The International Book Arsenal Festival launches the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine and announces the call for applications for the international audience of book professionals.

Foreign publishers, rights managers, literary agents and other professionals of the book industry interested in cooperation with Ukraine are invited to participate in the competitive selection.

The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine is a professional program of the International Book Arsenal Festival that will contribute to strengthening international cooperation with Ukraine in the book field by establishing direct contacts between professionals from Ukraine and abroad and acquainting with the local literary and book scenes. The program is planned as an annual one. The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program 2024 will take place despite Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

The application for participation in the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine is open at the link. The submission deadline is March 22 inclusive. The applicants selected for the participation in the program will have received confirmation by April 12. The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine, covers travel expenses and accommodation costs in Kyiv for the duration of the program.

Oksana Karpiuk, Manager of Programs for Professional Audiences of the International Book Arsenal Festival:

“For many seasons, the International Book Arsenal Festival has been actively working to attract an international audience within the festival in Kyiv and at the international venues. Through the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, we strengthen this direction and hope to turn the program into an annual practice. The program offers foreign professionals the opportunity to learn more about the Ukrainian book industry, to establish personal contacts with Ukrainian colleagues or to maintain the existing ones. Given that, unfortunately, the participants of the first season of the program will visit Book Arsenal during the full-scale war, we invite those professionals who are ready to respond to the existing challenges by cooperation with Ukrainian publishers and who seek to testify to the special demand for cultural practices, books and literature through their participating in the program and the festival.”

Up to 8 professionals will be selected to participate in the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine, who will attend the 12th International Book Arsenal Festival, which will be held on May 30-June 2, 2024 in Kyiv.

The participation in the program will include presentation events-acquainting with the Ukrainian book market, field-specific institutions and the opportunities they provide, attending the festival events and B2B meetings with Ukrainian publishers.

Fill in the application

The address for questions and clarifications is [email protected]. In the subject of the letter, please, indicate “Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine”.

Book Arsenal is an international event organized by the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The festival has been held since 2011, and has become one of the most influential literary and artistic events in Eastern Europe. In 2019, it won The Literary Festival Award of the International Excellence Awards. The mission of the International Book Arsenal Festival is to create such interactions between people, communities, institutions when the combination of aesthetic experience and intellectual inclusion in the context of a book strengthens the capacity of a person and society. 

The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, Kyiv, Ukraine, takes place for the first time within the 12th International Book Arsenal Festival and is supported by Partnership Fund for Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States of America, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden.

For the second time during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the team of the Mystetskyi Arsenal prepares Book Arsenal, which will combine artistic and literary components, meetings with writers, publishers, poetry evenings and many other book-related events.

Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, the Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal:

“Our team is sure that culture helps form the international coalition in support of Ukraine. However, this is not the only point. From recent history, we know perfectly well where the annihilation of cultural life leads to: the decline of original thought, the loss of political subjectness, the transformation of a suffered tragedy into a devastating trauma. We, Ukrainians, cannot afford this. We cannot afford to stop comprehending our reality, creating the new, experimenting with ideas and forms—doing all those things which are culture.

Book Arsenal does exactly that—it creates the stimulating environment in which something new and important is born, where the difficult is discussed and the painful is healed. Therefore, we will do everything in our power for the festival to be held in the best possible way this year.”

This year, the 12th International Book Arsenal Festival will be held from May 30 (the evening of the official opening) to June 2. The festival will consist of the program component and the book fair, which will take place on the first floor of the Old Arsenal building.

Both separate publishing houses and bookstores are invited to be sales operators of books that will present books in the sections Art Books, Fiction, Non-fiction, Books for Kids and Teens , Comics and Graphic.

Of course the focus of Book Arsenal will be on the books about the war published after 2014, the editions produced by war veterans, members of their families. In addition to the fair at the publishers’ stands, they will be presented separately in the space New Titles.

The program of this year’s Book Arsenal, curated by invited experts, will include events within the focus theme of the festival, the Literature Program, the Kids and Teens Program, the Special Program from PEN Ukraine, professional events for publishers. Book Arsenal will host the guest Literary Festival The Fifth Kharkiv with a special program. This will be the program in collaboration with and curated by the Kharkiv Literary Museum. Lectures, discussions, performances and poetry readings will take place on five stages of the festival. Exhibition art projects from contemporary artists will also become an important voice during Book Arsenal.

