Struga, 21 August 2025 (MIA) – The 64th Struga Poetry Evenings festival opens Thursday in Struga with the traditional tree planting ceremony and poetry reading at the Poetry Park in honour of Slovak poet and translator Ivan Štrpka, who is this year’s recipient of the Golden Wreath award.

The festival, funded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is held under the auspices of President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova.

This year’s edition focuses on the Glagolitic alphabet. An exhibition by graphic designed Laze Tripkov, titled “Macedonian Glagolitic – Visual Reflections” will open in Hotel Drim. 

The set design of this year’s edition revives the Glagolitic alphabet through a contemporary visual reshaping, said Mite Stefoski, the festival’s artistic director.

“This edition is dedicated to the Glagolitic. It is not only an alphabet (shape), but also, it’s the soul of the word. The visual reflections of this symbol of spirituality are presented through his exhibition ‘Macedonian Glagolitic – Visual Reflections’, which is part of the 2025 Struga Poetry Evenings,” Stefoski has told MIA. 

During the festival, a trilingual luxurious monograph dedicated to the Golden Wreath winner, Ivan Štrpka, will be promoted along many other books, including the book of the Bridges of Struga award winner, Polish poet Mateusz Szymczyk, and the book of last year’s winner of the Miladinov Brothers award for best book of poetry between two festival editions, “The Sky is My Home” by academic Katica Kjulavkova, translated into English.

Around 70 renowned poets from France, Turkey, China, Spain, Ireland, from the neighbouring countries as well as prominent local poets will take part in the 64th Struga Poetry Evenings.  

Photo: poster