Croatian Book Night 2024 to feature over 1,150 programmes
On 23 April 2024, at 12.00, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) will host the opening of the 13th edition of Croatian Book Night, Croatia’s annual national programme marking World Book and Copyright Day and Croatian Book Day (22 April).
Featuring more than 1,150 programmes, this year’s Night will be held under the theme Through the prism of a cataclysm: Books for rising to challenges (Kad je prizma kataklizma: knjige za izazovna vremena), with George The Booklover of Yore, the only surviving Bookosaurus Rex, as the 2024 Night’s mascot, ready to shed light on how books and reading are crucial in overcoming the challenges that humankind is currently facing.
Responding to the latest social developments, this year’s Night’s programme addresses the sentiment among the global public of a looming cataclysm, brought about by today’s ongoing armed conflicts and the threat they pose of sparking off a global war as well as by the disastrous impact of excessive and irresponsible use of Earth’s natural resources by way of exacerbating climate change on human society and the entire living world.
Humankind has feared, anticipated and been fascinated by the apocalyptic visions of all kinds since time immemorial, however, cataclysmic prospects have always presented it with a choice, in which literature and where society stood in relation to it has always played a role in terms of prompting people in doing their part in making the world a better place or ducking their social responsibility.
Nationwide book festival – in parks, castles, prisons, on buses, archaeological sites…
The 2024 Night’s more than 1,150 events will be held in as many as 240 public libraries, 120 primary and 45 secondary schools, 40 kindergartens and 56 bookstores, including a wide range of other venues, ranging from bookshops, antiquarian bookshops, museums, through faculties, dorms, senior citizen’s homes, hospitals and a prison, to parks, castles, archaeological sites, buses and trams. The nationwide celebration will for the first time be held on Lastovo, which will thus join Krk, Rab, Prvić, Mljet, Zlarin and other Croatian islands which have already hosted Croatian Book Night programmes.
Participating in the Night’s events all across Croatia will be famous Croatian writers such as Pavao Pavličić, Julijana Matanović, Damir Karakaš and Enes Kišević, the authors of Croatian bestsellers such as stage and screen actress Arijana Čulina and radio and television host Aleksandar Stanković, mental health experts Ali Fenwick and Ljubica Uvodić-Vranić, astronomer from the Višnjan Observatory and famous teacher Korado Korlević, meteorologist, popular weather presenter and author of children’s books promoting environmental awareness Zoran Vakula and others.
Croatian Radio Television’s special broadcasts and apocalypse movies marathon
The Third Channel of the Croatian Radio Television will be airing special broadcasts in which the theme of apocalypse will be presented from the perspective of philosophy, meteorology, climatology and today’s politics as well as the apocalypse-themed movie marathon.
Celebrating books through humanitarian initiatives
Maintaining the tradition of organising various humanitarian initiatives, Croatian Book Night 2024 will keep supporting the efforts aimed at providing Ukrainian refugees with publications in their own language by making available the titles of Ukrainian publishers in Croatian public libraries. Also, all profit from the sale of the Night’s promotional T-shirts will be donated to Split-based Udruga MoSt association, while a special book donating initiative, with the Gambling Addiction Rehabilitation Day Clinic (Dnevna bolnica za ovisnost o kockanju) and Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic (Psihijatrijska bolnica za djecu i mladež) as the beneficiaries, will be organised to raise public awareness of the growing problem of gambling addiction.
NSK, the Croatian Book Night’s proud host
The participants in the programme of the Night’s opening, starting at 12.00 in the Library’s grand lobby and including the announcement of the winners of this Night’s competition for primary and secondary-school students, will be the Croatian Minister of Culture and Media Dr Nina Obuljen Koržinek, NSK Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević, President of the Publishers and Booksellers Association of the Croatian Chamber of Economy Slavko Kozina and Tamara Kraus, who will present the results of the latest survey of Croatia’s book market.
The organisers of the Croatian Book Night programme are the Publishers and Booksellers Association of the Croatian Chamber of Economy, National and University Library in Zagreb, Zagreb City Libraries, books-and-literature-oriented e-zine and web portal Moderna vremena, Croatian Publishers Licensing Society (ZANA), book market-focused association Knjižni blok – Inicijativa za knjigu and the Croatian Association of School Librarians.
Learn more about the programme of Croatian Book Night 2024 (Croatian text only).