Book fair “with science fiction elements”

Kyiv will host the eighth International Book Fair on April 13-16. Among the organizers are the European Science Fiction Society, Ukrainian Association of Book Publishers and Distributors, Science Fiction Reality Publishers, and the Ukrainian exhibition company Medvin. This year the fair will be held together with Eurocon 2006, the 28 th European Science Fiction Convention.

Mykhailo Lytvyniuk, the convention’s organizing committee chairman, announced last Wednesday that this is the first time that the convention will be held in the CIS, and that over 90 percent of votes were cast in favor of Kyiv during the last convention in Plovdiv (Bulgaria). Eurocon 2006 expects guests from 30 European countries, including Belgium, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, and France. Among the guests of honor will be such noted authors as Harry Harrison and Andrzej Sapkowski. Needless to say, Ukrainian sci-fi writers Maryna and Serhiy Diachenko, Henry Lyon Oldie (Dmytro Hromov and Oleh Ladyzhensky, Kharkiv), and a great many others will take part in the forum.

A noteworthy event on the fair’s program will be a “hint action” entitled “2006, the Year of Ukrainian Books in Ukraine,” initiated by Leonid Finkelshtein, the editor in chief of Fact Publishers (he has not provided any details because he wants to maintain the aura of intrigue). Finkelshtein said his main objective is a “Ukrainian lobby in the Eurocon.” During a press conference he suggested that journalists not live “not from one election to the next,” but from book to book, from fair to fair; he believes it is more interesting and constructive this way.

Among the fair’s other events are numerous book launches and presentations by publishers, themed roundtables, seminars, discussions, master classes, autograph sessions, and meetings with writers. The fair will also have a stand with copies of books from The Day’s Library Series.

The next international book fair in Kyiv will be held traditionally at the Sportyvny Exhibit Center of the National University of Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine.