It is with great pleasure that EUNIC Portugal announces the return of the European Literature Night, in a particularly symbolic edition marking its 20th anniversary.

On Saturday, 6 June, Lisbon will once again host this celebration of European literature, a free event featuring staged reading sessions taking place in various venues around Avenida da Liberdade (Marquês de Pombal).

The venues hosting the readings include Atmosfera m (Montepio Associação Mutualista), the Biblioteca Arquitecto Cosmelli Sant’Anna (BACS), Camões Institute, Cinema São Jorge, Instituto Cervantes, Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho, the Eleventy Milano store, Museu Medeiros e Almeida, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, and Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa.

As part of the Festas de Lisboa programme, the European Literature Night will present ten staged reading sessions between 7:00 pm and 11:30 pm. Lasting between 10 and 15 minutes and repeated every half hour, these readings allow audiences to move freely between the different venues — including some that are rarely open to the public.

This year’s edition offers the opportunity to discover literature from 14 European countries — the Austrian Embassy in Lisbon, the Embassy of Belgium in Portugal and Wallonia-Brussels in Spain, Instituto Cervantes de Lisboa, the Estonian Embassy in Lisbon, the Finnish Ibero-American Institute, Institut français du Portugal and Alliance Française Lisbonne, the Embassy of Greece in Portugal, the Embassy of Hungary in Lisbon, the Italian Cultural Institute of Lisbon, the Embassy of Luxembourg in Lisbon, the Embassy of Poland in Lisbon, Camões, I.P., the British Council Portugal, and the Romanian Cultural Institute Lisbon — through performances of excerpts from their literary works by Portuguese and international actors and actresses.

European Literature Night is an initiative of EUNIC Portugal — the network of cultural institutes and embassies of European Union countries, established in 2006 — and is being held in Lisbon this year in partnership with Lisbon City Council, Lisboa Cultura, Lisbon Libraries, the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal, Creative Europe Portugal, Santo António Parish Council Lisbon, the National Reading Plan,  Avenida Association, El Corte Inglés Portugal, and Antena1.

EU National Institutes for Culture