Ukraine will showcase over 500 books from 43 publishers at Frankfurt Book Fair

Ukraine will showcase its literature stand, supported by Goethe-Institut, at the world's most important book event, which will take place on October 18-22, 2023, in Frankfurt, Germany.

Ukraine will participate in the fair with the slogan: Fragility of existence. The focus of the discussions will be on the topic of Ecology and War. Ukrainian authors, translators, intellectuals, and public figures will participate in the international discussion program.

The book stand will feature more than 500 books from 43 publishers. It will also be the venue for negotiations on the sale of rights to Ukrainian books, and all slots for meetings have already been booked.

The stand will have its own stage with events in English and German during each day of the fair.

Russia's cruel war against Ukraine is not only ruining our environment and our homes, but also taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. With its missiles, Russia is aiming at our identity. Ukrainian authors are fighting on the front, volunteering and writing new books; publishers keep publishing books; and readers keep buying and reading them, said Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute.

The full Ukrainian program in English is available here.

The Ukrainian stand will introduce the guests of the fair to the past and present culture while showing the devastating impact of the war on art. The Institute will present two of its own multimedia projects on the platform.

The first is the audiovisual project "Discover Ukraine: Bits Destroyed," which immerses the viewer in the world of Ukrainian monumental art. The project used images of 56 mosaics from the 1960s and 1970s. Over a quarter of these works have been damaged or destroyed since Russia's full-scale war began.

The second project is an English-language digital guide to Ukrainian culture, Insight.UA, which allows exploring Ukrainian culture through various formats – from selections of Ukrainian films, exhibitions, and books to listening to playlists or watching online courses.

All five days of the fair will be about war, punishment for crimes, solidarity, conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda, science, education and the book market during the war, but also about creativity, new forms of existence and vibrant Ukrainian culture, the press release says.

Last year, Ukraine was an unofficial guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022. The Ukrainian national stand was then decorated on the basis of visually developed motifs from the Tree of Life mosaic by Ukrainian artist Alla Gorska, which was destroyed in Mariupol in Russia's March-May siege.