Ukrainian area in Leipzig

One of the main topics of this year’s festival was the special program “Transit: Poland, Ukraine, Belarus,” initiated by the fair’s administration and supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation. It will last for three years and envisages a number of events aimed at a joint promotion of the abovementioned countries’ literatures in Germany. The opening day of the fair was dedicated to the topics of the Holocaust, Ukraine’s Holodomor, and the legacy inherited by the states from the post-Soviet space, because they enjoy a special attention this year. As for the organization of the process, young Ukrainian poet Hryhorii Semenchuk said there are things we can borrow: “The event enjoys a great support from the state and the city. Clearly, the book industry is better developed in Germany and owing to the agreements with the city, the whole organization looks much better. At the moment the fair is at the core of the city’s life, everyone is interested in its taking place.”

Nine publishing houses were accommodated on the 10 square meters of Ukrainian “area,” i.e., the stand: A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA, Staroho Leva, Folio, Hrani-T, Kartohrafia, Knyhy XIX, Teza, etc. According to the administration, the selected publishers will in the best way present the Ukrainian book market, because they all come from different regions, there are small and big ones, they publish children’s books, fiction, and humanities literature, as well as art albums and books for tourists. But first and foremost, these are publishers which are ready for mutually beneficial contacts with German and East European publishers. Unfortunately, Kalvaria and Nora-druk publishing houses were not represented at the fair, as they were organizing a presentation of Ukrainian writers at the Paris Book Salon while the same period of time.

Such notable authors as Yurii Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Andrii Kurkov, Natalka Sniadanko joined the discussions and presentations. And Serhii Zhadan, who had impressed the readers with his active work of late – last year his book Voroshylovhrad was competing for the first prize of the BBC Book of the Year – came with the band Sobaky v kosmosi, which was a headliner at one of the greatest literary-music parties of the festival. The author presented two anthologies, which are very topical as the anticipated epopee Euro-2012 is coming closer. The first one, Total Football, published by the German Suhrcamp Publishing House, consists of the texts dedicated to eight host cities of the championship. The second anthology is a collection of 11 football stories authored by Oleksandr Havrosh, Tania Maliarchuk, Maksym Kidruk, Andrii Kokotiukha, etc. Apart from the authors and publishers, the fair’s active group included translators and journalists, including Yurko Prokhasko, Kateryna Mishchenko, and Kateryna Stetsevych, a coordinator of the program. The versatile program was enriched by the presentations of the Ukrainian exposition, Lviv literary festival, and Meridian Czernowitz poetic festival.

“I am very glad,” the president of the Forum Vydavtsiv (Forum of Publishers) Civic Association Oleksandra Koval shared her impressions, “that both publishers and authors who were newcomers at the event, saw a grandiose festival, when during four days over 3,000 events are taking place, with each one having an audience of its own. If we organize everything in this manner, keeping to the law, defending our rights, letting all the participants of the marker live, and most importantly, taking care of the development and satisfaction of the needs of our readers, the situation in our country will be no worse. At least, we do have good authors and good books in Ukraine.”