This year, the traditional poetry event will be held from August 19 to 21 at several locations in the village. Velestovo and Ohrid. The program includes three poetry readings in which a dozen poets from the country and abroad will participate, an art exhibition will be opened, and there will also be a workshop on creative writing and innovative interpretation of poetry intended for young people from the region, as well as debates on the importance of literary translation and the role of the landscape in literature, that is, for raising awareness about ecology.

Officially, the program will start on Friday, August 19, at 21 p.m., traditionally in Velestovo at a meeting, with the poetic portrait of the Macedonian poet Lidija Dimkovska. Sasho Ognenovski will speak about her poetic work, and special guests this year will be the seminarians attending the 55th Summer School of the International Seminar on Macedonian Language, Literature and Culture at UKIM.

After the poetic portrait, the same evening from 22 p.m., in the porch of the "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary" church in the village. The art exhibition "Adam's Cry" by Nikola Pianmanov will be opened in Velestovo.

The program will continue the next day, on August 20, with the "OH READ - Poetry weekend and workshop for young people from the region" project. The events will start at 11 a.m. in the premises of the "HAB Barracks" in Ohrid, when the workshop for creative writing and innovative interpretation of poetry intended for students from the Ohrid high school "St. Kliment Ohridski" and for other interested young people from the region.

Poets from the "OH READ" project will share their experiences: Selahatin Yolgiden (Turkey), Magnola Nasi (Albania), Valentina Bakti (Serbia), Dime Danov (Macedonia) and Juliana Velichkovska (Macedonia). And on the same day, starting at 18:XNUMX in the "Shila" cafe and bar in Ohrid, the international poetry reading will be held, at which the mentioned poets from the "OH READ" project will perform, as well as other poets participating in the festival: Kim Simonsen ( Faroe Islands), Lidija Dimkovska (Macedonia), Aleš Mustar (Slovenia), Ana Golejška Džikova (Macedonia) and Zoran Jakimoski (Macedonia). Within the framework of the reading, a short debate on the meaning of literary translations is planned.

The festival will end on Sunday, August 21, with another international poetry reading "Poetry - Sunset", which will be held in nature, at a location in the village of Velestovo, which is located in the national park "Galičica", where all the poets will perform participants of the festival, and the role of the landscape in literature will be debated, in order to raise awareness about ecology.

The event is supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Ohrid, Komercijalna banka AD Skopje, as well as the program of READ - Regional Network for Cultural Diversity, supported by the European Union, and other sponsors and friends of the event.

(The text was published in "Kulturen Pechat" number 141, in the print edition of the newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" on August 13-14, 2022)