In Latin, the word litera refers to both a graphic symbol and the entire body of literary works. Literature is an important and special form of culture – both dialogic and self-reflective. This unique quality manifests on an individual, social, intercultural and geopolitical levels. Hence the significance of efforts to ensure mutual cross-fertilisation of literatures from different linguistic areas and intensive circulation of literary works on a global scale. Liter[r]a is our expression of care and efforts to promote Polish literary works abroad and support people who are able to take on literary translation challenges: linguistic, cultural, artistic, social and political.
In a world where communication increasingly assumes the form of slogans and memes, literature provides us with a unique opportunity to understand ourselves and each other to the fullest, also across borders. The Liter[r]a series of translation workshops and author meetings consists of eight events devoted to contemporary Polish literature, organised in four most important cultural and academic centres in Europe: Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Amsterdam.
The dialogic dimension of literature is reflected in the very formula of Liter[r]a events, where we host the co-creators of the intercultural literary dialogue, i.e. authors and translators of their works. During specialist translation workshops, their dialogue will be shared with university students of the Polish language and culture, translation trainees and people keen to explore such professional opportunity. The evening meetings with authors, which are open to a wider audience of experts curators, academics, media and, above all, the community of readers, provide space for an in-depth discussion of the vital role of literary translation as a form of co-creation of contemporary literary texts, as well as the reception and the dialogic potential of Polish literature in individual countries and language areas.
The Liter[r]a series is an initiative of the Olga Tokarczuk Foundation, implemented in cooperation with foreign partners, with the financial support of the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage within the Promotion of Polish Culture Abroad programme for 2025.
On the 21st of October 2025 in the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid we will be hosting an advanced literary translation based on the Spanish edition of Łakome (Insaciable, Temporal 2025) led by the author Małgorzata Lebda and the translators Abel Murcia and Katarzyna Mołoniewicz. The first book of prose of a distinguished Polish poet is a vivid and sensual account of a gradual loss of life, where life itself, when juxtaposed with death, becomes even more vital. Personal, written in a language honed by poetry-writing, of apparent simplicity, blurring the boundaries between human and non-human life forms, it speaks of the paradoxes of a disease hungry for life, of the beauty and the horror that always coexist in nature.
The evening authors’ meeting with Małgorzata Lebda, Abel Murcia and Katarzyna Mołoniewicz will be hosted on the same day in Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid by Eva Orúe.
Literary translation masterclass led by
Małgorzata Lebda, Abel Murcia and Katarzyna Mołoniewicz
DATE AND TIME: October 21, 2025, at 10.00 am – 2.00 pm
VENUE: Círculo de Bellas Artes
C/ Alcalá, 42
28014 MADRID
(access: C/ Marqués de Casa Riera, 2)
Please register at: sekretariat@fundacjaolgitokarczuk.org
Authors’ meeting with
Małgorzata Lebda, Abel Murcia and Katarzyna Mołoniewicz led by Eva Orúe
DATE AND TIME: October 21, 2025, 7.00 pm
VENUE: Círculo de Bellas Artes
C/ Alcalá, 42
28014 MADRID
(access: C/ Marqués de Casa Riera, 2)
Please register at: sekretariat@fundacjaolgitokarczuk.org
