The 29th Lviv BookForum in Ukraine aimed to create a civic space for a free and tolerant exchange of ideas between writers and readers around the world.
The hybrid programme – part in-person and part through virtual live appearances – blended renowned Ukrainian writers with internationally acclaimed literary figures in conversations ranging art in times of conflict, memory, gender-equality, loss, corruption, imperialism, and hope.
Lviv BookForum
The 29th Lviv BookForum in Ukraine aimed to create a civic space for a free and tolerant exchange of ideas between writers and readers around the world.
The hybrid programme – part in-person and part through virtual live appearances – blended renowned Ukrainian writers with internationally acclaimed literary figures in conversations ranging art in times of conflict, memory, gender-equality, loss, corruption, imperialism, and hope.
Speakers included Nobel Prize for Literature-winner Abdulrazak Gurnah; Booker Prize-winner Margaret Atwood; anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari; authors Elif Shafak, Neil Gaiman, Victoria Amelina, Samar Yazbek, Jonathan Littell and Liuba Tsybulska; neurosurgeon Henry Marsh; palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke; psychologists Yurii Prokhasko and Volodymyr Stanchyshyn; lawyers and activists Larysa Denysenko and Philippe Sands; poets Kateryna Kalytko and Ostap Slyvynsky; philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko; political consultant Bruno Macaes; speaker of the Ukrainian Women’s Congress Vadym Karpiak; photographer Michael Katakis; historians Olena Stiazhkina, Margaret MacMillan, Serhii Plokhy, Yaroslav Hrytsak; and journalists Masih Alinejad, Peter Pomerantsev, Jon Lee Anderson, Nataliya Gumenyuk, Alim Aliev, Andrii Kulykov, Emma Graham-Harrison, Stanislav Aseev, Tetiana Oharkova, Sevgil Musayeva, Misha Glenny, Lydia Cacho, Catherine Belton and Oliver Bullough.
As digital partne Hay Festival broadcasted these conversations free online in English, Spanish and Ukrainian at hayfestival.org/lviv-bookforum to a global audience of millions, while bolstering the programme with a specially curated strand of online events pairing international writers with their Ukrainian contemporaries.
Lviv BookForum’s partnership with Hay Festival took place as a part of the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture devised jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute, giving voice to Ukrainian creatives and focusing on the changing needs and priorities of the Ukrainian cultural sector.
Full programme is available at Hay Festival website: https://www.hayfestival.com/lviv-bookforum