The 12th International Book Festival "Book Arsenal" will take place in Kyiv from May 30th to June 2nd in 2024, as announced on the festival's website. This will be the second time the festival is held during a full-scale war. Traditionally, the festival will consist of a programme and a book fair on the first floor of the Old Arsenal.
Both individual publishers and bookstores are invited to participate as sales operators. Books will be presented in sections such as "Art Books," "Fiction," "Non-fiction," "Literature for Children and Adolescents," and "Illustrated Books." Additionally, books about the war after 2014, published by veterans, war participants, and their families, will be separately showcased in the "New Releases" section, alongside the regular book fair stands.
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.”
The festival will feature invited curators, a literary programme, a programme for children and adolescents, a special programme from the Ukrainian PEN, and exhibition projects from contemporary artists.
Furthermore, "Book Arsenal" will host the literary festival "Fifth Kharkiv" in collaboration with the Kharkiv Literary Museum, featuring discussions, lectures, performances, and poetry readings on five festival stages.
For the safety of the participants of the fair and the events the simplest bomb shelter is available in the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
