Jagiellonian University's Collegium Novum
When the Poles throw a party – they don’t settle for half-measures. And what better occasion than the Czesław Miłosz centenary? This is easily the most lavish, labor-intensive, high-class shindig of its kind I’ve ever attended.
We’re not just talking about the obvious: swag bags with books and DVDs; Miłosz pencils, pens, and t-shirts; Miłosz’s signature on the dinner napkins, and just about everywhere else. It’s not only the stunning setting at Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in Europe.
Collegium Novum's Assembly Room
Everyone is here: Derek Walcott, Bei Dao, Thomas Venclova, Adonis, Natalia Gorbanevskaya, and Adam Michnik are among the luminaries – but only among. There are many more.
Queen Jadwiga's portrait watches over us
Though the Book Haven has been relatively silent lately, obviously I have not been idly eating bonbons. Or at least, not only. This conference at the university’s Collegium Novum and the “Miłosz Pavilion” has pretty much been running me ragged – and the Milosz365 festival continues into the weekend and next week.
And organizers Jerzy Illg, publisher of Znak, and Aleksander Fiut, Miłosz scholar, have bags under their eyes … Well, they’re not the only ones.
Consider this a down payment. More later.
Postscript on 5/14: Walcott’s a no-show, nobody knows why, though a pleasant, vague letter was read by Jerzy Illg at one of the events. I understand this is not the first time Walcott has bailed.
Tags: Adam Michnik, Adonis, Bei Dao, Derek Walcott, Natalia Gorbanevskaya, Thomas Venclova
May 10th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
[...] “When the Poles throw a party–they don’t settle for half-measures,” says Cynthia Haven, who’s celebrating the Czesław Miłosz centenary in Krakow. [...]