In 2017 Days of Poetry and Wine festival has launched a programme called Open Letter to Europe. Since then, the art director of the festival, with their team each year selects a preeminent poet or thinker and give her or him an opportunity to address Europe and shine a spotlight on the problems they consider the most pressing. The aim is to bring the language of art, thought-out, precise and rigorous, back to public discourse.
The first Open Letter to Europe was written by Flemish author Stefan Hertmans, the second in 2018 by Swedish poet of Iranian descent Athena Farrokhzad, in 2019 by German cosmopolitan, writer of Bulgarian descent Ilija Trojanow, in 2020 by one of the most popular Hungarian authors Krisztina Tóth, and in 2021 one of the most prominent names of German poetry Durs Grűnbein. In 2022, it was written by Galician poet and activist Chus Pato, in 2023 it was written by English poet David Harsent. In 2024, the Open Letter to Europe will be written by Polish poet, writer and translator Jacek Dehnel.
All Open Letters to Europe are translated to several languages and published at www.stihoteka.com and as separate publication. They are delivered to all Members of the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission. Furthermore, they are published by major national and international media, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany), Oslobodenje (Bosnia and Herzegovina), the WMagazine (Spain), the London Review of Books (UK), Knack (Belgium), Biblioteka Analiz (Poland), Hungarian Literature Online (Hungary), Express (Croatia), Delo (Slovenia), Večer (Slovenia), STA (Slovenia) ..., and thus carry significant weight throughout Europe.
