tragic love in the complex and nuanced reality of contemporary Iraq. Malfatto’s eagerly awaited second novel comes out this August entitled Le colonel ne dort pas, with a narrative centered around the weight of conscience and unredeemable guilt, inscribed in our experience of living and lived history. Malfatto has studied political sciences in France, photography and sociology in Columbia, which has all deeply informed her work, and she is also author of a work of investigative journalism Les serpents viendront pour toi, awarded the Albert-Londre prize.

Philippe Marczewski (1974) is a Belgian Francophone writer. After six years of working as a researcher in the field of cognitive neuropsychology, Marczewski founded an independent bookstore called Livre aux trésors in Liège, but for the past couple of years has dedicated himself primarily to literature. His first novel Blues pour trois tombes et un fantôme, published in 2019, is an atmospheric psychogeography of Liège, that could possibly be another place or an Everyplace, in the endless fluidities of time. A radically different approach took place in the author’s second novel, Un corps tropical, winner of the Prix Rossel in 2021, in which a mystical tropical bath redirects the life of a protagonist without qualities into unexpected directions towards extremes of sensuality and brutality in the world.

Robert Prosser (1983) is an award-winning Austrian writer. After curating Babelsprech as the Austrian representative, a project dedicated to promoting young poetry in the German language, Prosser was also one of the publishers of the collection Lyrik von Jetzt 3: Babelsprech. Alongside interests in graffiti and boxing, he is the author of two short prose books and three novels. Prosser’s latest book Beirut im Sommer [Beirut in the Summer] published in 2020 is a personal essay about his research trip to Lebanon in the summer of 2019. The novel Phantome [Phantoms] was nominated for the prestigious Deutcher Buchpreis, and his last novel Gemma Habibi (2019) was critically praised as “an impressive portrait of a generation without a compass” and “an ode to boxing”, and was included in the ORF-Bestenliste, the monthly list of best books selected by Austrian literary critics. Prosser lives in Tirol and Vienna.

Andrej Ermenc Skubic (1967) is a Slovenian writer and translator, as well as three-time recipient of the award Kresnik for best novel: for his debut Gorki med [Bitter Honey] (1999), followed by Koliko si moja? [How Much Are You Mine?] (2011) and Samo doći kući [Just to Get Home] (2014). Furthermore, Skubic’s novel Popkorn was awarded the Župančić prize in 2007, while Koliko si moja received the Nagrada Prešernova sklada. After graduating from Slavic languages and English language and literature, Skubic obtained his PhD in the field of sociolinguistics, and is an acclaimed translator from English. Once he described his writing as “social surrealism”.

PUBLISHERS & EDITORS

Lisa Liautaud has recently joined Julliard, just as the house is broadening its publishing scope further towards foreign literature and literary nonfiction. Liautaud has started her career in the Editis group, in Plon publishing house, was one of the formational members of l’Observatoire editions as literary director, before moving on to the same position in Calmann-Lévy, and finally Julliard.

Gabrielle Cottier graduated in Russian language and culture, starting off as a translator, journalist and public relations expert for various publications and organizations, before spending the past eight years as an editor in Éditions des Syrtes in Geneva.

Clément Ribes is an editor in the Parisian publishing house Gallimard, translator from English and Spanish languages, as well as the main axis of Gallimard’s new edition Scribes, focused on both foreign and French fiction, especially hybrid literary works of refined stylistic and poetic originality. Ribes graduated in French and Spanish literature, with an interest for contemporary literary practices.

Claire Duvivier is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Asphalte, the publishing house specialized for contemporary urban fiction. She is also the author of several award-winning fantasy novels Un long voyage and Citadins de demain, the latter being the first part of a trilogy Capitale du Norde, which actually represents half of the series Tour de Garde, written “in four hands” with Guillaume Chamanadjian.

Simon-Philippe Turcot is the co-founder and editor-in-chief at La Peuplade publishing house in Montréal, whose editorial focus was initially on poetry, but has in time opened towards other genres and modes of writing, while maintaining the interest in literature dealing with meaning of space, identity and the ambivalence of co-existing traditions in a certain psycho-geographic terrain. Turcot has also published poetry collections Le paysage est un atelier and Renard, the novel Le désordre des beaux jours, and has co-written a travelogue Le Festin de Mathilde with Sophie Gagnon-Bergeron.

The program will also feature French guests Chloé Billon (an award-winning literary translator) and Julien Delorme as moderators, as well as festival selectors and coordinators.

