On Sunday, June 1, the 13th International Book Arsenal Festival was over. The musical and poetic event by the DakhTrio band Stus. Tychyna. Shevchenko took place on the last evening of the Festival. Songs with lyrics by Vasyl Stus, Pavlo Tychyna and premiere compositions based on Taras Shevchenko’s texts

This year, the Festival hosted over 200 events of the Festival program, including those of the Focus Theme program, the Main Program, separate curatorial and special programs, as well as publishers’ programs: discussions, lectures, readings, workshops, meetings with authors, music and performance events. The visual component of the 13th Book Arsenal was represented by 17 exhibition projects and 5 book collections.

In 2025, Book Arsenal was visited by 30, 000 people.

The Festival exhibitions became visual and textual reflections on wartime, identity, meanings, Ukrainian culture and other important topics. The separate stand was dedicated to the literature of Ukrainian defenders, men and women veterans. The project was implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine together with the Nedopysani initiative.

Book Arsenal is one of the most beloved Ukrainian festivals, and we are happy that, despite everything, we can hold it for the third time during the full-scale Russian war. It is very important for all of us—readers, authors, publishers, artists and musicians, for everyone—to continue existing, to affirm Ukraine’s presence in the world, to strengthen Ukrainian subjectivity. It is like a statement to the whole world: we, Ukrainians, are and will be. That is why Book Arsenal is necessary now, and that is why we will do everything possible for it to be successfully held in the future

— Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, the Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.

The Festival had lasted for 3.5 days on the first floor of the Old Arsenal building, where 100 large, 11 small publishing houses and 6 thematic bookstores presented their stands, there were partner stands of military and volunteer initiatives as well. This year, the Illustrators’ Fair returned to Book Arsenal: 12 artists and graphic designers presented their works in various visual solutions and styles.

Visitors were in for the best examples of Ukrainian and world literature that had been published earlier, as well as those that had been printed specifically for Book Arsenal.

The events of the Focus Theme, the Main Program, the Professional Program, the Kids and Teens Program, the Special Program of PEN Ukraine, the Special Program of the Translatorium Literary and Translation Festival, as well as the Special Teens Program not only became a meeting place for like-minded people, but also allowed the participants and guests of the Festival to approach important topics, to become involved in shaping new meanings and to talk about their own and public experiences.

During the 13th Book Arsenal, 7 curatorial and special programs were presented:

• Everything Is Translation was the Focus Theme of the 13th Book Arsenal. Marci Shore and Oksana Forostyna became its curators.
• The Main Program Our Arsenal. Curator—Iryna Slavinska.
• The Kids and Teens Program The Familiar Language of Imagination. Curator—Olya Rusina.
• The Professional Program of Book Arsenal. Curator—Yuliia Konopliana.
• Book Arsenal hosted the TRANSLATORIUM Literary and Translation Festival with the Special Program. Curator—Tania Rodionova.
• The Special Program The Cardiogram of Translation. Organizer—PEN Ukraine.
• The Special Teens Program Interpreting the Unambiguous was presented by participants of the Litlab Teens.

Over 250 guests took part in the events of the 13th Book Arsenal. On the Main, Literary, Author, Outdoor, Publishing Stages, in the Lecture Hall and in the Workshops Area, the voices of Ukrainian and foreign guests were heard, among whom there were writers, translators, poets, philosophers, media professionals, publishers, educators, cultural studies scholars, artists, military servicemen and servicewomen, public and cultural figures from Ukraine, as well as from Austria, the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Lithuania, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, the USA, France, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Book Arsenal took place for the third time under the conditions of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine. Taking into account last year’s experience, additional security measures were introduced for visitors and participants.

This year, our team strove to do as much as possible—to surpass last year’s achievements, to introduce new formats and to bring back some successful practices from the previous years of the Festival. At the same time, this is again the Festival in wartime, we are working with the security restrictions which do not allow us to return to the large-scale format that Book Arsenal was in 2019 or 2021.

During the 13th Book Arsenal, we talked about mutual understanding, about translation from one language to another and within one language, about interpretation and those situations when full understanding was impossible—when experience, especially tragic or traumatic experience, could not be explained or translated. This is the experience undergone by individual people, entire generations or even entire countries

— Yuliia Kozlovets, the Director of Book Arsenal.

On the second day, the 13th Book Arsenal was visited by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska.

The Festival was also visited by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and other guests.

