Ukraine’s Literary Voices at Leipzig Book Fair
The Leipzig book fair, one of the most important events in Europe for the book publishing industry, took place on March 27 to 30. Ukraine was represented at a dedicated stand. Overall, the fair attracted 296,000 attendees.
The Ukrainian stand featured nine publishing houses: My Bookshelf, Chas Masters, Ranok, Chas Zmin Inform, Bilka, PROBOOKS, ADEF-Ukraine Publishing House, the German-Ukrainian magazine Gel[:b]lau, and the Ukrainian cultural and educational organization Oseredok Leipzig e.V.
Among the featured speakers were human rights activist, military officer, and former Russian political prisoner Maksym Butkevych; writer and director Iryna Tsilyk; journalist, writer, and former political prisoner Stanislav Aseev; writer Oksana Zabuzhko; journalist Pavlo Kazarin; and others.
Readers showed the greatest interest in books by Pavlo Kazarin, Maksym Butkevych, and Viktoria Amelina.
‘This year, the Ukrainian stand was always full, and there were many foreigners, mostly Germans, among the visitors. People came to buy specific books and to meet specific writers. This shows that we are no longer talking about abstract Ukrainian culture, which can be simply presented in words—we are introducing visitors to real texts, authors, publishers, and translators,’ said Maria Shubchyk, co-curator of the Ukrainian stand and head of communications at Goethe-Institut Ukraine, in an interview with Ukrainian media.
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