KROKODIL IN UMEÅ : CENTERS OF PERIPHERY 2.0 @ LITTFEST

17 Mar KROKODIL IN UMEÅ : CENTERS OF PERIPHERY 2.0 @ LITTFEST

By participating in Littfest in Umeå this year, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Littfest–KROKODIL collaboration entitled CENTERS OF PERIPHERY. A decade ago our festivals connected through a shared experience of geographical peripheries combined with a surprisingly rich literary production. Despite distance and difference, we discovered numerous similarities and affinities — and that makes this partnership so special.

Over the past decade Littfest has grown and developed, and our experience there this year — its 20th anniversary — was simply outstanding. The collaboration has become more than an exchange between authors and audiences; it is now a formative part of both festivals’ development.

It was a great honor, but also so much fun, to present outstanding poets and prose writers from our region — Radmila Petrović, Marko Pogačar, Faruk Šehić, and Maša Kolanović — to a Scandinavian audience alongside names such as Roddy Doyle, Sofi Oksanen, and Joshua Whitehead. Our authors appeared within the framework of SPACES OF FREEDOM, KROKODIL’s special travelling edition, as well as in other Littfest programs. Radmila Petrović and Marko Pogačar, for instance, also read as part of Versopolis, the pan‑European poetry network. Ana Ćurčin’s musical performance was especially well received, adding energy and a multimedia dimension to the literary program.

The second‑day debate entitled UNLEARNING HISTORY proved particularly timely and intellectually potent given recent geopolitical events. Our authors offered perspectives shaped by various personal experiences of the region’s wartime proximity in the 1990s, and the discussion proved thought‑provoking for both participants and visitors.

Our time in Umeå was a real pleasure, and we are excited to continue the collaboration with Littfest at the KROKODIL Festival in July. Northern Sweden’s distinctive Sami literature will be presented in Belgrade by three authors: a unique blend of oral tradition, folk forms, and contemporary writing. Combining poetry with yoik — the traditional ritual song executed with shamanistic power and belief — the Sami program promises to be especially fascinating.

This cooperation has been funded by the Swedish Institute.