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The European Poet of Freedom is the only Polish festival dedicated to the latest European poetry. During the Festival we announce the winner of a most unique award – for the volume of foreignlanguage poetry translated into Polish. For this reason alone it is worth joining us for the three days in March.

A poem allows us to see the world and ourselves from a different perspective, broadens our horizons, frees us from stereotypes, preconceptions and cognitive clichés. A poem is a lesson in empathy. It opens our eyes to reality and teaches us to take it with a pinch of salt. This is how we understand freedom as embedded in the name of the festival and the award.

Coming into contact with great poetry written in other languages offers us yet another thing – the possibility, despite cultural differences, to meet others in a vision and experience in the hope of discovering our deepest, translingual and transnational common ground, such as a smile or a handshake.

TADEUSZ DĄBROWSKI
artistic director
of the European Poet of Freedom
International Literary Festival