Lviv Book Forum hosts international stars

In the middle of a war, Ukraine's largest literature festival welcomes some of the world's most famous authors, including Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman.


Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is well-known for her dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale'

In spite of the ongoing war, the Lviv Book Forum will take place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv from October 6 to 9. It is the 29th edition of Ukraine's largest literary festival.

Countless world-famous authors will be in attendance, either digitally or in person: Margaret Atwood will be talking to Ukrainian literary critic and translator Yurii Prokhasko.

British author Neil Gaiman shares a panel with Sevgil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda and Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, best known for his "Brief History of Humankind."

The 2021 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, will be discussing decolonization with Ukrainian author Alim Aliev.

Yurri Prokhasko works at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in Lviv
A history of famous guests

It is not the first time that the Lviv Book Forum hosts world-renowned international guests. As part of the Ukrainian "Publishers' Forum Lviv," the annual festival has been welcoming international authors since 2001.

Singer Patti Smith, bestselling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk have previously appeared in Lviv.

Originally, this year's festival was to be held under the motto "Future Reimagined." However, after the outbreak of war, the festival's curators decided to focus instead on the role of art in times of war, the right way to remember the past, gender equality, loss, corruption, imperialism and hope.

Liuba Tsybulska from the Ukraine Crisis Media Center will talk to international colleagues about Russian war propaganda

Giving a voice to the people of Ukraine

As a sign of international solidarity, this year's events will be livestreamed in English for a global audience in cooperation with the British Hay Festival, one of the most renowned literary festivals in the English-speaking world.

"To have a voice in the middle of war is critical and crucial," Julie Finch, managing director of the Hay Festival, told DW.

"It is about recognizing that arts and culture are crucial to Ukrainian identity and the character and DNA of the country," Finch adds. "Self-expression is extremely important to the people of Ukraine."

Yaroslav Hrytsak is a Ukrainian historian and director of the Institute for Historical Research at Lviv's Ivan Franko University

The fact that the festival is taking place at all this year is an "act of defiance" against the war, says Finch, visibly impressed by her colleagues at the Lviv Book Forum. "Part of it is about giving people hope for the future, and writing is playing a part in that."

For Sofia Cheliak, translator and curator of this year's edition of the Lviv Book Forum, the festival aims to "tell our story to the world," she said in a statement.

She equally hopes that the presence of international guests will give hope to people in the country: "We want to show our Ukrainian audience that artists from all over the world are on our side."

The Lviv Book Forum takes place from Friday 6 to Sunday 9 October in Lviv, Ukraine. All events will be broadcast in English by Hay Festival at www.hayfestival.com.


This article was originally written in German.