Festival of the European Short Story

Festival of the European Short Story (FEKP) was held from June 14 to 18 in Zagreb and Zadar. The theme of this year's edition was Reason and Feelings, and there were guest writers who theme reason and feelings in their works and intertwine them in a socially engaged, exciting and stimulating way.

The festival was opened by the German author Shida Bazyar with the novel "Nas tri", translated by Snjezana Božin and published by Fraktura. Writer, critic and activist Mima Simić spoke with the author at the Vintage Industrial Bar.

On the second day of the Festival, three programs were held. First, translator Patricija Horvat and publicist and war reporter Jerko Bakotin talked to the Hungarian war reporter and writer Sándor Jászberényi about his book Western Stories, published by Oceanmore, in the Fraktura Bookstore.

After that, Tatjana Peruško spoke with the award-winning Italian writer Giulia Caminito about her recently translated novel Lake water is never sweet, also published by Fraktura.

The action of this social bildungsroman is set at the beginning of two thousand years, and deals with the unfulfilled promises of a better future and the disappointment of an entire generation, and "exposes the lie we all believe: that with a good education we can all become someone and something".

In the evening part of the program, at the Vintage Industrial Bar, Sándor Jászberényi, Andrija Škre, Ivan Jozić performed, and the evening ended with the award-winning Spanish writer Sara Mesa, with whom Gordana Matić and Roman Simić spoke.

The program of the Festival of European Short Stories in Zadar began with the presentation of the collection of stories Dalmacija noir, edited by Marina Vujćić and published by Panacea, which tells about the dark side of Dalmatia from the perspective of a black chronicle.

Authors whose stories are included in the collection are Želimir Periš, Maša Kolanović, Jurica Pavičić, Ana Vidov, Lada Vukić, Marija Zekanović, Frane Herenda, Ivica Perinović, Mirjana Mrkela, Robert Nezirović, Iva Pejković, Igor Eškinja, Veronika Santo, Mirko Jamnicki Comments and Marijana Dokoza.

The Saturday part of the program was opened by bards, poets and novelists Miroslav Mićanović and Senko Karuza. In front of a full audience, they spoke about their writing and about the twenty-two years of the European Short Story Festival, in which both of them have been involved from the very beginning; one as an organizer and author, and the other as a cook for writers, host and author.

After them, Giulia Caminito, Edo Popović and Marina Vujčić took the stage, and the energetic Sándor Jászberényi closed the evening.

The festival was closed in Zagreb's Culture Factory, with the performances of the poet and novelist Ivica Prtenjaca, the musical duo Lovorko Sršen and Josip Radić, and for the first time in the twenty-two years of FEKP, the performance of Roman Simić. This time not in the role of the founder and director of the Festival, but in the role of the author of short stories.