Next year, 28 women authors, artists and scholars from 28 European countries will visit Rijeka to share their vision for the future of Europe with the attendees over the course of three days. In addition to being featured in the anthology, their short stories will be presented at discussions, readings and performances in Rijeka.
This was announced at the working meeting between the representatives of Rijeka 2020, the City of Rijeka and the Hay Festival, one of the most prestigious literary festivals in the world.
The main topic discussed at the meeting was the three-day programme Europe 28 – Visions for the Future, which will be held in 2020 as part of the Festival of the European Short Story. The festival, which is organised by the Croatian Writers’ Association, will take place from 31 May to 6 June as part of the Kitchen of Diversity flagship of Rijeka 2020.
The programme content was elaborated on by the Director of Promotions Christopher Bone, the festival’s International Coordinator Izara Garcia, the Head and the Coordinator of the Kitchen of Diversity flagship Lela Vujanić and Nemanja Cvijanović, respectively, as well as the Head of the City of Rijeka Department of Culture Ivan Šarar.
The Hay Festival, which was founded in Wales in 1987, brings together readers and writers from all over the world in an attempt to provide an international platform for the promotion of women. It was initiated by Wom@rts and the European Union via the Creative Europe programme. The Wom@rts project centres on the participation of women in building European cultural heritage and making diversity a global value of civilisation. It is an initiative that aims to dismantle gender inequality and pursues the presence of women in culture, while expanding the range of campaigns dealing with mobility, knowledge, funds, training and event organisation.
So far, more than five million people worldwide have attended the Hay Festival programmes, which, in line with the festival motto “Imagine the World”, make positive changes in the lives of people, including those visiting Rijeka next year.
