As part of the preparatory activities prior to the project "Slovenia – Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair", the Slovenian Book Agency hosts  four literary events with male and female Slovenian authors in collaboration with the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre (SKICA) between 26 and 29 April 2016 in Vienna. In addition, editors-in-chief Herbert Ohrlinger and Ludwig Paulmichl will host Slovenian guests during their respective visits to the publishing houses Zsolnay and the Folio as part of the specialist programme of the event cluster.

Visitors of the Vienna events will be able to meet Slovenian authors Cvetka Lipuš, Ana Pepelnik, Maja Haderlap, Davorin Lenko, Aleš Šteger, Goran Vojnović  and Boris Pahor. The latter three will be discussing the newly published German translations of their respective works.

The events will be organized in collaboration with local partners and referential authors and hosts from the Austrian and German literary sphere. The Slovenian authors will be accompanied to Vienna by a number of compatriot publishers and editors. The string of literary events – collectively named À propos Slovenija - novosti pri sosedih [Apropos Slovenia – New Arrivals from the Neighbouring Side] – will take place between Tuesday and Friday at four different locations.

Tuesday, 26 April, at 8:00 PM (20:00) at the  PHIL bookstore (Gumpendorfer Straße 10-12)

Austrian author Robert Prosser will host the Slovenian authors Cvetka Lipuš, Ana Pepelnik, Davorin Lenko and the Austrian poet and writer Verena Mermer at the popular PHIL bookstore and café located in the centre of Vienna. The audience will hear readings of Slovenian prose and poetry both in Slovene and in German. The literary event will be followed by a performance by Slovenian DJ Teo P and a beer tasting courtesy of the Slovenian boutique breweries Bevog and Reservoir Dogs.

Wednesday, 27 April, at 9:00 PM (21:00) at the "Alte Schmiede" cultural centre (Schönlaterngasse 9)

The Austrian author Angelika Reitzer and Slovenian writer Aleš Šteger will discuss the newly published German translation (Archiv der toten Seelen, Schöffling, 2016) of the author's Slovenian-language novel Odpusti.

Thursday, 28 April, at 7:00 PM (19:00) at the "Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur" Austrian Literature Society (Herrengasse 5)

Slovenian literary great Boris Pahor will be a guest as part of the literary evening series "Behind the Glass Curtain" at the headquarters of the distinguished Austrian Literature Society. Boris Pahor will be discussing the newly published German translation of his novel Nekropola with the esteemed German philologist Thomas Poiss – the editor of the German translation of Boris Pahor's novel and expert on the author's literary opus. Host: Cornelius Hell.

Friday, 29 April, at 7:00 PM  (19:00) at the Hauptbücherei Wien central book store (Hauptbücherei am Gürtel, 1070 Urban-Loritz-Platz 2a)

Goran Vojnović and Maja Haderlap will discuss the newly published German translation (Vaters Land, folio, 2016) of Vojnović’s Slovenian-language novel Jugoslavija, moja dežela. Host: Katja Gasser (ORF). Excerpt in German read by the translator of the novel Klaus Detlef Olof.

The Slovenian Book Agency will host additional events, this time around focused on the Slovenian comic art and graphic novel in autumn of 2016 in collaboration with the Slovenian Culture and Information Centre (SKICA) and the "Literaturhaus Wien" literary institution. Further events are also planned for the near future. For example, a study visit to Slovenia, to which four German editors (respective representatives of the publishing houses  Wallstein, Suhrkamp, Ullstein and Transit) and three literary journalists (respective representatives of the German newspapers Tageszeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung) will be invited, is namely scheduled to take place between 9 and 11 June 2016.