First names for ILFU's Exploring Stories festival weekend

ILFU 2024's festival theme is 'I am many Stories'.

This year's ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) takes place from 21 September to 5 October, and carries the motto 'I am many stories', borrowed from Marilyn Monroe. The programme includes regular ingredients such as the Utrecht Book Market, the NK Poetry Slam, the YALFU (Young Adult Festival), Book Talks and the Night of Poetry.

New this year, the beating heart of ILFU -' Exploring Stories' - is being expanded into a weekend festival. On Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 September, more than 20 international guests will discuss current, pressing issues. Among the first confirmed names at Exploring Stories are: Constance Debré (France), Layal Liverpool (Great Britain), Nicolas Lunabba (Sweden), Brenda Navarro (Mexico) and Vamba Sherif (Netherlands).

I am many stories

ILFU's motto this year comes from Marilyn Monroe and focuses attention on the multiformity of human beings. Too often we reduce each other to our origins, or our beliefs or the stories others tell about us. (Monroe knew this better than anyone else - after all, who knew she wrote poetry?) Wherever you live, whatever you experience and whatever you do, you are never a single story.

Yet it sometimes seems that in today's times, we prefer to reduce each other to one narrative, which fosters fear and enmity. However, the paradox seems to be that in order to come together again, we actually need a common narrative where the many selves can move more towards a 'we' again. In a de-pillarised society where our stories remain largely in individual social media bubbles, this unifying narrative has been lost.

But fortunately, literature is still there. As long as there are stories that apply to everyone and are made for everyone, we still have a foothold and recognise ourselves again as the multifaceted me, who, along with others, holds many stories.

Exploring Stories

Last year's Exploring Stories festival programme was such a great success that we decided to expand to two days. This way, we can give even more attention to all authors and the important topics they bring. On Saturday 28 September, as before, conversations with fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, politicians, poets and philosophers will resound on the four stages in TivoliVredenburg. They meet for conversations on THE themes of our time, such as (hidden) perspectives on contemporary wars, anthropocentrism, racism, femicide, transphobia and social inequality. On Saturday, we highlight political and socio-social topics in all their layers. The festival Sunday is entirely dedicated to the theme 'Nature's Narrative' in which we consider the big question of to what extent the human voice can speak for other entities.

The festival square will have book stands and food stalls throughout the weekend and several book signings will take place. Festival information

About ILFU

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, Ali Smith and Édouard Louis. The lineup for ILFU 2024 will be announced in the coming months. Ticket sales for The Night of Poetry and Exploring Stories 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.

Auteurs Exploring Stories 2024