In 2020, the cooperation was largely devoted to the connection between digitality and literature. In response to the conditions imposed by the pandemic in autumn 2020, the format of Global Encounters brought together authors from different parts of the world for digital conversations and shared reflection on literature under these conditions. In the encounter, authors including Carmen Maria Machado & Lesley Nneka Arimah, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor & Alvin Pang, Edwidge Danticat as well as Valeria Luiselli & Nadifa Mohamed spoke with one another along shared thematic lines, in an attempt to keep a space for literary exchange open despite the imposed social distance.

A roundtable entitled Don't Touch. Distance And Proximity in Literature and in the Digital Space brought together figures from the world of digital literature. Digital publisher and net activist Christiane Frohmann, literary and media scholar Roberto Simanowski – 2020 Distinguished Visiting Fellow at EXC TC – , Facebook-only author Elisa Aseva, and Sarah Berger, an author navigating between social media, print, and e-books, came together to discuss literature under conditions of digitization, digital forms, writing on social media, and the changing relationship with books.

This engagement with literature under the influence of the digital was joined by readings in the festival's main program, which corresponded with the Cluster’s various research strands: Etgar Keret, Leif Randt and Szczepan Twardoch read from their current novels.