The traditional New Titles project, which had been implemented at the Festival in cooperation with the Chytomo media resource since 2015, was presented at the 13th Book Arsenal. During the Festival, editions published from June 2024 to May 2025 were presented. Literary specialists prepared 10 selections of new books for different audiences. These publications on the Chytomo website will help readers navigate through prose of Ukrainian authors, art books, detective stories, romance novels, fantasy, historical books, etc.

This year, the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program—the professional program within which eight foreign publishers, agents and rights managers from Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, France and Sweden visited the Festival—took place for the second time. 94 B2B meetings involving 22 Ukrainian publishers, rights managers, literary agents and even illustrators were held within the Festival. A seminar and two intensive days of B2B negotiations were organized for the program participants.

Suspilne Media became the general media partner of the 13th Book Arsenal. During all days of the festival, on-site studios of the Suspilne Culture TV channel, Radio Culture, journalists of the Suspilne Culture website, the Suspilne.Studio information project and the digital platform of Suspilne Media worked at the Book Arsenal location. They made live broadcasts, gave coverage from the Festival, prepared publications and invited the organizers and guests for studio interviews.

In 2025, media partners of the Festival were: The Kyiv Independent, Radio NV, Cases, Vogue.ua, 1+1 Media and ArtWizard.

The organizers express their gratitude to the partners, who supported the Festival in 2025.

This year, 174 volunteers got involved in the work of the 13th Book Arsenal and helped the Festival team and visitors.

The Festival team made video recordings of some of the discussions. All the recordings will soon be released on the YouTube channel of the Mystetskyi Arsenal.

PHOTOS:

Book Arsenal 2025 Day #1

Book Arsenal 2025 Day #2

Book Arsenal 2025 Day #3

Book Arsenal 2025 Day #4

Photo by Yevheniy Zavhorodniy, Anna Putylina, Roman Shalamov, Serhiy Khandusenko, Andriy Tsykota, Yulia Ptaha, Nastia Telikova, Sofiia Yermakova, Oleksandr Popenko

Book Arsenal is organized in cooperation with Art Arsenal Community NGO. The Festival is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.

The Festival is supported by the Partnership Fund for Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of Canada, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The Book Arsenal’s Focus Theme program is co-organized by Documenting Ukraine, the program of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM Vienna). The development of the Focus Theme was also supported by the US Embassy in Ukraine.

The special teens program from the Litlab Teens is supported by the British Council’s program “Support for Cultural Activity in Ukraine with UK Involvement”.

This year, the Festival will kick off on Thursday, May 29, and run until June 1 at Mystetskyi Arsenal (10-12 Lavrska Street)

What to expect:

• Over 200 events in the Festival Program, including the Focus Theme Program, Main Program, curated and special programs, as well as publishers’ events: discussions, lectures, readings, workshops, author meet-ups, musical and performative events
• Book fair—100 large and 11 small publishers, and 6 bookstores, along with partner stands of military and volunteer initiatives. This year, the Illustrators’ Fair is returning to the Book Arsenal: 12 artists, graphic designers, and visual creators will present their works in various styles and formats
• 17 exhibition projects

PROGRAM OF THE 13th BOOK ARSENAL

You can purchase tickets:

• via the link: BUY TICKET
• at the ticket office at Mystetskyi Arsenal during the Festival.

Full ticket — 200 UAH
Family ticket (2 adults + 2 children aged 12+) — 500 UAH
Festival pass (all days for one person) — 500 UAH

Important! When purchasing tickets with a Premium Visa card from PrivatBank, you’ll receive a 20% discount. To activate the discount, go to the “Pryvit” section in the Privat24 app before buying your tickets and activate the Book Arsenal offer.

Free admission to the 13th Book Arsenal is granted to:

• holders of annual passes for the 20th anniversary of Mystetskyi Arsenal;
• children under 12;
• pensioners**;
• children and adults with disabilities and one accompanying person**;
• active military and veterans**;
• family members of fallen service members and war veterans**;
• internally displaced persons (IDPs)**;
• museum workers and holders of ICOM or CIMAM membership cards.

**With valid ID confirming eligibility.

You may re-enter the Festival on the same day if an air raid alert is announced.

Please keep your ticket until the end of your visit to the Festival!

Festival Opening Hours:

Thursday, May 29: 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m (entrance to the territory from 4.00 p.m.)