For the safety of the participants of the fair and the events the simplest bomb shelter is available in the Mystetskyi Arsenal.

Book Arsenal starts accepting applications for participation in the fair. The deadline is February 29, 2024.

By March 22, 2024, all applicants will have received answers about the selection results to the email addresses specified in the applications.

Book Arsenal is an international event organized by the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The festival has been held since 2011, and has become one of the most influential literary and artistic events in Eastern Europe. In 2019, it won The Literary Festival Award of the International Excellence Awards. The mission of the International Book Arsenal Festival is to create such interactions between people, communities, institutions when the combination of aesthetic experience and intellectual inclusion in the context of a book strengthens the capacity of a person and society.

Book Arsenal is organized in cooperation with Art Arsenal Community NGO. This project is supported by Partnership Fund for Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.

Book Arsenal – 2024 is also held with the financial support of the Ministry of State for Culture and the Media of Germany within the project Exchange between German and Ukrainian Literary and Book Sectors.

The International Book Arsenal Festival team is delighted to join the large-scale European project CELA for the first time.

What is CELA?

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international talent development project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the EU. It is a 4-year project that connects emerging translators from 11 European countries (10 languages) with emerging writers through masterclasses, sample translations, mentorship, presentations and live meetings. CELA aims to offer literary artists from small language markets in Europe a level playing field to establish an international career, reach an international audience and develop their professional skills.

CELA offers emerging writers, translators, literary professionals, and literary organisations a two-year trajectory of training, tools and network with the aim of facilitating an international career and building a combined professional practice.

Open-call for translators for the third edition of CELA! The International Book Arsenal Festival is looking for 10 emerging translators to take part in the programme from September 2024 to June 2027.

We are looking for translators in the following directions:

Spanish — Ukrainian;
Italian — Ukrainian;
Polish — Ukrainian;
Dutch — Ukrainian;
Serbian — Ukrainian;
Slovenian — Ukrainian;
Czech — Ukrainian;
Romanian — Ukrainian;
Bulgarian — Ukrainian.

What do we offer:

• paid translation assignments of 6 sample (prose) texts from emerging writers in your source language;
• a voice/vote in the selection of participating writers;
• publication of these translations on the CELA website and other literary platforms across Europe;
• 4 international online masterclasses on relevant professionalisation topics;
• professional communication tool kit with headshot and artist bio;
• mentorship programme: you will work with an established translator in the same translation direction and with a literary consultant;
• 2 live national team meeting in Kyiv;
• 2 live project wide work week (in Turin, Italy and in Brussels, Belgium);
• 2 visits to a literary festival in your target language country;
• paid and mentored pitching assignment of (at least) one of your writers;
• connection to an international network of more than 300 writers, translators and literary organisations in Europe.

What do we ask:

• you are a literary translator of prose (fiction and non-fiction both apply) in Ukrainian;
• you have published a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 literary translations in either an established literary magazine or with a national quality publishing house;
• you are a final year student at a translation faculty or just entering your professional translation career. You have graduated from an academic literary translation course and/or have proven your potential through literary translation programmes, and have experience of working with publishing houses;
• you are willing and able to prioritise your participation in this project, you can make the time and (head)space to dedicate focus to the activities, and you are able and willing to communicate with partner organisations and other participants (the common project language is English).

Participation in this project is free of charge. Participants are responsible for complying with the terms and conditions of participation and completing the project. CELA covers travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for live activities.

Are you interested in participating? Be encouraged to apply now!

Your application should consist of 3 documents:

a relevant and current resume (maximum 1 A4) that has at least: your full name, contact details, where you currently live and work, and relevant information about your practice and experience as a translator (please add links to your work!) and your education;
a motivation letter (maximum 1 A4) that explains why you should be considered as a candidate for CELA and what you hope to gain from it;
a letter of recommendation (maximum 1 A4) from an established translator or professor.

Application form

Deadline: March 1, 2024. Submit your application via the online form, where you can attach all the necessary documents in pdf format.

If you have any questions, check the CELA website or reach out to [email protected], please indicate “CELA project” in the subject of the email.

