The 13th International Festival Book Arsenal will take place from May 29 to June 1, 2025.
The festival will traditionally feature a programme and a book fair on the first floor of the Old Arsenal, with lectures, discussions, performances, public interviews, and readings. There will also be exhibition projects.
This year, publishers and bookstores are invited to participate in one of the following categories: "Art Book," "Fiction," "Non-fiction," "Children's Literature," "Illustrated Books," and "Books in Foreign Languages."
This year, Book Arsenal will be held already for the thirteenth time, and we will take every effort to turn it into the place of the most important conversation that makes Arsenal so special and beloved. The very place where like-minded people meet, where arts and experiences come together, the place of joy and shared sadness, the place of reflection on the most difficult issues that affect everyone in Ukraine. I am very grateful to Marci and Oksana for their work on the focus theme: having the privilege of observing the working process, I am sure that it will be a deep and at the same time global in its breadth conversation. The theme itself will be announced soon—in March," said Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta.
Special conditions apply for small publishers with 2 to 10 published books. Applications can be submitted until February 28 via the provided link.
The festival’s focus theme will be curated by historian, professor of European intellectual history at Yale University Marci Shore, and writer, translator, publisher and member of PEN Ukraine Oksana Forostyna.
Book Arsenal will host the Translatorium Literary and Translation Festival with the Special Programme.
Lectures, discussions, performances, public interviews and poetry readings will take place on seven stages of the festival. We will also present exhibition projects during Book Arsenal.
The Festival will also host the annual professional Book Arsenal Fellowship Programme for foreign publishers and literary agents, that contributes 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.
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. The festival is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.
