June 23, 6:00 PM – Joanna Bator – A writer, philosopher, and cultural studies scholar. Recipient of prestigious awards including the Nike Literary Award, the Hermann Hesse Prize (Germany), the Spycher Prize (Switzerland), and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. Author of bestsellers translated into multiple languages, including “Piaskowa Góra”, “Ciemno, prawie noc” (Dark, Almost Night), and “Gorzko, gorzko” (Bitter, Bitter), beloved by hundreds of thousands of readers. A runner and lover of Japanese culture, she lives in Podkowa Leśna with her people, dogs, and cats.

In this meeting, the acclaimed author offers a behind-the-scenes look at her writing process. She shares how the ideas for her award-winning novels were born. Readers will revisit familiar characters such as Berta Koch, Kasia Makara, and Jadzia Chmura. With added commentary and interpretations, fans will gain a unique insight into Joanna Bator’s creative mind.

June 24, 6:00 PM – Claudia Durastanti (b. 1984) – Italian writer and translator, born in Brooklyn. At age six, she moved with her mother and brother to Gallicchio in Basilicata. A graduate of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, she has published in Granta, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Serving Library. She is a board member of the Turin International Book Fair and co-founder of the Italian Literature Festival in London. A music columnist for Internazionale.

She debuted in 2010 with the novel “Un giorno verrò a lanciare sassi alla tua finestra”, which earned the Mondello Prize, among others. Her most acclaimed book, “La straniera” (“Stranger”), was published in 2019 and made it to the final of the prestigious Strega Prize. It also received the Strega Off Prize and the Luigi Russo Prize, and was a finalist for the Alassio Centolibri, Viareggio, and Stresa Prizes. The novel has been translated into over twenty languages, with a TV adaptation currently in development.

June 25, 6:00 PM – Gwendoline Riley – British author, regarded as one of the most outstanding contemporary writers in the UK and Ireland. In 2018, Times Literary Supplement named her one of the twenty best British and Irish novelists working today.

Her fifth novel “First Love” was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her sixth, “My Phantoms”, was shortlisted for the Folio Prize.

With striking precision and emotional restraint, Riley creates powerful portraits of human relationships – intimate, tense, and often painful. This rare encounter is an invitation into her raw yet profoundly honest literary world.

June 26, 6:00 PM – Eliza Clark – Originally from Newcastle, now based in London. A graduate of Chelsea College of Art, she received the Young Writers’ Talent Fund grant in 2018. Her debut novel “Boy Parts”, published in 2022, was nominated for the Women’s Prize Futures Award.

In 2023, Granta named her one of the most promising young British novelists. Known for her bold tone, internet-era aesthetics, and provocative humor, she is also active on social media under the name @FancyEliza.