A committee of professionals from the project staff, CELA alumni and editors will select candidates, taking into account the above-mentioned criteria. Also, CELA takes inclusion seriously and strives to choose participants that are representative for our diverse societies.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The International Book Arsenal Festival together with BolognaBookPlus, the general publishing arm of the Bologna Book Fair,  are happy to announce an open call for the Ukrainian publishers to submit their edition for the Talking Pictures, an ongoing initiative of BolognaBookPlus centering on the visual book and contemporary publishing. 

The aim of the Talking Pictures initiative is to celebrate excellence in international  book production for the adult market, highlighting editorial innovation in the use of images and of the book-as-object, as well as recognizing boundary-crossing applications of visual imagery in contemporary publishing. The highlighted country of Talking Pictures in 2024 is Ukraine.

It is commonly acknowledged that we eat with our eyes, not our stomachs. Similarly, our appetite for books is whetted by the visual,  devouring the words within after being enticed by the cover…Each time I visited Kyiv and its bookshops I was struck by the immense care and attention to detail that was lavished on the design of books – both inside and out. BolognaBookPlus is delighted to showcase the books that have been published in Ukraine over the past challenging years and the industry talent that has contributed to them

— Jacks Thomas, Guest Director, BolognaBookPlus.

Submission criteria:

• Books published by Ukrainian publishers and created by Ukrainian creators,
• Books published in 2021-2024,
• Books for the adult market audience.

Eligible genres, but not limited to, are: illustrated books, graphic novels, books on graphic design, photography, fine art, architecture and design. 

We are pleased to be partners with BolognaBookPlus in the Talking Pictures Initiative and to expand the opportunities for introducing our best names and titles and presenting Ukrainian illustration and book design to global audiences. Bologna Book Fair is the powerful platform, participation in which attracts attention internationally, gives an opportunity to introduce Ukrainian cultural phenomena as part of the global agenda, thus encourages dialogue, and stimulates cooperation between the book creators. For us, this project is aimed at developing international cooperation and exchanges, not just at unilateral presentation of Ukrainian books abroad

— Yuliia Kozlovets, Director of the International Book Arsenal Festival.

To submit the book, please fill the Form. After filling the form the applicant must send two printed copies of the book to the IBAF office. The deadline for submitting applications and printed copies for the Contest is February 20, 2024, inclusive. Please send physical book copies by post or courier to the address of the Mystetskyi Arsenal office: NACMC “Mystetskyi Arsenal”, 10–12 Lavrska St., Kyiv, 01010. Contact person for delivery — Maryna Lymarenko, +380987087244.

To submit

Upon the submitted editions the jury will select a collection of the best Ukrainian visual books for the adult market that will be exhibited at Bologna 2024 and at the International Book Arsenal Festival in 2024. The jury will choose the winner of the Talking Pictures prize to be announced at the BolognaBookPlus theatre and awarded at the International Book Arsenal Festival. Additionally the winner will be invited to participate at the BolognaBookPlus 2025.

Judging criteria will include: 

• Publishing goal, 
• Design, 
• Typographic quality,
• Originality and innovation,
• Successful use of images and illustrations to convey narratives.

Talking Pictures is curated for BolognaBookPlus by a team of visual arts experts based in Italy and New York: 

Steven Guarnaccia is an illustrator and Professor Emeritus of Parsons School of Design, a former Op-Ed art director of the New York Times. 

The Hamelin Agency, Bologna is an association that deals with reading and books. Hamelin runs training courses for librarians, booksellers and teachers, organizes cultural events, and offers design and curation services for illustration exhibitions. 

Contact email for further questions and details (indicate “Talking Pictures” in the subject line of the letter) — [email protected]

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) — three global book events for international rights and licensing trading that take place annually in the eponymous Italian city, where culture meets style and commercial relationships are created.

BolognaBookPlus (BBPlus) was launched in 2020 by BCBF/BolognaFiere, in collaboration with the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), to reach a general publishing audience via a three-day exhibit, training and conferences — among other opportunities — taking place alongside the acclaimed Bologna Children’s Book Fair 8-11 April 2024. Working closely with the Bologna team, BolognaBookPlus is led by Jacks Thomas as Guest Director, supported by a UK team.

