"The Poetry and Wine Days are growing and changing all the time. This is the only way to keep the programme cutting-edge, open and internationally relevant. We live on top-class content and in touch with local environments, complementing each other and growing further. We believe that Europe is at home in Ptuj, just as it is in Berlin or Paris. That's why we work together to create meetings and events that leave a lasting mark on people. This time with a new curator, a rejuvenated team and ambitious new educational programmes for word creativity. We are making Ptuj the European capital of poetry and I hope that everyone who takes the time to visit the festival feels like royalty."
Aleš Šteger, Programme director of the Days of Poetry and Wine Festival
The Days of Poetry and Wine Festival is one of the largest and most renowned international poetry festivals in this part of Europe, hosting many renowned poets and poets from all over the world, as well as selected local winemakers, every year in late August in Ptuj and other places around Slovenia. The festival, in 2022 curated by poet Kristina Kočan, successfully combines the poetic word with the promotion of the highest quality Slovenian wines.
The twenty-sixth edition of the festival will take place between 22 and 27 August and will feature 20 poets from 10 countries. The main festival programme will take place in Ptuj, which turns into the capital of poetry during the festival. Festival events will also take place in Ljubljana, Maribor, Murska Sobota, Krško, Vitomarci, Juršinci, Ljutomer, Križevci pri Ljutomeru, Ormož, Ivanjkovci, Belo, Selce, Petanjci, Janški vrh and Laafeld in Austria.
American poet Carolyn Forché and Polish poet Tomasz Różycki will be the guests of honour, and their selected poems will be published in bilingual books before the festival. Open letter to Europe will be written and read publicly for the first time at the festival by the world-renowned Galician poet and activist Chus Pato.
During the festival, poetry will take over Ptuj, and more than 60 events will take place at numerous venues. In addition to poetry and wine, which are the main focuses of the festival, the organisers are also preparing a varied programme in the fields of music, visual, photography, film and other arts for all ages and different interest groups.
This year's Days of Poetry and Wine will kick off in Pomurje with poetry readings and a literary translation workshop focusing on contemporary Catalan poetry. Guests at the events in Petanjci and Ljutomer, and later in Ormoz, will be Catalan poets Anna Aguilar-Amat, Anna Gual and Jordi Julià, who will take part in a Catalan-Slovenian literary translation workshop in the company of their Slovenian colleagues Ana Svetel, Ivan Dobnik and Milan Jesih, and translator and writer Simona Škrabec.
On the evenings of 25-27 August, the Ptuj City Market will host Grand Evening Readings, where all the guests of the festival will present their poetry, followed by evening concerts of bands Elis Noa, Hamo & Tribute 2 Love, Moveknowledgement and Masayah.