Next year of the international poetic festival took place from 8th to 11th October 2009 and this time it was carried out in spirit of Polish poet and playwright Juliusz Słowacki. President of Polish Writers Union Marek Wawrzkiewicz opened the festival in the House of Literature in the Krakow suburbs. Except the national poets he also introduced the foreign guests from Mongolia (Barkhas Dorj), Germany (Karl Grenzler), Russia (Igor Bielov, Dmitrij Birman, Olesia Kornienko), Belarus (Uladzimir Niaklajeu), Estonia (Aarne Puu), Czech Republic (Vladimír Křivánek) and Slovakia (Radovan Brenkus). Publication of the anthology is a tradition of this festival. In this year, the poems of participated authors appeared in the Polish anthology called  In our place, there is the column with the statue. Its presentation was a part of several various events.

 International literary festival „Literackie Pomosty“ held in May from 14th to 16th in Polish town Zielona Gora. The festival was organized by County and Urban Public Library of C. Norwida in cooperation with local branch of Polish Writers’ Union, Lusatian humanitarian college and with Urban Public Library in Zary. The goal was the presentation of literature of neighboring countries, as well as to acquaint the public with its latest trends. At the same time, the festival was oriented on experience exchange in connection with the present situation, perception and status of Polish literature in neighboring countries. Slovak side was representing by author, translator and publisher in one – Radovan Brenkus. There were invited the foreign guests too: Birutė Jonuškaitė (Lithuania), Andrií Bondar (Ukraine), Karl Grenzler (Germany), Andrei Khadanovich (Belarus), Aarne Puu (Estonia).

 Smoke from the Realm of Shadows is the book title from author Radovan Brenkus from Košice. The book was published in these days with the support of Literary Fund in the Publishing House of the Slovak Writers’ Society. The poem collection is ilustrated with graphic reproductions of Ľubomír Kepič.
 „As in classical music is humoresque besides the tragic opera, so in the world poetry has its unsubstitutable place the black poetry. We could mention the authors such as Poe, Baudelaire or Trakl. If I was convinced, that there is nothing new to invent in this way, the enjoyment from my own creativity and from discovering a new connections, would have run off a long time ago. However, the dark optics does not need to satisfy everyone. Although I was judged for blasphemy by some of the readers, I still believe, the percipient readers number will increase,“ remarked Brenkus about his book. „If author is a witness, it does not mean, he performs the role of judge.“
 It is the fourth poem collection from representative of newgothic poetic wave. Except the book of stories – Hell Returns, he published the first poem collection – March of the Dead (1997), poetry Requiem in the Dust (2002) and Romance with a will-o'-the-wisp (2005).

Interview with the writer Radovan Brenkus
(Slovak Perspectives 2009/5)

Why to write? Peter Pišťanek is said not to enjoy the writing. What about you?

Maybe, he realized that writing has no sense if it is only writing for writing. Writing is really not about writing. It is about the creation of fictional reality and the question is whether it can offer something also to the author. If writing fills him with the peculiar world where he feels it is stronger than he is, writing has the sense. Then comes the joy, although the writer goes through the despair of own characters. Since I write sporadically, in my case, this hobby relates to the joy. If it to be the contrary, I would not resort to it. Of course, there are so called deaf periods, too, when the author has the feeling that writing can not cross its shadow. Why to force oneself to write a short story, when the inspiration has not matured into the story? Literature does not vanish either in this epoch; poet simply lives by his poetry. His vision of the world is a curse and blessing for the whole life, although he would never write a single verse again. If the promising poet gives up the writing of poems and the way of life related to it, he has never been a poet. Need of devoting only to other activities is a simple consequence that can be used for hiding the failures and not the reason for excusing such a choice. Why to write? At least in order to record the epoch, its social space. To record it by the new vision, maybe as the testimony for further generations. There can be a lot of reasons, but no writer is in a state of giving a single subjective reason.

Radovan Brenkus answers the questions of a chief editor of a Literary weekly.

Radovan Brenkus answers the questions of the editor-in-chief of the Slovak Perspectives.

Interview with the writer Radovan Brenkus (Touches 2008/3)

P. H.: Today’s world appears to me like a pot of water just before boiling. Don’t you have this feeling, too? Isn’t something hanging in the air? If yes, what is it? What can in the nearest decades happen in this huge pot? Who and what will be boiled in it? What will be the Slovak taste of the soup?

R. B.: Not only me, but major part of the society has the feeling that the Sword of Damocles is hanging above us. It does not present anything abstract – powerlessness, downtrodden dignity, loss of moral values, violence and several other negative phenomena, all these express the behaviour and action of concrete people embodying the social relations. And these are the direct consequences of economic mechanisms of the society. Politicians will hardly change them in the nearest decades, so I assume that such situation will, along with reforms, persist longer. Problems can be only solved by more effective ways of obtaining the financial means and more economic redistribution of the wealth. I remain to be an optimist in these questions, I believe that by entrance to the euro zone, the situation in our country will keep improving, although not everyone will benefit from it in the adequate degree. Globalization will cook a lot of mortals in its pot and I can’t prevent the individual executions. It’s about the repeating antinomy in basic sociological considerations. What is better, rule of the strong average that, sometimes composed of amorphous individuals installed by the capital owners and mediocracy, will finally subjugate the others to the slave, feudal or capitalistic manner or system with the strong organization hierarchy where finally any kind of individualism will be suppressed like in the anthill? Both solutions lead to the same result – to the dictatorships by the form of various kinds of pseudo-democracies. Democracy itself does not exist, each is autocratic. Although the whole history is the fight of antagonistic forces not requiring the first or the second model of the society, their movement finally alternates the power of some towards the others. About anarchy, we know a good deal. Religion, philosophy and works of art remain the spiritual and saving escape for us. Animals can perform the most beautiful dance figures, but for them, dance does not have the sense of ballet. I expect that the Slovak taste of the soup will not be so bitter. Countries in the European Union will certainly preserve their national identity, language and history, although the concepts of the single European culture, according to which the trend of common history will be created, already exist.