Our First Belarusian Women’s Literature Festival
This year we organized our very first literary festival dedicated to Belarusian women writers — and we think it turned out to be a really special event.
When we started planning it, we had one simple idea: what if a literary festival was designed primarily for readers?
Very often literary festivals follow a familiar pattern. You come, you listen to writers reading from their books, maybe you buy a book, and then you leave. These events can be wonderful, but they often feel the most fun if you already know the writers or are somehow part of the literary circle. If you don’t know anyone, it can sometimes feel a little distant.
We wanted to try something different.
Our goal was to create a festival that would be enjoyable even if you walked in knowing absolutely no one — a space where readers could discover Belarusian women writers in playful, creative, and unexpected ways.
Of course, we still had readings. Several writers shared their work, and we even had a literary stand-up performance. But alongside that, we created a series of interactive activities that invited everyone to participate.
There was a Poetry Apothecary, where visitors could receive a poem as a remedy for their mood. People could create their own illustrations for poems, experiment with texts, and take part in collective poetry readings.
All of this was meant to change the way we usually experience literature. We wanted to disrupt the usual format of literary readings and create new situations for encountering texts — moments where reading becomes something shared, playful, and alive.
Most importantly, we hoped to help people discover the richness of Belarusian women’s writing — poets, authors, voices that deserve to be read and celebrated.
We are incredibly grateful for all the warm feedback we received after the festival. Thank you to everyone who participated, read, listened, created, and shared this space with us.
We hope this is only the beginning.