The International Book Arsenal Festival is a project of the Mystetskyi Arsenal that has been held annually since 2011. It is an intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary, visual, music and theatre 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.

Applications are now open for “Best Book Design 2023”. Books that were published from January to November 2023 inclusive and were not previously entered into the Contest are accepted for participating in this Contest. Applications will be accepted until November 21, 2023, inclusive. As usual, participation is free.

The Best Book Design Contest was launched by Mystetskyi Arsenal in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Ukraine during the International Book Arsenal Festival in 2016. In 2023, the Contest will be held for the eighth time.

Winners to be chosen in five categories:

• Text book (books with the dominating text component; poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction)
• Visual book (publications with the dominating visual component; publications about art, albums, photo books, catalogues, books with a significant number of images, comics, etc.)
• Kids book (children’s and teenagers’ books of various genres and types, kids’ comics)
• Utility book (books of mainly applied nature, non-fiction, popular science books, scientific, educational literature, guidebooks, cookbooks, specialised periodicals, etc.)
• Experiment (self-published literature, photo books, art books and limited editions, zines, comics, etc.)

The winners are determined by the jury. Books submitted to the Contest must be created by Ukrainian designers / illustrators / artists or commissioned by Ukrainian publishers. Editions with purchased licensed content will not be considered. Up to 5 books from one publisher can be submitted for Contest participation.

The jury members of the “Best Book Design 2023” contest:

• Agrafka art studio (Romana Romanyshyn, Andriy Lesiv)
• Sasha Bychenko, Kultura Studio
• Nadia Kelm, data visualiser
• Hlib Kaporikov, Projector
• Anna Ivanenko, seri/graph studio
• Florian Lamm, Lamm & Kirch (Germany)
• Przemek Dębowski, Karakter Publishing House (Poland)

Considering all books submitted to the Contest, the jury compiles a shortlist of finalists (15 books in total; 3 books for each Contest category). Based on the shortlist, the jury chooses the winners in each category (5 winners in total). Among the winners in five categories, the primary winner, the Grand Prix of the Contest, is chosen.

Ukrainian cultural workers, as well as Ukrainian book designers, publishers, and printing houses, have demonstrated incredible resilience over the past 20 months. We are proud and happy to support the Best Book Design Contest, even amidst full-scale war. This allows Ukrainian book design to be presented among the most beautiful books in the world in these harsh times

— Fabian Mühlthaler, Director of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.

Since its foundation, the Best Book Design Contest was conceived not only as a national award but also as a tool for creative search, and, what is crucial, for promoting Ukrainian publishers and designers and establishing the phenomenon of Ukrainian book art in the international professional and bibliophile communities. This contest has a more lasting impact than a one-time trendsetter event. It can provide professional development opportunities that we encourage you to take advantage of

— Olga Zhuk, Deputy General Director at Mystetskyi Arsenal.

Apply for the Contest

The results of the eighth Best Book Design Contest will be announced in early December 2023 on the website and social media pages of the International Book Arsenal Festival. Finalists and winners of the Contest will represent Ukrainian book design in the “Best Book Design from All over the World” competition organised by the German Buchkunst Foundation. The winning books will also be exhibited at international book fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt. In addition, the author of the most significant contribution to the design of the Grand Prix-winning book will be invited on a professional trip to Germany in 2024.

Regulations

Before submitting an application, we advise you to read the Regulations carefully. The deadline for submitting applications and printed copies for the Contest is November 21, 2023, inclusive. Please send physical book copies by post or courier to the address of the Mystetskyi Arsenal office: NACMC “Mystetskyi Arsenal”, 10–12 Lavrska St., Kyiv, 01010. Contact person for delivery — Maryna Lymarenko, +380987087244.

The Contest is held by the International Book Arsenal Festival in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Ukraine. The “Best Book Design 2023” contest takes place with the financial support of the German State Ministry for Culture and the Media.

The project partners — the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Buchkunst Foundation.

Media partners — Telegraf.Design and Chytomo.

The hospitality partner — BURSA.

Contact email for further questions and details (indicate “Best Book Design” in the subject line of the letter) — [email protected]

Frankfurter Buchmesse in cooperation with the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine announce the open call for the second season of the Special Programme for publishers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

The Special Programme for publishers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries is an intensive training and networking programme for publishers, editors, foreign rights managers and literary agents from Armenia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Ukraine within Frankfurter Buchmesse which will take place on October 18-22, 2023.

