This year's ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) will take place from 24 September to 7 October, under the motto "What's the story?". The programme includes regular ingredients such as the Utrecht Book Market, the NK Poetry Slam, the YALFU (Young Adult Festival) and De Nacht van de Poëzie. At the heart of ILFU on 30 September will be the festival day 'Exploring Stories', with interviews and signing sessions with more than 20 international writers. Among the first confirmed names at Exploring Stories are: Jeanette Winterson (UK), Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Nigeria), Daniel Schreiber (Germany), Kamila Shamsie (UK/Pakistan), Nora Ikstena (Latvia), Julie Meyerson (UK), Trudy Dehue (Netherlands) and David van Reybrouck (Belgium). Ticket sales for Exploring Stories start today.
What's the story?
ILFU's motto this year emphasises that there is not just one story. There are multiple stories to tell about every human life, every history, every continent, every city. The one story that has become dominant risks shutting people out, telling only one side of history, becoming an oppressive force. So you should always ask yourself the question: what is the dominant story here and who determined it? To then look for the other stories. Literature is the art form par excellence for polyphony and other perspectives.'Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, only to remind us that everyone sees it differently,' wrote Jeanette Winterson at Oranges are not the only fruits. She is one of the writers performing at Exploring Stories on 30 September.
Exploring Stories
Exploring Stories the big festival day of ILFU. On four stages in TivoliVredenburg, hear conversations with authors, journalists and thinkers from all corners of the globe who share with us their stories and thoughts about today's world. Fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, politicians, poets and philosophers meet for conversations on the hot topics of our time, such as climate change, racism, feminism and the danger of AI. We also explore the underlying social factors that shape our lives such as loneliness, friendship in times of polarisation and the question of how we deal with issues such as pride, (un)power and jealousy. Of course, there will also be book stands and all writers will take part in signing sessions.
ILFU 2023
For a fortnight, Utrecht is all about literature. Every year, some 200 writers and over 20,000 visitors visit ILFU. In recent years, ILFU has attracted big international names such as Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Elena Ferrante, Michel Houellebecq, Nick Cave, David Mitchell and Édouard Louis. The lineup for ILFU 2023 will be announced in the coming months. Ticket sales for The Night of Poetry, Exploring Stories and YALFU have now started.
ILFU also invites writers throughout the rest of the year. The online platform ilfu.com publishes daily stories, poems, interviews and essays and is now supported by 1,200+ members.
Exploring Stories
Saturday 30 September 13:00 - 22:00
TivoliVredenburg Utrecht
Tickets: €12.50 - €22.50
YALFU
Sunday 1 October, 13:00-17:00
TivoliVredenburg Utrecht
Tickets: €20 - €25
40th Night of Poetry
Saturday, 7 October, 20:00
TivoliVredenburg (Great Hall) Utrecht
Tickets: €30 - €42.50
More information and tickets via
https://ilfu.com/festival
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