So here we are, on a sunny, warm, autumn day in Cracow. It really feels almost like a summer day since it’s 20 degrees outside, and it puts me in the best mood. Just a moment ago I was sweating on the train, thinking about what this weekend was going to be like but now I prefer to sweat under my mid-season jacket because of the weather. 

We’re slowly arriving to Cracow from various cities and countries. I am super excited to see my CELA friends again: our last meeting in Turin, Italy, back in January, seems to have taken place ages ago, but talking with with them makes me feel as if only a few weeks had passed. We talk about the events in which we will be participating in over the next two days, browse through the Conrad festival program, and notice that the theme of this year’s edition is Radical Hope. ”Radical Hope!” is how we would try to hype each other up, because boy, oh boy, are we stressed.

The translators’ group kicked off Friday with a networking breakfast: an opportunity for the representatives of various publishing houses to meet and chat before engaging in another busy day of festival events. For us, it was a chance to make new connections and to get to know the industry better. Later, you could hear the words ”Radical Hope” muttered under the breath by some of us again as we were heading to the next event on our agendas, which was pitching the books of the CELA writers to the publishers. It was somewhat scary but also exciting experience: all of us put a lot of effort to showcase the work of our colleagues in the best way and to try to spark the interest of the editorials. We were going from one table to another, in a speed-dating manner, talking about what was special in those books and why they were worth publishing on the Polish market. 

Afterwards, we went to one of the festival meetings: each year during the Conrad Festival the best debut author is honored with the Conrad Award but before that, there’s a festival talk with all the nominees. One of them is our CELA’s one and only Marta Hermanowicz. Her debut novel, Koniec (The End), received great reviews and soon will be translated to Dutch by Małgorzata Briefjes (also from CELA!). Obviously, we were cheering for her and we wanted to tell the people sitting next to us: ”we actually know her!”. We didn’t do it though, let’s be honest, we’re all introverts here. Instead we ran to the next meeting. This time we would see on stage Eliška Beranova from Czech Republic, Lieven Stoefs from Belgium and Pia Prezelj from Slovenia and their translators: Paulina Zając, Marta Talacha and Aleksandra Wójcik, thanks to whom we were able to understand the stories about male friendship, life in Slovenian villages and coming-of-age longing. Their words sounded so beautiful in Polish, and I really wish I could read their books soon. ”I know them”, I know those people too, and I’m so proud of all of them, speaking so confidently on stage. 

Talking about talking on stage, that’s what awaited all of us translators on the next day and what had been the topic of our animated discussions in our WhatsApp group for weeks. It seemed surreal to me that I’d be on a panel at the Conrad festival, looking at audience, when in the past years I was the audience (well, in the end the looking part didn’t really happen, I was to scared to look at them, so I was just looking at my co-panelist instead). Another thing is that our moderator was Jerzy Jarniewicz, a leading figure in the world of translation, so some of us (maybe all of us) were freaking out about talking about our still rather humble experience in front of such an expert. But hey, everything turned out great! We had a nice conversation, and everyone was able to share their thoughts and opinions.

On Sunday, we had to say our goodbyes, but I sat on the train with my heart full. As I was going back home, I watched the streaming of the Conrad Award gala on my phone. And guess what: Marta Hermanowicz won the prize! The weekend was already fantastic, and that news was just the icing on the cake.