This year the Programme will be held for the second time. In 2022, 17 publishers participated in the Programme, including 9 publishers from Ukraine. Read more about the Programme and the 2022 participants on the Frankfurter Buchmesse website.

Participants of the Special Programme 2022
Photo: Frankfurter Buchmesse, Nurettin Cicek

The participation in the Programme includes:

• preparatory online seminars with advice on participation in Frankfurter Buchmesse and presentations of the book markets of the countries participating in the Programme;
• one-day seminar with experts of the German book market;
• participation in the official opening of Frankfurter Buchmesse;
• numerous events and opportunities for establishing professional contacts with international partners during Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Participation requirements:

• at least two years of professional experience in publishing with a focus on rights and licensing trade;
• a good command of English;
• being a publishing professional from Ukraine, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic.

To apply

The Special Programme for Publishers from Ukraine and neighboring countries is a professional programme launched by Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2022 as part of a strategic partnership and in cooperation with the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine.

The Special Programme for Publishers from Ukraine and neighboring countries is subject to financial support by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2022, the Best Book Design Contest will be held for the seventh time. The Contest is organized by the International Book Arsenal Festival in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Ukraine, supported by the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Buchkunst Foundation.

In view of the difficult circumstances of the Russia’s war in Ukraine, this year’s Contest will be a special war edition, aiming at supporting the sustainability of the Ukrainian book industry creative community.

Books that were published from June 2021 to December 2022 and have not been submitted to the Contest before are accepted to participate in the Best Book Design Contest 2022.

Books must be created by Ukrainian designers/illustrators or commissioned by a Ukrainian publisher. Publications with purchased licensed content, the rights to which belong to foreign companies, are not considered.

The competition is open to books by publishers, individuals, as well as institutions that initiated the publication. Only up to 5 books from one publisher can be submitted to the competition. Participation in the Contest is free.

The winners will be determined in five categories:

• Text Book (books in which the textual part dominates: poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction);
• Visual Book (books mostly with the visual part: art publications, albums, photo books, catalogs, books with a large number of images, graphic novels, etc.);
• Kids Book (kids and adolescent books of various genres and types, children’s graphic novels);
• Utility Book (popular science book, scientific, educational literature, guides, cookbook, etc.);
• Experiment (self-published books, photo books, art books and limited editions, zines, graphic novels, etc.).

Among all the books submitted to this year’s Contest, the jury members will determine 15 winning books, 3 books in each of the categories. The winners of the Contest will represent Ukrainian book design in the Best Book Design from All over the World competition organized by the German Buchkunst Foundation; the winning books will also be exhibited at international book fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt.

In view of the unequal work conditions that some of the Ukrainian publishers and designers/illustrators have experienced due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, this year’s Contest will be held in the format of professional review by the jury members, and the Grand Prix will not be awarded.

The results of the Best Book Design Contest will be announced in January on the Book Arsenal website.

This year’s Ukrainian program at the Frankfurt Book Fair has shown us how important the presence of Ukrainian books has become in the media and the publishing sector of Europe and all over the world. Therefore, despite the extremely difficult conditions that publishers, book designers, and printing industry have been experiencing due to the war, this year’s Best Book Design Contest is an opportunity to once again remind the world about the resilience and perseverance of Ukrainian culture. This year, we have decided not to award the Grand Prix, but to determine only 15 winning books that will be submitted to the Best Book Design from All over the World competition organized by the German Buchkunst Foundation, as we strongly believe that everyone who has worked on creating new books despite all the challenges deserves an award

— Fabian Mühlthaler, Director of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.

We have decided to nevertheless hold the Best Book Design Contest 2022, despite the cancelled 11th Book Arsenal Festival, the difficult conditions in which all of us are working today, and in which Ukrainian publishers and book designers have been creating their books all over this year. But this difficult year happened to all of us; it had its losses, but also its gains. We want to award the best ones, to name their books and give thanks to them, as well as not to miss the opportunity to present Ukrainian book design at the Best Book Design from All Over the World competition in Germany this year. After all, the global presence of our books, the promotion of high-quality contemporary Ukrainian cultural product, and the communication of our agency and dignity to the world are especially important today

— Yuliia Kozlovets, Coordinator of the International Book Arsenal Festival.