Friday, May 30: 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m

Saturday, May 31: 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m

Sunday, June 1: 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m

In case of an air raid alert, the Festival will resume 30 minutes after the alert ends. If the all-clear is given at 19:30 or later, the Festival will not resume that day.

Evacuation plans and safety guidelines during the Festival are available via this link.

To ensure everyone’s safety, metal detector gates will be installed at the Festival entrance this year.

Please do not bring firearms, non-lethal, gas, pneumatic, or hunting weapons. Security staff will deny entry if such items are found.

Pets are allowed in the Festival premises only if carried by their owners. More details are available via the link.

Suspilne will be the general information partner of the 13th Book Arsenal.

Book Arsenal is organized in cooperation with Art Arsenal Community NGO. The Festival is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.

The Festival is supported by the Partnership Fund for Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of Canada, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The Book Arsenal’s Focus Theme program is co-organized by Documenting Ukraine, the program of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM Vienna). The development of the Focus Theme was also supported by the US Embassy in Ukraine.

The special teens program from the Litlab Teens is supported by the British Council’s program “Support for Cultural Activity in Ukraine with UK Involvement.”

The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program 2025 has received applications from 20 countries and territories. Following a competitive selection process, eight participants have been chosen for this year’s program — publishers, literary agents, and rights managers from Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, and Sweden.

Ukrainian publishers, rights managers, and literary agents are invited to meet with their international counterparts — participants of the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program 2025 — in a series of B2B meetings during the upcoming XIII International Book Arsenal Festival.

To arrange B2B meetings with the Fellowship Program participants, please fill out the Google form by May 2 (inclusive). For further inquiries or clarifications, contact the organizers at bookprogram@artarsenal.gov.ua.

GOOGLE FORM

A dedicated networking space will be available for meetings between Ukrainian and international publishing professionals within the XIII International Book Arsenal Festival on Friday, May 30, from 15:00 to 18:30, Saturday, May 31, from 10:00 to 19:00 and Sunday, June 1, from 10:00 to 13:00.

In advance of the B2B meetings, the Fellowship Program participants will be provided with detailed information on the Ukrainian book market, available support mechanisms for translating Ukrainian literature abroad, and profiles of the Ukrainian publishers participating in this year’s edition of the Festival.

 THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program takes place within the 13th International Book Arsenal Festival and is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.

Book Arsenal traditionally participates in the Bologna Book Fair, which this year will be held from March 31 to April 3, 2025.

The national stand of Ukraine within the Bologna Book Fair is organized by the Ukrainian Book Institute and will feature current books of Ukrainian authors and illustrators from national publishers.

Book Arsenal, with the support of the Bologna Book Fair, will present a program of events with Ukrainian speakers involved, its own presentation location, and the exhibition project Ukraine: Yesterday and Today in collaboration with and curated by the Pictoric Illustrator Club.

Ukraine: Yesterday and Today (Hall 30/C52).

This exhibition brings together the works of contemporary Ukrainian illustrators and legendary artists of the 20th century, offering a fascinating journey through the evolution of Ukrainian illustration. By showcasing the connections and contrasts between past and present, the exhibition highlights the resilience and uniqueness of Ukrainian visual storytelling.

The 20th-century section features iconic illustrators whose works shaped the imagination of generations: Nina Denysova, Halyna Halynska, Volodymyr Holozubov, Mykola Storozhenko, and many more. Ukrainian children’s books were uniquely enriched by avant-garde artists, monumental painters, and visionary illustrators who masterfully blended folk motifs with classical European influences.

The contemporary section presents leading Ukrainian illustrators shaping today’s artistic landscape, including Anna Sarvira, Yulia Tveritina, Romana Romanyshyn & Andriy Lesiv, Anna Ivanenko & Zhenya Polosina, Oleh Hryshchenko, Olena Staranchuk, and others. Their work continues the legacy of innovation while reflecting the resilience of Ukrainian culture—especially vital today, as Ukrainian art fights to survive and assert its identity amid the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion.

Organized by Pictoric Illustrators Club

In partnership with the International Book Arsenal Festival and the National Academy of Fine Art and Architecture (Kyiv, Ukraine).

Bologna Book Fair is a unique three-in-one event: the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), the world’s leading fair of the children’s publishing industry; BolognaBookPlus (BBPlus), the extension devoted to publishing in general; and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids (BLTF/Kids), the BCBF’s licensing event for subsidiary rights to brands and property objects for kids, teens and young adults.

