Antytvir 2026

Antytvir is a project for teenagers in grades 8-11 who write, draw works or create illustrations to them, using non-standard approaches. The project is held within the International Book Arsenal Festival.

The theme of this year’s Antytvir is Inflation of Words. Its authors are participants of Litlab Teens of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, a creative writing laboratory for teenagers.

“Sometimes you are at a loss for words to express your thoughts, worries and feelings. Sometimes you repeat the same word over and over again, but nothing changes. Then no words seem to make sense anymore and you need to search for new ways of expression,” — the authors say.

The essay on the project theme can be read at the link.

While working on your piece for the project, we suggest you consider the following:

• is it time for us to give up words? Or, on the contrary, do we need to remaster the art of eloquence?
• can words still comfort in difficult times, influence one’s mind and change the world?
• the words which stay with us longer than the news, longer than the light above our heads, and even longer than the people we care about.

To participate in the Antytvir-2026 project, you have to:

• be a student of grades 8-11;
• attach your work to the Google form. Your text has to be in Ukrainian or English, up to 15,000 characters with spaces in pdf format. Your image has to be in jpeg format. You can submit only a text, an illustration or an illustrated text. Only one work will be considered.
• do not forget to grant access to your file on the file sharing service in view mode.

The deadline is April 19, 23:59. Upon the technical selection of works (checking for compliance with the language, text volume and image format), the works will be published on the Book Arsenal website. 10 participants will be shortlisted by our teenage jury. They will get the opportunity to attend events of the International Book Arsenal Festival and to participate in the workshop on creating a joint zine from their own Antytvir pieces.

The project also includes an educational program for teachers that will take place in April. The program consists of a series of online meetings with experts in the field of education.

The media partners: Osvitoria, EdEra, Learn.Media.