Curator—Oksana Karpiuk
Do we, who live in many senses on the edge, need books? After all, the community has answered this question affirmatively. But could we have predicted the boom in the book industry and the incredible demand for Ukrainian cultural products in general when at the beginning of the full-scale invasion the most pressing issue for many of us was the basic safety issue? Perhaps, if we had taken a closer look at our backpacks and suitcases of that time, we would have had less doubts, because often there was a book there.
However, in addition to witnessing the fact of the industry development, an extremely interesting task has fallen to us— to explore and reflect on the processes in the book industry, as well as to search for vectors of the development and going beyond the limits that we have not yet managed to overcome.
Is a unified strategy of the industry institutions and professionals concerning interaction with the international community possible? How does Kharkiv—the leading city of the book industry of Ukraine—function? Does the boom in adult books also mean similar processes in children’s books? What is the modern visual component of Ukrainian books about, and how do its creators feel? Eventually, how do the agents and rights managers, who make Ukrainian books available abroad, work?… Book Arsenal, as the established meeting place for the community of book readers and creators, will once again become a platform for discussing these and other industry topics.
This year, Book Arsenal also strengthens the international component of the festival and launches the Book Arsenal Fellowship Program, within which Book Arsenal is visited by the foreign publishers and literary agents interested in Ukrainian book publishing.