About the festival
The ninth edition of the Passa Porta Festival, the biggest multilingual gathering in Europe, is a highly anticipated event in the literary world. From 23 to 26 March, it will bring together a hundred writers in Brussels: these are the voices worth following in contemporary literature.
They all said yes. Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid (Thursday 23/3), British historian Timothy Garton Ash (Friday 24/3), Dutch philosopher Connie Palmen, Mexican novelist and short-story writer Guadalupe Nettel and Korean novelist Sang Young Park (Saturday 25/3) as well as Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko and Malaysian author Tash Aw (Sunday 26/3) will be in Brussels to take part in the Passa Porta Festival, among many other names yet to be revealed.
As announced, 2023 marks a special edition for this major literary gathering in Brussels: this year, the Passa Porta Festival will include the hosting, from 22 to 24 March, by Passa Porta and the City of Brussels, of the ‘ICORN Network Meeting’, a major annual gathering of the international cities of refuge network for writers, artists and journalists in exile. The two events were therefore conceived in line with one another and under a common theme: REFUGE.
The festival will explore this particularly inspiring theme, which is as personal as it is political, through seventy events that build bridges between novels and society, between literature and other artistic disciplines, between Belgian and international authors. Discussions, guided tours, debates, literary concerts, readings of unpublished texts and performances: writers will share the stage with other artists to offer new places of refuge for our imaginations and our thoughts.
During the weekend, let your curiosity turn into discovery: compose your parcours among the 70 events on offer – depending on your favourite authors, your language, the formulas you prefer or your mood of the moment! Feed on stories, confront your points of view and fill up with new ideas during the interviews, debates, lectures or performances the festival has in store.
Enjoy!
Press contact
Katelijne Meeusen (nl, en): katelijne.meeusen@passaporta.be
Nathalie Dekeyser (fr): nathalie.dekeyser@passaporta.be