Ukraine to be among the themes of the Göteborg Book Fair

One of the themes of the 38th Göteborg Book Fair will be «Voices from Ukraine», the event organizers have announced. 

The additional theme was added to provide space to Ukrainian writers. 

«Russia’s war in Ukraine is a horrific violation against a country and its people, but also on freedom of expression and democracy. To make room for Ukrainian voices is the least we can do. The spotlight is already on Ukraine, and during the Book Fair we will be directing some of that light onto narratives that currently have nowhere to go», — said Oskar Ekström, Program Director at the Book Fair.

The Book Fair and the Ukrainian Embassy are planning a stand that will showcase Ukrainian literature. Swedish PEN, the Global Square and the Church of Sweden, who will also be assigning parts of their own programming to the promotion of Ukrainian voices and stories.

The other themes of the fair are climate change and crime fiction. South Africa is the theme country and Guest of Honor of this year’s festival.   

In 2022 the book fair will be held offline from September 22-25. The program will include 320 events featuring 841 authors, journalists, researchers and politicians from around the world. 

The Göteborg Book Fair is the most important event in Scandinavia for people in the book business. It started in 1985 as a conference for librarians with 5,000 visitors and now gathers up to 100,000 visitors. The organizers say that no other book fair in the world offers such a comprehensive seminar program as the Göteborg Book Fair. Every year they select one or more themes. 

Related news: At Book World Prague, Belarusian writer Svitlana Aleksievich gave her Jiří Theiner Award to Ukrainian authors as a sign of support. 

Tanya Malyarchuk will curate the «Forum» program at the 2022 Munich Literature Festival.

Overcoming borders and pandemics: the most important book fairs in 2022

Photo: Wikipedia