CROATIAN WRITERS:

Marija Andrijašević (Split, 1984) started her literary career as a poet, sealing her status as one of the most intriguing young authors with her collection davide svašta su mi radili [david, what they’ve done to me] awarded the Goran prize for young poets in 2007. Andrijašević’s debut novel Zemlja bez sutona [The Land without Dusks] was published last year, and the success of her shift to prose has been is proven by the fact that the novel received tportal’s award for the best Croatian novel. Andrijašević graduated Comparative Literature and Ethnology, she writes originally, meticulously and dedicatedly, with a vivid interest for points where botanical motives of nature intersect and reflect those of interpersonal intimacy of pure humanity.

Ivana Bodrožić (Vukovar, 1982) is one of the most prominent Croatian writers with a vast media presence. While studying Philosophy and Croatian Language on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, she published her first poetry collection Prvi korak u tamu [The First Step into Darkness] in 2005, for which she received Goran for young poets, as well as the Matica Hrvatska Kvirin award. Bodrožić’s first novel, Hotel Zagorje, came out in 2010, garnering wide acclaim and a number of translations, after which the author has written Rupa [We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day] and Sinovi i kćeri [Sons and Daughters] (awarded the Meša Selimović prize). Bodrožić also writes poetry, essays, short prose and columns, teaches creative writing and remains a freelance writer based in Zagreb.

Željka Horvat Čeč (Čakovec, 1986) is among the most interesting younger generation poets today. After the first poetry collection I zvijezde se smiju krhkosti [Even Stars Laugh at Frailty], Horvat Čeč has stepped into short prose with the book Kauboj u crvenom golfu [A Cowboy in a Red Golf], while exploring the novel form with the work 4 brave [4 Locks]. In her writing the author explores potentials of unpretentious wordings and the power of literary invasions into the depths of painful experiences, and last year she has published an acclaimed new book of poetry entitled Strogo mirovanja [Strict Rest].

Marinko Koščec (Zagreb, 1967) is a novelist, translator, and essayist, with a linguistic and theoretical interest in contemporary French literature, which he had based his doctoral dissertation on before becoming a professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. He has published eight novels so far, has received several prestigious awards, including “Meša Selimović” in 2001 for the novel Netko drugi [Someone Else] and the V.B.Z. award in 2003 for Wonderland. Koščec’s newest publication is the (post-)pandemic novel Sami [On Our Own], in which the author investigates polyvalent experiences of isolation, aloneness, and loneliness.

Sandra Antolić (Zagreb) graduated in Comparative Literature and General Linguistics on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, before starting out work as a copywriter, then transferring to writing for film (receiving a Zlatna arena for the screenplay A bili smo vam dobri [Once We Were Good for You] co-written with Ognjen Sviličić and Branko Schmidt), and finally landing in the literary field with a debut novel Svojevrsna [Of Her Own Sort]. Antolić writes humorous absurdist prose, starting off with the saturated question: what does a pig named Beba from Zagorje have to say, when she spontaneously starts to speak in the midst of 1991 political tensions?

Nora Verde aka Antonela Marušić (Dubrovnik, 1974) published her first book of poetry Sezona bjegova [A Season of Escapes] as a student of Croatian language and literature in 1994, but has started publishing under the alias Nora Verde in 2010 with the collection of short stories entitled Posudi mi smajl [Lend me a Smile]. She has been active as a journalist and editor, as well as an activist especially focused on issues of gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights, and was one of the founders of the feminist online publication Vox Feminae. Among the works she’s published so far, there is also a collection of short prose O ljubavi, batinama i revoluciji [On Love, Beatings, and the Revolution], a novel Do isteka zaliha [While Supplies Last], and last year’s noted auto-fictional novel Moja dota [My Dowry], short-listed for tportal’s award for best Croatian novel.

Marko Pogačar (Split, 1984) published poetry, prose, essays, and criticism, lining up successes, awards, and translations in all of his spheres of work and interest. Besides his work as an author, Pogačar has also done editorial work, leaving his signature in some of the most significant publications of the Croatian and regional culture scene. His newest edition is a book of phantasmagoric poetic prose Knjiga praznika [A Book of Holidays] published in 2021, in which Pogačar explores the world-building potentials of language, constructing as well from the productive limitations of the written word. At this year’s festival, Pogačar will be reading from his travel prose Latinoamericana.

Srećko Horvat (Osijek, 1983) is an international household name when it comes to the spheres of contemporary Marxist-psychoanalytic philosophy following Žižek’s trajectory, as well as the co-founder of Subversive Film Festival, Philosophy Theatre and the DiEM25 movement. He is active as a journalist in a variety of international publications, and has so far published more than ten books of nonfiction, in which Horvat engages with the phenomenologies of today’s society and discursive formations of contemporary landscapes of thought and politics. The latest book by Srećko Horvat is fresh out of the press this spring under the title Poslije apokalipse [After the Apocalypse], in which the author investigates potentials of thinking about the apocalypse as revelation and turning point, opposed to the wide-spread defeatist position that perceives the apocalypse as a violent ending.

