On 19–20 November, Drohobych will host the XXIV International literary-art project Second Autumn — an annual event that honours the memory of Bruno Schulz and affirms the value of creativity and imagination as forces capable of resisting death and oblivion. The festival’s name refers to Schulz’s short story of the same title and symbolises an alternative perspective on life — the life of culture, which endures despite tragedy.
The project, dedicated to the anniversary of Bruno Schulz’s killing, is organised by the Ihor Menko Polish Studies Research and Information Centre at Drohobych University in cooperation with the Krakow KEN University, the Bruno Schulz Festival Society (Lublin), the Consulate General of Poland in Lviv, the Polish Institute in Kyiv, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and numerous partners. Second Autumn brings together people for whom literature and art remain vital pillars at a time when Ukraine is confronting Russian terror and barbarism.
The traditional two-day programme will open on 19 November at 11:00 with an ecumenical gathering and joint prayer at the site of Schulz’s death and at the Alley of Memory. Here, participants will honour the writer as well as all those who have devoted themselves to preserving his legacy and Drohobych’s multicultural history, together with fallen Ukrainian defenders and all innocent victims of Russian aggression.
After the prayer, guests will be invited to a rich cultural programme: meetings with Ukrainian and Polish authors, scholarly discussions, presentations, an art exhibition inspired by The Cinnamon Shops, a performative monodrama based on Schulz’s texts, and a Ukrainian-Polish poetry performance in the shelter of the Drohobych Theatre.
Participants of this year’s Second Autumn will include Anton Lohov, Orfeusz Jakubiszyn, Jolanta Kurska, Grzegorz Gauden, Andriy Pavlyshyn, Bohdan Zadura, Hryhoriy Semenchuk, Ostap Slyvynskyy, Yurko Prokhasko, Nataliya Kotenko-Vusatyuk, Lukas Joura, Danylo Ilnytskyy, Pawel Reszka, Oleksandr Boychenko, Nataliya Tkachyk, Jacek Podsiadło, Pawel Pruchniak, Lothar Quinkenstein, Grzegorz Józefczuk, Anna Pruchniak, Yurko Fedchuk, Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Koschany, Magdalena Rabizo-Birek, Monika Schneidermann, Krzysztof Skibski, Kateryna Hladka, Maciej Tramer and Józef Olejniczak.
This year, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute is supporting a Ukrainian-Polish poetry performance based on the verse of Vasyl Mulik and Kazimierz Wierzyński — part of the “poems in shelters” cycle that has been taking place in Drohobych since 2022 within the framework of SchulzFest.
The organisers invite everyone to join the events of the Second Autumn, to honour the legacy of Bruno Schulz and the power of culture that sustains us in wartime.
The festival programme is available via the link.