Sixth Moliere Days kick off

BELGRADE - Program of the sixth Moliere Days in Serbia will take place in Belgrade's Dom Omladine and the French Institute in Belgrade and Novi Sad from May 13 to 16, institute director Jean-Luc Goester announced.

The opening ceremony, scheduled for Tuesday evening at Dom Omladine, will include a speech by chairman of the Goncourt Academy Bernard Pivot, journalist and literary chronicler, as one of the three guests from France who will speak on the topic of cherishing literature.

Goester added that the guests of the literary event will also include the winner of 2012 Goncourt Prize Jerome Ferrari, and novelist and musicologist Benoit Duteurtre.

The event shows that there is a strong interest among Serbian readers in the modern French literature, Goester pointed out.

The Serbian students' Goncourt Prize, under the auspices of Goncourt Academy, will be awarded for the third time.

Students of the French language and literature from four university centers in Serbia will choose the best out of four finalists selected by the Goncourt Academy panel last year.

The French-language TV channel TV5 Monde is the media partner of Moliere Days for the first time this year.

The winners will be announced at the French Institute, and the award for the last year will be handed to Jerome Ferrari for his novel The Sermon on the Fall of Rome.

The event is organized with the support of the Goncourt Academy, Serbian publishers Carobna knjiga and Albatros Plus, French departments in the universities of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac and Nis, Association of Literary Translators of Serbia, International Center for Literary Translators.