International literary evenings Banja Luka Poetry Evenings “ATLAS EVROPSKE LIRIKE” were opened on 13 May in the National and University Library of Republic of Srpska presenting Slovenian poetry.
Presentation of Slovenian poets and their books were held in cooperation with the Association of Slovenians of RS “Triglav”, Association of Writers of Slovenia – Trubar’s Foundation and Velenje Book Foundation. Presented were the books by Cvetka Bevc “Odbljesci” /Reflections/, and Zoran Pevec “Muškarac u sobi”/A Man in the Room/, translated by a poet and translator Željko Perović and published by “Kuća poezije”. The event was opened by Ivo Stropnik, poet and manager of Velenje Book Foundation – Lirikonfest, a significant international literary event. He read poems of his book “Dizanje kamena” /Lifting the Stone/ published by “Kuća poezije”. Beside authors, the presentation was also attended by writers Zdravko Kecman, Živko Malešević and Željko Đurđević.
Zdravko Kecman started first by presenting the programme of Banja Luka Literary Evenings, emphasising that in addition to other promotions in cooperation with Association of Slovenians of RS “Triglav” there would be published and promoted a book by Marko Kravos, anthology “Darovi evropske priče”, first in Ljubljana and then in Banja Luka and other towns. In cooperation with the Association of Poles Banja Luka and Embassy of Poland in Sarajevo there will soon be published a book by Polish poet Eva Zonenberg translated by a renowned translator Biserka Rajčić from Belgrade, while with the Association of Hungarians cooperation was established through translation of works by Banja Luka poets into Hungarian, translated by Ilješ Feher. The end of the cultural event will be in November by presenting the “Evropski atlas lirike” award.
Cooperation between poets of Banja Luka and Slovenia has lasted over years and beside many literary evenings, promotions, presentations, marking significant events resulted in different books of both poetry and prose. In his speech Ivo Stropnik invited the organiser and publisher “Kuća poezije” to present books they published in early September at International Literary Event Lirikonfest, and to have as guests several poets of Banja Luka. Invitation was accepted and further steps were agreed on.
