Internationally acclaimed journalists, Pulitzer Prize winners, and bestselling authors will gather in Bucharest for the 11th edition of The Power of Storytelling, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading conferences dedicated to storytelling and journalism. The event will take place on March 21–22 and is expected to bring together more than 550 participants from Romania and across the region.

The 2026 edition is held under the theme Hope Is a Choice, focusing on stories that confront today’s social, cultural, and political realities while consciously choosing engagement and responsibility, according to the organizers.

Over the past decade, The Power of Storytelling has established itself as an international platform for in-depth narratives, hosting more than 80 global and local voices and attracting over 5,000 attendees interested in the power of well-told stories.

Among the headline speakers this year are Lea Ypi, professor at the London School of Economics and author of Free and Indignity; Nathan Thrall, winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction; and Chris Jones, a two-time National Magazine Award winner currently working on a book about football’s healing power. 

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski also returns to the conference, alongside Romanian journalist Elena Stancu, known for documenting the Romanian diaspora through the Teleleu.eu project.

The event brings together journalists, writers, artists, filmmakers, activists, entrepreneurs, and students, creating what organizers describe as a global intersection of ideas and practices.

“We do The Power of Storytelling because we all need inspiration and fresh energy in our lives. We believe that seeing firsthand how a good story works, and then learning how to tell it better, is a gift we can give ourselves to reconnect with our sense of purpose and personal mission. In a rather bleak reality, being able to make room for hope is, ultimately, a skill, and we want to help people develop it,” said Cristian Lupșa, host of The Power of Storytelling.

Tickets are available online and include access to both conference days. Further details can be found here.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the organizers)