From 31 March to 3 April 2025, these three dynamic events will take place in parallel, transforming Bologna into the world’s leading center for the exchange of copyright in the fields of publishing, multimedia, licensing, illustration, book design and animation.

The Bologna Book Fair is organized with the support of and in collaboration with the Italian Trade Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy.

The 11th International Book Arsenal Festival announces the Event Program which includes about 100 events that will take place on the first floor of the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The events of the Book Arsenal program will become a meeting place and a space for sincere conversations, for contemplating upon our experience, and discussing the future.

The Book Arsenal will start on Thursday, June 22. On the first day of the festival, 10 events will take place: discussions, poetry readings, film screenings, children’s program, and musical events. On June 22nd, the festival will run from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The official opening of the 11th International Book Arsenal Festival will take place on June 22 at 5:00 p.m. On this day, the program will continue with the discussion “Democracy and War” within the focus theme “When Everything Matters”.

As part of the literary program, the discussion “Our Crimea: On the Book Pages” and poetry readings “Pixelated Poetry” will become the highlights of the first day.

For kids and teens, the program of the first festival day includes a workshop by the Art Studio Agrafka.

Visitors will also have a chance to watch short films about Kyiv — six stories about the city “How Can I Not Love You 2.0” by Takflix online cinema, as well as listen to “DJ-set. Borys”.

Finally, on the opening day, there will be a concert of the “Renaissance” Chamber Orchestra of the Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic. The event will take place in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute.

The Focus Theme “When Everything Matters”, curated by Nataliya Gumenyuk, includes 8 events. Our values and current experience, what is going on with us, with the society, with the country, and with the world will be discussed during four days of the festival. It is a space for recognizing, as well as creating a new civic vocabulary for the things that we have not yet verbalized. This is a place where, by reflecting on our current experience, we will be able not only to comprehend, but also to word ourselves and what is going on with us.

The program is implemented with the support of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna, Austria) within the Documenting Ukraine project.

The Literary Program “Transforming the Experience into Memory”, curated by Iryna Slavinska, will be the largest at the 11th Book Arsenal. The program will present various voices of the literary scene — diaries, documentary notes, and fiction, texts by professional writers and those who started writing only after February 2014 and February 2022. And also poetry, which once again has become the cutting edge on which words are formed today that we will use tomorrow to tell about our experiences.

The Program for/about Kids and Teens “When the War Is Not Only in Books” offers a safe and friendly space for communication, reading, and discussion of children’s books and stories written and published in times of war. Among the events of the program are a marathon of authors’ readings by children’s writers, a public interview of the Mystetskyi Arsenal’s youth council with Iryna Slavinska, a performance “Knyhodruziachennia-Peredbachennia”, and workshops for parents. Yuliia Kozlovets is the curator of the program.

Partner of the program is BaraBooka. Space of Ukrainian Children’s Literature.
The program is implemented with the support of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, SCBWI.

The Professional Program of the Book Arsenal, curated by Oksana Karpiuk, will be a meeting place for the representatives of the industry, and will provide a platform for public discussions, formulating requests and searching for solutions, exchange of knowledge and experience. Within the program, we will talk about government policies and the role of specialized institutions in the book industry, business models that give publishers sustainability, as well as the role of small independent bookstores in promoting reading and building civil society.

The program is supported by the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.

The Special Program “(non)public libraries” by the Literary Laboratory of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, curated by Dima Kazakov, will be about little travelling, homeless libraries, real and online archives, collecting, personal book and vinyl collections, curated shelves, and zines. The special program “(non)public libraries” is about the sound of our time and how to transmit it, communicate it, and not interrupt it.

The PEN Ukraine Special Program “Memory Speaks” will present 5 events; in particular, on the first day of the 11th Book Arsenal, the presentation of the military diary by the late Volodymyr Vakulenko will take place.

The Dovzhenko Centre Special Program “Literary Movie Canon. Volume One” will present three films based on iconic literary works: “The Dream”, based on Taras Shevchenko’s poem, the crazy screen adaptation of Mykola Hohol’s “The Eve of Ivan Kupala”, and the epic film production of “Zakhar Berkut” by Ivan Franko. Each of them shows how Ukrainian filmmakers managed to bring to the screens the important themes of national history and issues of Ukrainian identity despite the censorship and the ideological distortions made by the Soviet ruling party.

