Ukraine took part in the Salon du livre de Montreal for the fifth time

Ukraine was once again represented at the largest book event in Quebec and the biggest francophone book fair in North America — the 48th Salon du livre de Montréal (Montreal Book Fair). This year, the Fair welcomed 106,000 visitors.

The theme of the 2025 fair was “(Re)Enchantment.” It took place from November 19 to 23 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal and, in its usual tradition, gathered a wide audience: the organizers announced 2,000 authors and around 300 events.

The booth was made possible thanks to the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada, the Ukrainian Caisse Desjardins, the Shevchenko Foundation, and the company Meest, which became the main logistics partner of the Club. The initiative was charitable.

Evheniia Vyatchaninova, co-founder of the Ukrainian Club of Montreal, noted:

“Presenting the widest possible range of Ukrainian literature has certainly been our goal, because this Fair gathered an extremely diverse and broad audience: some came to us every year for a new Ukrainian novel from the ‘top shelf,’ some wanted a vivid love story like ‘Lettres d’amour et de guerre’ by Pavlo and Viktoriia Matiush, others sought a graphic novel or comic such as ‘Ukraine: petite histoire d’une longue guerre’ by Mariam Nayem, or eyewitness testimonies like ‘Volia’ by Anastasiia Fomichova or ‘La Liberté ou la mort’ by Arsen Sabaniieiev.”

 

Photo: Ukrainian Club of Montreal

The Ukrainian organizers also presented an exhibition of works by the Kharkiv-based art studio AzaNiziMaza. Olha Holovko, co-founder and Development Director of the Ukrainian Club of Montreal and the initiator of the exhibition, explained:

“For us, it was extremely important to open the exhibition ‘Stolen Fairytales: Children’s Paintings in Time of War’” precisely on World Children’s Day, which is celebrated worldwide on November 20. On this day, we wanted to draw attention to Ukrainian children who created astonishing works just 20 kilometers from the front line. What Mykola Kolomiiets, the founder of the studio, did was incredibly powerful: he managed to preserve a space where children could create, dream, and see a world larger than the war. We called the exhibition ‘Stolen Fairytales’ to speak about the stolen Ukrainian childhood: no child should have to draw or grow up under explosions, spend their early years in a bomb shelter, or become a victim of the abductions carried out by Russia.”

Around 40 children attend the AzaNiziMaza studio in Kharkiv, 12 of whom are neurodivergent. All proceeds from the sale of posters and merchandise organizers will donate to AzaNiziMaza for the purchase of a generator and continuation of the studio’s work.

Photo: Lana SvitPhoto

Thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Club of Montreal, French film director Michel Hazanavicius, Oscar winner for “The Artist” and author of the book about Ukraine and its defenders “Carnets d’Ukraine”, also took part in the Salon. He joined the roundtable “Freedom Under Bombs” and held a signing session for “Carnets d’Ukraine” at the Ukrainian booth.

Hazanavicius wrote the book after numerous trips to Ukraine — he visited Irpin, the frontline, and also the hometown of his grandmother, Kovel. The edition, published in France this year, was illustrated by Hazanavicius himself.

Photo: Lana SvitPhoto

Among the guests of the Ukrainian booth was also Marci Shore, a scholar of Eastern European history and curator of one of the programs of this year’s Book Arsenal. She held a meeting with readers at Gallimard bookstore and also a signing session during the Fair.

Professor Marusia Haidkivski-Ahmed presented her book “Olga’s Diaries”, the story of her family’s survival during the Nazi occupation, based on the diaries of her mother, Olga. The book was published by l’Harmattan (France).

In addition, the Fair hosted:

— Dany Laferrière, Haitian and Quebecois writer and member of the Académie française,
— Janette Bertrand, Quebec journalist, author, actress, and writer of one of Céline Dion’s songs, who celebrated her 100th birthday this year.

Bertrand presented her book “A Hundred Years of History: You Revealed Quebec to Me” (Cent ans d’histoire: Vous m’avez raconté le Québec). Other books in her honor were also exhibited, and the Janette Bertrand Literary Prize, initiated by the Montreal Book Fair, was awarded for the second time. Salon sought to honor her fight for gender equality and women’s autonomy and against gender-based violence.

Among the other writers, the fair welcomed Claire Bergeron, Michel Marc Bouchard, Michel Tremblay, crime novelist Patrick Senécal, Quebecois writer and journalist Dominique Fortier, and others. 

As reported earlier, Ukraine took part in the Salon du livre de Montreal for the first time in 2019. After the pandemic, the 45th Fair was held in 2022, where the Ukrainian booth appeared for the second time. Ukraine’s presence at the event has been consistent: in 2023 the booth was accompanied by an exhibition of Ukrainian illustrators Pictoric, and in 2024 — an exhibition of books destroyed by Russia.

Photo: Lana SvitPhoto

For the fourth year in a row, the Ukrainian presence at the Salon was coordinated by the NGO Ukrainian Club of Montreal, which presented a booth with Ukrainian books in three languages — Ukrainian, French, and English. French translations were the main focus of the booth, as the Fair was primarily oriented toward promoting francophone literature.

Ukrainian presence was possible thanks to the Ukrainian Caisse Desjardins:

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn

Photo: Lana SvitPhoto