Over a decade a literary stage created in Prishtina by Qendra Multimedia has hosted hundreds of poets, playwrights, novelists, musicians and artists from different cultures, languages and countries from all over the world. This literary stage is known as polip International Literary Festival and its name soon after its first editions became the manifestation of one of the largest international literary activities in Kosova. What once began as a relatively modest event held in a dark basement adapted to a theatre by Qendra Multimedia, became a source of light for many authors and especially young talents, but also for thousands of people that were its audience through years. Last editions of the polip have been jointly organized with Beton and later one with Komuna LINKS, cultural organizations based in Belgrade.

These developments are portrayed by Tripney in this monograph with a clear and picturesque language and include as well pictures documenting years of polip’s editions.

Tripney’s book looks at polip’s journey from the beginning and puts into perspective the challenges the festival faced as well as its potential and growth over a period of 13 years. The book is based on many interviews with local and international writers and organisers of polip. In addition to capturing the creation and development of polip it also includes writers’ perspectives and experiences with polip and their ideas and concerns about challenges and possibilities of the literary scene in Kosova and the role of international literary festivals and literary translation in promotion of art and literature.  Tripney’s book, itself now an artistic part of polip’s journey, also raises new questions about art and literature as means of challenging and shaping societal change.

Author: Natasha Tripney

The book has originally been written and published in English.

It has 270 pages.

Publisher: Qendra Multimedia, 2023