The visual component of the 11th Book Arsenal will be represented by 7 exhibition projects:

• “Protective Layer” by Kostiantyn Zorkin;
• “Ukraine: Symbols of Resistance” by Maria Kinovych;
• “When Everything Matters” by Pictoric Illustrators Club;
• “The Eye of the Storm”, an exhibition of Israeli and Ukrainian illustrators of children’s books;
• “The Chronology of Russification” by the Liguicide project;
• “Calligraphy and Font 2022-2023” by the the calligraphy school “Art i Ya”;
• The Reckoning Project.

Visitors of the festival will also have an opportunity to see the exhibition “Forms of Presence” which has been running in the right wing of the Mystetskyi Arsenal since April 2023, and the “pro(movy)” exhibition, which will be presented by the Laboratory of Contemporary Art “Mala Gallery of the Mystetskyi Arsenal”.

In the nearest days, tickets for the 11th Book Arsenal Festival will be sold online on our website. Follow the news on our website and social networks.

The International Book Arsenal Festival (IBAF) is an annual event organized by the Mystetskyi Arsenal since 2011. During this decade it has become one of the most influential literary and art events in Eastern Europe. In 2019, IBAF won The Literary Festival Award of The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2019. 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.

Ukrainian and international managers and curators of important literary, book, and cross-disciplinary events of the world will be sharing their experience and discussing events in the new reality.

The Alteration: Festival to Festival Online Programme that will take place on May 5th – 7th is organized by the team of the Book Arsenal and the Ukrainian Institute and supported by the European Union.

Key questions will include:

• Where is the festival movement heading nowadays?
• How can literary festivals of different countries cooperate and interact?
• How can social impact be achieved, and how to build relationships with communities in a pandemic?
• What online tools and formats proved to be successful?

This first sectoral event of the Alteration programme sets a high standard of organisation and participation. It involves major European book festivals and their most advanced Ukrainian peers. We look forward to a discussion that will highlight best practices and survival strategies for literature festivals, through the pandemic lens and beyond

said Tetiana Shulha, sector manager for culture at the European Union Delegation to Ukraine.

The project contributes to the development of international relations within the professional community and to better recognition of Ukraine on the international culture scene. Among its goals are the following: establishing contacts with international institutions/festivals / exhibitions and implementing the program with educational components to enhance the competencies of Ukrainian and foreign participants.

Literary managers from London or Vilnius now meet the same challenges as their colleagues from Kyiv or Lutsk: how to create quality content and reach the audience in the context of social distancing, how to ensure the unforgettable atmosphere of connectedness. We offer the participants a sincere conversation about the effectiveness of tools and instruments, ways to interact with communities and stakeholders, to form the visitors’ experience at a distance or within quarantine restrictions

said Oksana Khmeliovska, Curator of the Professional Development Programs at the Book Arsenal Festival.

Ukrainian participants will have a chance to get acquainted with international colleagues and to explore future cooperation with them.

We wish the cooperation between Ukrainian and international festivals to grow and expand bilaterally – so that Ukrainian festivals are integrated into the global context, and foreign festivals work more closely with Ukraine. When the world has gotten even closer thanks to the online, we cannot lose the opportunity to make the communities acquainted and help them network

said Anastasia Denysenko, Literature Programme Manager at Ukrainian Institute.

The International Book Arsenal Festival has been held annually since 2011. It is an important cultural event in Ukraine, where the book, music, performative and visual art scenes interact, important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture, are raised and reflected, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors. The festival is organised by the Mystetskyi Arsenal. The project takes place within the professional development programs of the Book Arsenal Festival.

The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The mission of the Ukrainian Institute is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. We facilitate international connections between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

Background: The event is implemented within the framework of Alteration Programme. It consists of a series of online events aimed at supporting the cultural and creative sector to recover after the covid crisis. It is run by the Ukrainian Institute and supported by the EU via the Cultural Relations Platform (CRP). CRP is an EU-funded project launched in April 2020, designed to support the European Union to engage in international cultural relations. It provides a renewed approach based on a set of shared principles, and new activities, aiming to promote and facilitate sustainable cultural exchanges, people-to-people activities, and co-creation processes between Europeans and citizens from countries all over the world. The CRP activities range from policy support for EU Institutions to supporting cooperation between European and global cultural and creative sectors as well as strengthening communities of practitioners through dedicated trainings and enhanced exchanges.

For more information, please contact press@ui.gov.ua, press@artarsenal.gov.ua.