We kindly ask you to read carefully the updated REGULATIONS on the organization and holding of the Best Book Design Contest.

REGULATIONS

You can apply for participation via the link.

APPLY FOR PARTICIPATION

The deadline for submission of applications and printed copies of books for the Contest is December 23, 2022.
Please send printed copies of books by mail or courier to the address of the Mystetskyi Arsenal office:
Kyiv, 10 Lavrska st.
Contact person: Oksana Karpiuk, +380675889410

In 2021, the Book Arsenal Festival held the sixth Best Book Design Contest. The Grand Prix of the Contest was won by the Agrafka creative studio (Romana Romanyshyn, Andriy Lesiv) for the book On the Move (the Old Lion Publishing House). The same publication won the nomination Kids Book. Read more about the winners in other nominations via the link.

The Best Book Design Contest was launched in 2016. It is organized by the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine, supported by the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Buchkunst Foundation. The winners of the Contest represent Ukrainian book design in the Best Book Design from All over the World competition organized by the German Buchkunst Foundation; the winning books are also exhibited at international book fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt.

Contact persons:
Oksana Karpiuk, Book Arsenal
[email protected]

Maria Shubchyk, Goethe-Institut Ukraine
[email protected]

Responding to the challenges of the war, the International Book Arsenal Festival is announcing the third edition of the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! program.

The main goal of the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is to promote the export of Ukrainian books abroad and to strengthen the competencies of Ukrainian publishers in overcoming the challenges of the full-scale war.

This year again, the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe programme. The information and analytical partner is the Chytomo media project.

The Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program will include 2 components:

• The educational component includes individual mentoring sessions from world and Ukrainian experts who have successful and effective experience working with cases of organising the export of Ukrainian books abroad during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.
  The educational component of the program will take place online on July 19-26.
• The information and analytical component includes a series of texts about the opportunities of Ukrainian book export in the full-scale war based on the solutions found in the course of the educational component.
  The text materials will be published on the Chytomo, a leading Ukrainian media resource for the professional publishing community. The release is scheduled for August and September.

Within the educational component, we invite publishers to work in one of the four tracks related to the export of Ukrainian books abroad:

1. Direct sale of printed and electronic books abroad through the publisher’s website. Development of website logic, optimization for the international market, setting up search options, payment systems etc.
2. Selling rights abroad (focus on publishers with little or no experience in selling rights). Creating and enhancing catalogues, finding contractors, working with foreign literary agents and publishers.
3. Customs and legal procedures for selling books abroad.
4. Cooperation with bookstores abroad.

Each participating publisher will have an opportunity to work in one of the four tracks. The track is chosen when filling out the registration form.

How to apply for the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 Edition

Organisations are eligible to apply if they:

• are Ukrainian publishers and registered as a legal entity;
• have at least 5 books with the potential of selling rights to (for publishers whose track is working with the rights catalogue);
• have a clear current idea or case within the need of book export.

Within the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program we are planning to invite 12 participating publishers from Ukraine and 6 mentors, who will work together on each individual case in order to find the most effective up-to-date solutions for the export of Ukrainian books.

To apply for participation in the program, please fill out the registration form.
The deadline for applications is July 4, 2022.

APPLY NOW

The Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! 2022 program is being implemented in a completely different format than in the previous two years. The full-scale war continues in Ukraine, having a dramatic, often catastrophic impact on the book publishing industry. Therefore, we stepped back from the goals of peacetime in order to refocus our program to support Ukrainian publishers in overcoming the challenges of wartime. This year, we invite to participate in the program those Ukrainian publishers who have the idea, the case of ​​an export-oriented project, and who need mentoring support, advice, additional knowledge and expert opinion on their problem from the outside perspective. The main principles of this year’s program are maximum practice, relevance and joint search for the most effective solutions that can support the sector and bring our victory closer on this front as well

— Yuliia Kozlovets, Coordinator of the International Book Arsenal Festival.

