Gathering ten European authors, 40 Macedonian participants, and publishers and festival organizers from the region, the 9th Bookstar European Literature Festival opened Monday evening at MKC.
The festival’s slogan this year is “Please do disturb!” and it was opened by Macedonian writer Lidija Dimkovska.
EU Ambassador David Geer awarded the Bookstar 2023 prize to the Spanish–Moroccan writer Najat El Hachmi for “On Monday They Will Love Us.”
According to the Minister of Culture Bisera Kostadinovska Stojchevska in a press release, the festival brings authors closer and promotes European and Macedonian literature, “building friendship independent of cultural and language barriers.”
“European literature works nobly enrich our cultural space by affirming the literature of European languages. They have the universal power to connect us and introduce us to different worlds, to disturb us, to challenge us and make us think, leading us to ask questions about life, love, experience, social challenges and many other aspects of being human,” Kostadinovska Stojchevska is cited as saying in the release.
She added that the festival slogan aimed to point out that “literature, being an e_xpression of human imagination and creativity, often not only disturbs but also transforms our reality.”
“At this European literature festival we listen to the voices of writers as diverse and numerous as there are European nations and cultures,” the culture minister said.
“Through their works, we dive into multiple worlds, we get disturbed, we think and think again. Every page, every letter stimulates our mind and shapes our understanding of the world,” she said.
Bookstar, according to her, is “an opportunity to get to know each other, to connect and to present experiences and ideas, to celebrate our rich cultural diversity and to honor the literary heritage that unites us.”
The festival is organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture and other sponsors.