12th International Book Arsenal Festival announces program ‘Life on the Edge’

The 12th International Book Arsenal Festival, set to begin on May 30, 2024 in Kyiv, has unveiled a program featuring approximately 160 events. This marks the second iteration of the festival to take place during Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. Under the theme “Life on the Edge,” the festival will explore the boundary that runs within us.

The focus theme “Life on the Edge,” curated by Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko, will be introduced by 10 events: “To understand Ukraine, one should be at the front, visit the front, help the front. To understand Europe, you have to understand Ukraine. This is the edge which is the center. Even if this is the center that bleeds. Let us listen for this edge. There is no end of life there. There is the beginning of it there. Today it seems to us that to get to the frontline takes eight hours by car. But the frontline runs inside us. In fact, it is already inside us.”

The Literature Program of Book Arsenal 2024, curated by radio presenter, radio producer, and writer Olena Huseinova, will present a number of important events: “There are so many real ruptures here, on this land, where the war is still on. Tactical backpacks are torn, grenades, mines, and shells explode. Hearts and lives are torn. Even if we can’t recognize the sound of a rupture, we can recognize the true meanings of words and experiences, and we can avoid their accidental usage. We can move beyond intermittent indifference, beyond illusions of distance, unbridgeable gaps, and ruptures. We can make a simple choice to listen to the voices, to every voice nearby and every voice far away from us.”

The kids and teens program “With Eyes Wide Open” will be presented by curator Olya Rusina. “Now our lives are often a combination of extreme emotions and states, a balance between despair and hope, sadness and gratitude. After all, it is these feelings, both positive and negative, that we are now holding on to. Children and teenagers grow up in this as well. Their first experiences have fallen on two years of the full-scale war, ten years of the war in the East, Russia’s occupation of Crimea, and many months of the pandemic. They will not have any other way of growing up.”

This year’s Professional program has been curated by Oksana Karpiuk, strengthening the international component of the festival. The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program will also launch to bring foreign publishers and literary agents interested in Ukrainian book publishing to the Book Arsenal: “However, in addition to witnessing the fact of the industry development, an extremely interesting task has fallen to us— to explore and reflect on the processes in the book industry, as well as to search for vectors of the development and going beyond the limits that we have not yet managed to overcome.”

The special program “Cities on the Edge” will be presented by the Fifth Kharkiv Literary Festival in cooperation with the Kharkiv Literary Museum. It is curated by Yevhenii Stasinevych. “How can we explain the outburst of cultural life in Kharkiv from both Kharkiv and Kyiv perspectives? Why is culture not falling away “according to the principle of residuality” but is becoming the core of discussions in the public sphere? Why are there even more conversations about history in our lives today — if this is the case, what is a more precise view of cities and the country as embodiments of the borderlands? Thus, cities, thus, the edge. And also war and culture. We are in the middle of it all. Often lacking the exact words, but having a need to speak. So, let the City help us.”

“The Continuity of Voice”: a PEN Ukraine special program at the Book Arsenal Festival: “Sometimes more and more fatigue can be heard in our voice, but we overcome it to speak to the world in the loud and convincing tone of agency. We never allow ourselves to be silent because we speak not only for ourselves but also for those who have been deprived of their voices by Russia and those in whom our voices will continue to be heard. For centuries, the empire pushed us into voicelessness, but finally, we are reclaiming what belongs to us — our names and our voices.”

The Publishers’ Program will feature the largest number of events, making it the most extensive at the 12th Book Arsenal. 10 exhibition projects will represent the visual component of the festival.

During the 12th Book Arsenal, you can familiarize yourself with four book collections:

• “Best Book Design — 2023” winners: A collection of books recognized for outstanding design in the 2023 competition. 
• Talking Pictures — 2024: A collection of Ukrainian visual publications showcasing the country’s vibrant visual arts scene in 2024. 
• Award-Winning German Photobooks: A collection of over 100 German photobooks that have received awards. 
• Books from France — 2024: A collection of books for children and teenagers, including comics and graphic novels, published in 2024.

RELATED: Maksym Kryvtsov interview shortlisted for ‘Professional Honor 2024’ Award

The Book Arsenal is a part of “Promoting exchange between the German and Ukrainian book & literature industries” program.

Copy editing: Terra Friedman King