It is Russia’s declared goal not just to conquer Ukrainian territory, but to erase Ukrainian culture. House of Europe has re-purposed up to EUR 1.5 mln. of its budget in the framework of its war response. Continuing the Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! programme together with the Mystetskyi Arsenal is a part of it, as making Ukrainian professionals even stronger and their voices even more heard internationally is now more important than ever

— Dr Christian Diemer, Head of Programme of House of Europe.

The International Book Arsenal Festival is an annual project of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, established in 2011. Book Arsenal is an intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary, visual, music and theatre 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.

Ukrainian Literature: Rights On! program, launched by the International Book Arsenal Festival in 2020, helps to establish effective connections between Ukrainian publishers and international business partners, as well as to integrate the Ukrainian literary process into the global one.

House of Europe is an EU-funded programme fostering professional and creative exchange between Ukrainians and their colleagues in EU countries and the UK. The programme focuses on culture and creative industries, education, health, social entrepreneurship, media, and youth.

Frankfurter Buchmesse in cooperation with the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine are happy to announce the open call for participation in the Special Programme for publishers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

This Special Programme is an intensive training and networking opportunity for publishers, editors, licence managers and literary agents from Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Hungary.
This project is one of the professional programs that are a priority of the Book Arsenal activities, and will be implemented in cooperation with the partners in 2022.

• The programme offers the following stages:
  — Open call for publishing professionals;
  — Selection of participants of the programme;
  — Online preparation seminars;
  — One-day seminar with German experts in Frankfurt;
  — Matchmaking events and numerous networking opportunities during Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Before the programme in Frankfurt starts, the selected participants will be offered a comprehensive online preparatory seminar with market presentations and tips on “How to do Frankfurt”. The programme in Frankfurt then consists of a one-day seminar with German experts. Participants will also have free time to organise their own meeting schedules while at the fair.
The programme will take place from 17 to 22 October 2022 in Frankfurt.

• Conditions of participation:
  At least 2 years of experience in publishing;
  Experience in buying or selling translation rights;
  Good command of English;
  Publishing professionals from Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Georgia, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovak Republic are eligible to participate in the program.
• How to apply:
  Applications for the special programme can be submitted online on the Frankfurter Buchmesse website.
  15 publishing professionals will be selected for the programme.
  Application deadline is 10 July 2022.

The programme is the result of the effective strategic partnership and fruitful cooperation of the International Book Arsenal Festival, Frankfurter Buchmesse and Goethe-Institut Ukraine.
The programme is subject to financial support by the German Federal Foreign Office.

APPLY

The 11th International Book Arsenal Festival has started accepting applications for participation in the Program of the events and the Book Fair. This year the Festival will be held on May 25-29.

The structure of the Book Arsenal Festival remains unchanged: in addition to the traditional Book Fair, the Festival Program of the events will include the Focus Theme Program, the Literary Program, several special projects, the Music Program, the Kids&Teens Program, professional programs, book design and illustration programs, and the Best Book Design Contest. The events of the Festival will be held on 11 stages. The 11th Book Arsenal Festival has announced the focus theme and the curators.

However, there will be some changes. Unlike last year, the whole area of the Fair will be located in the Arsenal building. A new section – General Publishers – will be introduced for those participants who publish literature of various genres and have previously exercised the right to have 2 stands. The Indie section and the Comics and Graphic Novels section will be located on the 2nd floor; they are offered the most affordable conditions of participation.

Yuliia Kozlovets, the Festival Coordinator, talks about the peculiarities of preparing the 11th Book Arsenal Festival:

Applications for participation in the Exhibition Fair will be accepted until February 11, 2022. Applications for the Program of the events will be accepted until February 16, 2022.

• To apply for participation in the Fair, you must read the Conditions of Participation and fill out the application form.
• To apply for participation in the Program of the events, you must read the Conditions of Participation and fill out the application form.

In order to effectively use the limited space of the Mystetskyi Arsenal and to present a wide range of publishers and high-quality books at the Festival, the Arsenal expert committee will select the participants of the Fair and form the Program of the events. The Book Arsenal pays special attention to new independent market players. The results of the selection will be known by mid-March.

The Book Arsenal is an international event organized by the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The Festival has been held since 2011, and it annually gathers together more than 200 participating organizations and over 50,000 visitors. In 2019, it received the Literary Festival Award from the London Book Fair (LBF) International Excellence Awards. The mission of the International 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.