International Book Festival

Book Space is not only about discussions and presentations — it also features a book fair! It’s a very important part of the festival, and it will take place again this year. Publishing houses joining us at the fair with their books include Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva, Babylon Library, Vydavnytstvo “Vydavnytstvo,” Bilka Publishing, Nashaidea, Vydavnytstvo “TAK,” Vydavnytstvo “Mushlia,” Vydavnytstvo “Mriia,” Vydavnytstvo “Krapky,” LIRA Publishing, Herda Publishing, Abrykos Publishing, Kovyla Publishing, Vydavnytstvo “Chorna Hora,” Vydavnytstvo “Yizhak,” and others. Come for new releases and timeless long-sellers! A reminder that the event will take place at the Center for Contemporary Culture in Dnipro, 21a Krutohirnyi Uzviz.

Since 2023, the Book Space team has been trying to revive the festival — searching for the right moment, for formats suitable for a frontline city, for funding. But the war suggests otherwise: the right moment is now, the best format is to speak with your own people about what matters, and the most reliable funding — somehow it will work out. On June 20–22, a камерний and restrained, yet genuine Book Space will take place within the walls of the Center for Contemporary Culture in Dnipro. Over these two and a half days, we will fit in everything we’ve missed so much — music and poetry, a book fair and discussions, but most importantly, the meeting of all of us who have been waiting for this news for so long. The festival’s focus program will be “Places and Roots” — about how our past shapes who we are, about the search for local and broader identity, about lost places and newly found roots. In addition, guests can look forward to the special program “What World Are We In?”, a program of publishing новинки, and evening music events. Among the festival’s guests will be Volodymyr Yermolenko, Tetiana Oharkova, Vakhtang Kipiani, Kateryna Kalytko, Olena Huseinova, Ivanna Skyba-Yakubova, Vakhtang Kebuladze, Svitlana Povaliaieva, Bohdana Romantsova, Oleksii Rafalovych, Simon Shuster (online), Scott Reynolds Nelson (online), and many others.

We publish a list of special programs to be held this year within the festival. Each will include various topics and formats but will cover the focal theme of this year's Book Space – New Intimacy. Our program will include more than 100 events , such as lectures, discussions, presentations, workshops, educational programs. We expect famous Ukrainian and foreign writers, publishers, editors, illustrators, and musicians. The events will take place within 9 special programs . Among the thematic ones we are preparing, in particular, New Intimacy , dedicated to the focal theme (curator Yulia Laktionova); Tandems – about the coexistence and communication between creative people (curator Olena Yurchuk); un/known – about less known literatures for Ukrainians (curator Victoria Starykova); Library XXI – about reading the future and innovative formats (curators Stefana Tsebrenko and Yulia Laktionova). Publishers who will take part in the book fair will present their books and ideas within the Publishers' program (curator Alla Rybitska). We develop a professional program for book specialists. The Educational program Books of the Future is also planned (curator Victoria Narizhna). We will be happy to see children and teenagers in the audience of the Too Close Children's program (curator Stefana Tsebrenko). And all visitors – regardless of age – in the audience of the musical program (curator Anna Stavychenko). « We have been discussing how to combine all the events that we are planning in thematic clusters and how to divide them according to the needs of the audience. We focused on 9 special programs, which, although they differ in topics and formats, will be equally interesting, exciting, innovative, and will form between all of us – participants, guests, organizers – a new intimacy that is so important to us and that we look forward » , – says creative director of the festival Yulia Laktionova . Follow the detailed presentation of each of the special programs on our website and social networks Facebook and Instagram .

Creative director of Book Space Yulia Laktionova became a participant in the professional program of the Book Arsenal Alteration: Festival to Festival. The event took place on May 5-7, 2021 in an online format. Managers and curators of Ukrainian and international literary festivals and book fairs from 16 countries were invited to the event. Among the speakers were representatives from Frankfurt, Bologna, Copenhagen, Vilnius, Krakow, and others. Participants of the program exchanged experiences of holding literary and book events and discussed the creation of events in the new reality . In particular, we talked about how literary festivals and fairs of different countries can cooperate and interact. Is it possible to achieve social impact and how to build relationships with audiences and communities in pandemic circumstances? How to organize hybrid event formats in consideration of social distancing, etc. The event allowed participants to establish warm contacts with international institutions, festivals, and fairs. "It was very nice to meet colleagues not only from all over Ukraine but also from around the world: to listen, to support, to share. To feel that, although we are all in a new reality, we have great baggage of experience behind us and a desire to change the future, passionate and inspired to fill this new reality with new meanings and create a new intimacy together", – shares Yulia Laktionova. The event was organized by the Book Arsenal and the Ukrainian Institute with the support of the European Union. The X International Book Arsenal Festival is scheduled for June 23-27 . The IV International Book Space Festival will take place on September 3-5 .