Lviv is preparing to host the book festival
<i>The Day</i>’s Ukraina Incognita series’ presentation will, as usual, be a key event of the forum. We have not disclosed this year’s volume’s content yet
As much as 305 publishers and booksellers have applied to participate in the 19th International Forum of Publishers which is traditionally held in Lviv in September, and the applications keep coming. “The exhibition space at the Palace of Arts is in short supply this year as much as on the previous occasions,” the event’s CEO Kateryna Shevchenko says, and adds that fee inflow is weaker in 2012 as “the publishers are complaining of money shortage caused by a great decline in sales.” Therefore, they are putting great hope in the purchasing power of Lviv readers.
Already, 108 authors have confirmed they will come to the forum. These include the Booker Prize recipient DBC Pierre (UK), Virlana Tkacz (US), Bohdan Zadura (Poland), Martin Pollack (Austria), Adam Zagajewski (Poland), Don Bruno Ferrero (Spain), and Ukrainians Valerii Shevchuk, Oksana Zabuzhko, Yurii Andrukhovych, Yurii Izdryk, Irena Karpa, and Natalia Huzieieva. The Best Book jury has already received 134 books nominated for the award by 35 Ukrainian publishers.
The Day has been told by the forum’s press office that over 400 literary and artistic events are scheduled for its five-day duration from September 12 to September 16, 2012. These include commemorations of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s 290th and Bruno Schulz’s 120th birthdays, a festival of translations, non-stop poetry and music night, publishing business forum, library forum, presentations, autograph sessions, readings, roundtables and numerous meetings with Ukrainian and foreign writers. This year’s addition to the schedule will be the Context festival of literary festivals. It aims to develop literary management through, among other things, workshops which will be conducted by cultural management experts from Ukraine, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Russia, and Switzerland. The event’s curator Iryna Lepska told The Day it should result in publishing Ukraine’s first Handbook of Literary Events.
The Day’s Ukraina Incognita series’s presentation will, as usual, be a key event of the forum. We have not disclosed this year’s volume’s content yet, so watch this space.
The 19th Forum of Publishers will end, fittingly enough, with The Forum’s Best Book-2012 award ceremony.
