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Days of poetry and wine, one of the largest and most recognisable international poetry festivals in this part of europe, has successfully united poetry and oenology for the past twenty-two years. every year, in the last warm days of august, over twenty poets from all over the world and selected domestic winemakers are hosted at the festival. the korean phenomenon ko un, the american poet c. d. wright, and the swedish nobel prize nominee lars gustafsson are just some of the 500 prominent names of past festivals. the main emphasis – poetry and wine – is accompanied by a thoughtfully formulated programme that encompasses the fields of music, visual, photography, film and other arts for all ages and interests. ten years ago the festival found a home in ptuj, a small town in the heart of one of europe's most fascinating wine-growing regions, at the crossroads of several cultures. with its idyllic image, it provides an ideal environment for informal and constructive communication between the participants, while its tradition of wine production offers an additional argument for strengthening poetic dialogue. the dense network of connections established in the past years has served as the basis for many new projects and cooperative projects. since 2014, the days of poetry and wine has been a member of the european poetry platform versopolis, supported by the creative europe programme. more than 60 festival events are held each year, all of them with free admission, and they attract more than 10,000 visitors every year. main features: • open letter to europe: each year, the art director of the days of poetry and wine festival with its team and in collaboration with allianz kulturstiftung, selects a preeminent poet or thinker and gives them a unique opportunity to address europe and present the problems he or she considers the most pressing. the letter is published in the media in the form of a media message in important european media and thus carries significant weight throughout europe. all open letters to europe are published at www.stihoteka.com and as separate publications. they are delivered personally to all members of the european parliament, the council of europe, and the european commission. in 2019, the letter was authored by ilija trojanow, a bulgarian-german novelist, essayist, translator and publicist. • poetry from all over the world: in 2019, 20 poets from 15 countries performed at over 60 events, ranging from intimate readings in private gardens to readings on a boat on the ljubljanica river, from austria to croatia. never before has great international poetry been so close and so accessible, and never before has its amazing power drawn so many readers and listeners from close by and afar. in order to disseminate the voices of outstanding poets far and wide, the events are free, mostly in both slovene and english, as well as in the languages of the guests, from countries ranging from china to egypt. • versopolis: ptuj is the capital of european poetry thanks to the versopolis platform, which has been helping great but internationally less-known poets navigate the european festival circuit for six years; these poets can now be seen, heard and translated. thanks to the initiative, several poetry booklets have been published and poets have given more than 300 readings to audiences in countries other than their own. in 2019, the festival was visited by versopolis poets ramune brundzaite from lithuania, goran colakhodzic from croatia, maarten inghels from belgium, and lou raoul from france. however, versopolis is not just a platform, it is also an english-language international journal, the versopolis review, which upholds notions of europe as a treasury of different cultures, provides sharp critique where warranted, and connects poetry with ongoing social and political developments. • artist-in-residence: in collaboration with unabhangiges literaturhaus no (krems, austria), the festival offers a residence in ptuj to an emerging austrian poet for up to one month. • literary translation workshop: each year a literary translation workshop is organised with four slovene and four international authors (each year a different language is in focus). the workshop takes place in jeruzalem – a small and charming village surrounded by vineyards about a 30-minute drive from the main festival venue, the town of ptuj. poets spend three days together there with a professional translator. together, they work on translations of their poetry – with foreign poetry translated into slovene and slovene poetry translated into a chosen foreign language. the new translations are presented at evening reading events at different locations around jeruzalem throughout the workshop and during the main programme of the festival. • equality: gender equality, lgbt equality and diversity have been highlighted in the vision of the festival since the very beginning. the organisers are aiming at a balanced and diversified festival. by hosting poets from all over the world, they strive to widen the intercultural perspective and at the same time they strive for the equal representation of genders and encourage them to express themselves in their own way. through international poetry, they address slovene society in order to expand its horizons. the festival also cooperates with the other beletrina academic press project, insajder, which encourages the involvement of disabled persons in social activities and public spaces. • interdisciplinarity: days of poetry and wine unites poetry with oenology and enriches the last warm august days with poetic, oenological, culinary, musical, and visual experiences. the following can be found at the festival: readings, concerts, private readings, wine tastings, wine workshops, art exhibitions, round tables, children's workshops, young adult workshops, slam poetry events, poetry duels, a poetry promenade, etc.