Zoran Žmirić (Rijeka, 1969) is equally skilled in writing short and supershort prose formats, as well as in novelistic lengths, and in the past two decades of active literary work has published ten books, most notably Blockbuster and Pacijent iz sobe 19 [The Patient from Room 19], the finalists for the most prestigious Croatian literary awards. Žmirić’s most recent work entitled Hotel Wartburg has been published only a few months ago, and represents a narrative weaved from familial short circuits, wrong turns, and final forgivenesses…

Tatjana Gromača (Sisak, 1971) is a prose and poetry writer, that graduated in Comparative Literature and Philosophy in Zagreb, and lives in Istria. She’s worked as a journalist in the past, but has been a freelance writer since 2017. Her books have been translated to English, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Slovenian languages. So far she’s published a book of poetry Nešto nije u redu? [Is Something Wrong?], novels Crnac [The Black Man], Božanska dječica [God’s Tiny Children], Bolest svijeta [Illness of the World], Carstvo nemoći [Empire of Powerlessness] and Početnica za luđake [A Beginner’s Guide to Insanity], as well as reportage writings Bijele vrane – price iz Istre [White Crows – Stories from Istria], and prose fragments Ushiti, zamjeranja, opčinjenosti [Elations, Resentments, Enchantments] and Mrtav rukavac rijeke Save [The Dead End of Sava River].

Zoran Ferić (Zagreb, 1961) is probably among the most award-winning living Croatian writers. Widely read, critically acclaimed, translated into various languages, Ferić’s novels and short story collections (Mišolovka Walta Disneyja [Walt Disney’s Mousetrap], Anđeo u ofsajdu [An Angel in Offside], Smrt djevojčice sa žigicama [The Death of the Little Match Girl], Djeca Patrasa [Children of Patras], Kalendar Maja [The Mayan Calendar], Putujuće Kazalište [Travelling Theatre] etc.) have been especially well received in German-speaking countries. On this year’s festival issue, Ferić will be reading from his book Na osami blizu mora [In solitude by the Sea] (2015) about how it used to be on Rab island, when he was far too young…

Bojan Žižović (Pula, 1975) graduated from an arts high school, specialized in old graphic techniques in Venice, and then studied painting, as well as Russian and South Slavic languages in Ljubljana. He’s published poetry collections Apsurd [The Absurd] (1993) and U slučaju da ne postoji [In Case It Doesn’t Exist] (2007), and works as journalist and editor in the newspaper Glas Istre. For years he has collaborated with the avantgarde rock-musician Franci Blašković and his group Gori Ussi Winnetou, that’s put to verse most of Žižović’s poems. In 2019 he published the novel Stranka [Client], that became a finalist for the tportal award for best Croatian novel.

Želimir Periš (Zadar, 1975) has been leading writing workshops, organizing the literary festival KaLibar in Zadar, while collecting various literary awards for his work as a writer, including Lapis Histriae (2012), Kočičevo pero (2020), and the tportal award for best Croatian novel (2020). However, he is most proud of his work for the feminist card game Fierce Women (2018). So far, he’s published Mučenice (stories, [Martyrs] 2013), Mima i kvadratura duga (novel, [Mima and the square footage of debt] 2014), Mima i vase kćeri (novel [Mima and Your Daughters], 2015), x (poetry, 2016), Žuti bog (stories, co-written with Maer and Perić, [The Yellow God], 2020), and Mladenka kostonoga (novel, [The Bonelegged Bride]. The latter novel has had an exceptionally positive reception with both readers and critics, and has received multiple awards. Mladenka kostonoga is written within an experimental structure and hybrid genre, in great part influenced by the folklore epic tradition, reciting the story of a woman believed to be a witch.

The 2021 Lit Link Festival will be held from 6th October 2021 (Wednesday) to 9th October (Saturday) on the Adriatic coast (Labin, Rijeka) and in Zagreb, Croatia.

Along with Croatian writers, this year’s guests will be writers and publishers from Germany and Austria.

The participating authors are: Jana Volkmann, Robert Prosser, Jasen Boko, Tatjana Gromača, Sinan Gudžević, Uwe von Seltmann, Lena Müller, Korana Serdarević, Martin Peichl, Jan Peter Bremer, Marko Tomaš, Jurica Gašpar, Dunja Matić Benčić, Nada Topić, Lora Tomaš, Damir Karakaš, Ante Zlatko Stolica, Želimir Periš.

The participating editors are: Sebastian Guggolz (Guggolz Verlag), Janika Rütter (Suhrkamp), Laura Siegismund (Merlin Verlag), Sophia Hungerhoff (Mare Verlag), Janek Domonell (literary agent), Chloé Billon (literary translator).