“Ivan Fyodorov’s cause is marching on!”

The stadium is crowded with people, many of them children. They have come not for sports, but for... books. From May 19 through 22, the National Stadium in the Polish capital hosted the 7th Warsaw Book Fair. Among its more than 800 exhibitors, there was the Literary Ukraine Salon, the collective stand of Ukrainian publishers, which presented Den’s books as well. We will share with you all the interesting things we saw at that large-scale forum and discoveries we brought to its visitors.

“AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHOW OFF THE COUNTRY’S DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS”

This year, Ukraine came to the Warsaw Book Fair for the first time after a several-year-long hiatus. And then, it was only thanks to the Polish side, namely the History and Culture Foundation, which received a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland to fund the Ukrainian stand. In total, a dozen publishers came to present their books within the Literary Ukraine Salon’s framework: Dukh i Litera, Kalvaria, Klub Simeinoho Dozvillia, Krytyka, Den and more.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Poland Andrii Deshchytsia considers Ukraine’s appearance at the book fair in Warsaw a great achievement. “The Ukrainian stand offers quality professional literature, created to meet European standards and to be interesting for the Polish reader,” Deshchytsia commented. “I think this is a great opportunity to show off Ukraine’s development success, to publicize the fact that Ukraine is developing just as Poland and other European countries have been doing.”

Waldemar Michalski, head of the History and Culture Foundation, noted: “Poland supports book publishing. Having created the state Institute of the Book, we are able to fund and promote such events in this field. It would be good to see a similar agency appearing in Ukraine.” Incidentally, we presented Michalski with a bestselling volume of Den’s Library series, the book Wars and Peace which covers relations between Ukraine and Poland.

DEN TARGETS ERUDITES

Generally speaking, out of all our books, journalistic collection Ukraine Incognita. TOP 25 sold best at the fair. The forum’s visitors were also among the first to buy the English translation of the book “The Trap,” or A Case without a Statute of Limitations, which, in fact, was published just in time for it. Also in Warsaw, we presented publications Return to Tsarhorod and Day and Eternity of James Mace.

The Ukrainian diaspora in Poland and the Ukrainian-speaking Poles are well aware of Den and its publishing projects. Oleksandr Pustovy is a teacher of history, culture, and geography at the Inter-School Facility for the Ukrainian minority in Warsaw. He regularly reads publications on our website, and sees Den’s Library series as a powerful and useful lecture even for erudites who can fill gaps in their knowledge thanks to it.

Photo by Yaroslava YATCHENKO, The Day

“I have come to the Ukrainian stand on purpose. Firstly, I am a Ph.D. student at Warsaw University and want to see a range of books offered by Ukrainian publishing houses because I find it physically easier to buy some books here. Also, I look for materials that would help me with my teaching job,” Pustovy told us. “I compiled a list of books and atlases that are of interest to me in advance. Unfortunately, I have not found some of them at the fair because Ukrainian publishers have not brought all they have in stock. Still, I have bought a few things.”

In general, most publishers participating in the fair came from Poland. Hungary was the guest of honor at the event, while Barcelona and Catalonia were special guests, and representatives of Belarus were in attendance as well. “Of course, the fair was first of all an occasion to buy Polish literature. Still, this event is useful for Ukraine, and specifically for Den. It worked to increase the Polish public’s attention to Ukrainian literature,” Den’s director for marketing Yaroslava Yatchenko believes. “People approaching the Ukrainian stand mostly bought children’s books, as they came from families which want their children to speak Polish as well as Ukrainian. It was also nice to learn that our diaspora knows Den, and we saw the evidence of it at the fair.”

“I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE REPRESENTATIVES OF UKRAINE”

Mykola Yarmoliuk, counselor to the Ambassador of Ukraine in Poland, was also satisfied with the Ukrainian stand at the Warsaw Fair. “We must use every opportunity to present Ukraine to the world! Our country should take part in every such event where we can tell something about ourselves. Moreover, Ukraine has much to show off, despite our current difficulties,” Yarmoliuk shared his impressions. “For example, the children’s books presented at the Ukrainian stand do not indicate any decline of the book publishing business. And it also demonstrates that Ukrainians still read books. It is evident that the cause of Johannes Gutenberg and Ivan Fyodorov is marching on!”

According to Yarmoliuk, there is a demand in Poland for the Ukrainian literature, both in original Ukrainian language and translated into Polish. “I would like to see Ukrainians and Poles understand that the Ukrainian literature does not start with this or that author or from a specific year. The Ukrainian literature is much more interesting and colorful, much broader than the top five authors,” Yarmoliuk noted. “I would like to see more representatives of Ukraine in Warsaw. I recall that Ukraine was the special guest at the 52nd Warsaw International Book Fair in 2007, the predecessor of today’s event. A lot of publishers and authors came here then. There were conversations with writers and supporting activities such as concerts.”

Consequently, we have a lot of work to do. The “book relations” between Ukraine and Poland need progress, as publishers and readers in both countries are interested in this. We wish that the Ukrainian government join the process as well. After all, we have something to present to the international market, and Den’s projects prove it.

P.S. Let us recall that all the books from Den’s Library can be ordered via our website (day.kyiv.ua/uk/library), while the pdf version of Den/The Day is available in almost every country of the world if you subscribe to the newspaper, in particular through the PressPoint resource.