18 August 2011 Poles at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Prof. Michał Paweł Markowski - Artistic Director of the Conrad Festival, along with Adam Zagajewski and Adam Michnik, represent Poland at the Edinburgh International Book Festival – one of the most prestigious literary events in the world, this year opened on the 13th of August. The Edinburgh festival will also pay tribute to Czesław Miłosz.
The Legends of contemporary literature series will be dedicated to the Polish Noble Prize winner and Sorley MacLean, one of the greatest Scottish poets of the 20th century. The series will involve two meetings held today (the 18th of August). At midday, John Gray, British philosopher and scientist, a guest of this year's Czesław Milosz Festival, and prof. Michał Paweł Markowski will discuss the relationships between literature and totalitarianism on the example of the book The Captive Mind. The the meeting is entitled Czesław Miłosz and totalitarianism.
On the same day, in the evening, Adam Zagajewski, prof. Michał Paweł Markowski and a Scottish poet John Burnside will seek to answer the questions about the artistic force of the Polish Noble Prize Winner. Adam Zagajewski also met Festival audience yesterday (on the 17th of August). A meeting with Adam Michnik, whose collection of essays In Search of Lost Meaning was published in English by the University of California Press, is planned for the 24th of August.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival, organized since 1987, is a key event of the international art festival held in August and beginning of September in the capital of Scotland. The festival hosts writers, poets, thinkers and artists from all over the world and usually attracts over 200,000 guests.
More about the festival.