International Book Arsenal Festival

Festival History

In 2011, the International Book Arsenal Festival was held for the first time. Olga Zhuk was the first curator of the Festival, and Yulia Lesechko was its first technical director. Since then, almost half a thousand well-known international authors from more than 35 countries have been guests of the Festival’s International Program. Every year about 200 Ukrainian publishers present their publications at the exhibition-fair. Among the invited curators of the Festival’s focus theme and special programs during the previous years were Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhiy Zhadan, Andrey Kurkov, Liubov Morozova, Alla Zahaikevych and others.

In 2019 The International Book Arsenal Festival won The Literary Festival Award of The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2019. The winners of The London Book Fair (LBF) International Excellence Awards 2019 were announced on 12th March 2019.

The International Book Arsenal Festival

an annual project of the Mystetskyi Arsenal – is an intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary and artistic scenes develop and interact with each other, and important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture are raised, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors.

The mission of the Book Arsenal Festival

is to create such interactions between people, communities and institutions, when the combination of aesthetic experience and intellectual engagement in the context of the book enhances the ability of man and society.

The goals of the Book Arsenal Festival are as follows:

1. To create a friendly space (offline and online) for the interaction between people, communities and institutions, and representation of the book in all its manifestations
2. To stimulate the qualitative development and interaction of the book, literary, and artistic scenes
3. To problematize and comprehend the important issues of man, society, and culture
4. To integrate the Ukrainian book and literary community with the international one

2024

The 12th Book Arsenal was the second one held during the full-scale Russia’s war against Ukraine. It began on May 30th and lasted for three full days until June 2nd. The Festival program included more than 160 events within the focus theme Life on the Edge, the Literature Program, the Kids and Teens Program, the Special Program from PEN Ukraine, as well as professional events for publishers. Book Arsenal has also hosted the guest Literary Festival The Fifth Kharkiv with a special program. There were also separate events from publishers, performances and workshops. More than 100 publishing houses and 5 bookstores participated in the book fair, locating on the first floor of the Old Arsenal, and presenting books in the sections Art Books, Fiction, Non-fiction, Books for Kids and Teens, Comics and Graphic. Art projects from contemporary artists of the 12th Book Arsenal were represented by 10 exhibitions and 4 book collections. Visitors also had a chance to visit the exhibition Between Farewell and Return and The Pelican Zhenya Oliinyk’s Personal Exhibition in the Mystetskyi Arsenal Small Gallery. The Book Arsenal team recorded 10 discussions, another 10 events were recorded by the general media partner of the festival — Suspilne Ukraine. All recordings can be viewed on the Mystetskyi Arsenal YouTube channel. For the safety of festival visitors and participants, the simple shelter was available, as well as enhanced security measures implemented. Totally, about 35 thousand visitors attended Book Arsenal festival.

2022

The festival was cancelled due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The dates of the Book Arsenal, traditionally in May, were marked by a public conversation "Our Great Migration" which reflected a new dimension of the focus theme of the festival, chosen in 2022. In addition to annual projects, in particular for professional audiences, the team continued its work to support the publishing industry, as well as the literary and art scene in Ukraine. The Book Arsenal focused special attention on informing the global book community about Russia's war in Ukraine, international cultural advocacy of Ukraine, and presenting Ukraine and the festival at various international book fairs and literary festivals. #workingforvictory, #ПрацюємоДляПеремоги and #НаближаємоКнижковий
back to 2022

2021

After a year of pause due the COVID-19 pandemic, the Anniversary 10th International Book Arsenal Festival returned to offline format with the hashtag #дочекаємоськнижкового and the focus theme OPTIMISTS SKEPTICS. The Book Arsenal Festival brought together over 200 publishers, illustrators and cultural institutions. More than 300 events and 16 exhibitions took place within the framework of the Festival, adhering to quarantine norms. This year, the guests from other cities and countries who were not able to come to Kyiv had an opportunity to watch most of the festival events online in a free broadcast on MEGOGO.
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2020

Due to the emergency situation in Ukraine caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus resulting in COVID-19, most of the Festival was not held. However, for the first time the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! professional program took place. The program facilitated 147 B2B meetings with 38 foreigners from 24 countries and Ukrainian publishers and literary agents. The Book Pitch project was launched in 2020 by the Odessa International Film Festival and the International Book Arsenal Festival.
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2019

The Literary Festival Award of The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards. After winning the Best Book Design Contest, the book I See That by the Agrafka art studio won the Bronze Medal of the Stiftung Buchkunst annual book design competition "Best Book Design from all over the World", Leipzig/Frankfurt a.M., Germany.
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2018

Creation of the first VR book in Ukraine Meeting Tukoni An enormous number of international guests – 106 authors and cultural activists from 31 countries of the world
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2017

Birmingham Literature Festival is the guest festival
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2016

The launch of the Best Book Design Contest For the first time, the exhibition stand of the Frankfurt Book Fair is at Book Arsenal

2015

The Independent Bookshops Congress. Program for indie publishers. The launch of the Illustrators Fair

2014

The Pastiche Project special philosophy program

2013

The White Ravens most beautiful children books exhibition

2012

New Music Festival in partnership with the UKHO music agency

2011

Start! Almost 100 participants, 30 guests from 10 countries

The Festival has its own award — the Best Book Design Contest

Since 2016, the Book Arsenal Festival, together with the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, with the support of the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Buchkunst Foundation, has been holding a competition for the best book design among the Ukrainian publishers and cultural institutions. The contest aims to talk about the publication as an art object and to develop the publishing industry in the aesthetic direction.

The award ceremony takes place at the opening of the Book Arsenal Festival, the winning publications and the publishing house’s stand are specially marked at the Festival. Each year, the publications included in the shortlist of the contest are presented within the collection The Most Beautiful Books of the World at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs.