Chornohuz, Butkevych, Gundorova, Chekh: Ukraine Will Present a National Booth and Program in Frankfurt
At the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair, Ukraine will present a program featuring poet Yaryna Chornoguz; human rights activist, journalist, military officer, and public figure Maksym Butkevych; literary scholar Tamara Gundorova; writers Artem Chekh, Myroslav Laiuk, and Yevhen Lir; and others. This was announced by the organizers.
In particular, the stage at Ukraine’s national booth will host discussions, meet-and-greets with authors, and presentations of translations of Ukrainian books into English and German.
The events are organized in collaboration with the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI), the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute (UI), the Mystetskyi Arsenal, and the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.
The Art Arsenal will present a booth based on the concept “Bear Your Freedom,” which was the focal theme of the 14th Book Arsenal.
The booth will feature Art Arsenal catalogs, including the catalog for artist Olena Turyanska’s solo exhibition “Agape: Absolute Love,” as well as promotional materials and merchandise from the Book Arsenal festival.
The Goethe-Institut’s program in Ukraine aims to foster a sustained dialogue between Ukrainian and German intellectual circles. The focus is on connections between professional communities that extend beyond book fairs. These meetings are expected to result in new translations and interviews, publications and research, as well as further joint events featuring Ukrainian authors in Germany.
This year will also feature a special program for publishers from Ukraine and neighboring countries called the “VOLIA Program,” organized in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Book Arsenal, and the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine. This program aims to highlight the importance of the program’s identity, which conveys the experiences of Ukrainian publishers who continue to work despite enormous losses and the constant risks of war.
UI plans to present Ukrainian authors and German translations of their books.
The program will open with a discussion titled “What the Borderlands Know” about how war is changing our understanding of geography, memory, and belonging in Europe’s border regions, featuring Chornoguz, Butkevych, and journalist Sabina Fati.
There will also be a separate meeting with Chornoguz. Her poetry collection “[dasein: defense of presence]” (2023), translated into German, was shortlisted for the German Hotlist-2026 award.
As part of the program, Chekh will present the German translation of his war-time prose work *The Dress-Up Game* (2025).
Gundorova and translator Claudia Date will discuss key figures in the history of Ukrainian literature and the relevance of their texts today.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Institute will present a special project, “The Hidden Canon,” carried out in collaboration with The Kyiv Independent. This is a series of articles by independent American journalist Kate Zurkan about eight Ukrainian writers whose works are worth translating and reading in foreign languages.
The closing discussion, “Understanding a Changing World,” will explore how to write and read texts in the context of war, with the participation of Chekh, Layuk, and Lir.
The Ukrainian program will also feature Alex Averbukh, Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Marcy Shore, Kseniia Fuks, Alexander Kratochvil, Andrii Semyankiv, Yevheniia Kuznetsova, Iryna Fingerova, Mareike Müller, Yevhenii Breiger, Yurii Gurzhi, Krzysztof Czyżewski, Christiane Kerner, Mariana Savka, Roksolana Sviato, Lawrence Schimmel, Anton Martynov, and others.
According to the description, Ukraine’s national booth, organized by the Ukrainian Book Council (UIC), aims to serve as a platform for presenting contemporary Ukrainian publishing, introducing readers to authors, and establishing international professional connections, as well as for showcasing contemporary and classical Ukrainian literature and hosting cultural diplomacy events.
Among the 44 publishers represented at the booth are “A-BA-BA-GA-LA-MA-GA,” “ADEF-Ukraine,” “ARTBOOKS,” “ASSA,” “Astrolabe,” “ATENA,” “Bilka,” “Bogdan,” “BUKSHEF,” “Vesna,” “Vivat,” “Vikhola,” “Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva,” “Gelblau,” “Horobets,” “Dakh Magazine,” “Knyholav,” “Kovyla Publishing,” “Laboratory,” the literary agencies “Lit Grunt” and “OVO,” “Literary Gate,” “Mamino,” “MISON,” “My Bookshelf,” “Nash Format,” “Orlando,” “Osnovy,” “Ranok,” “SAFRAN,” “Stylet i Stylos,” “Ukrainer,” “Ukrainian Cartographic Group,” “Ouroboros,” “Folio,” “Time of Change Inform,” “Time of Masters,” “Chytarium,” “Black Sheep,” “SCHOOL,” “Yurinkom Inter,” “Creative Publishing,” “Creative Women Publishing,” “Dach Magazine,” and “ist publishing.”
The design of the booth, developed in collaboration with Cultural Forces, is based on the ornamentation of Vasyl Krychevsky, the creator of Ukrainian architectural modernism. The Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI) is organizing the national booth.
The “Osnovy” publishing house will be featured at a separate booth as the winner of the “Chytomo-2025” award.
Overall, Ukraine’s participation in the fair was organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Frankfurt am Main, the Ukrainian Coordination Center in Frankfurt am Main, the Beauftragte für Kultur und Medien at the Auswärtiges Amt, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Börsenverein, the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, the International Renaissance Foundation, Razom for Ukraine, the Art Arsenal, the Ukrainian Institute, the NGO “Horizons Without Borders,” Cultural Forces, the Ukrainian Publishers Association, and the Ukrainian Library Association.
As a reminder, this year’s fair will take place from October 7 to 11. The goal of Ukraine’s focus theme is to draw attention to the losses suffered by Ukraine and the Ukrainian publishing industry as a result of the war.
About the Frankfurt Book Fair:
a leading professional platform for publishers, writers, and cultural institutions that attracts tens of thousands of visitors and participants from around the world each year;
founded in 1949;
held annually at the Messe Frankfurt exhibition complex in Germany;
this year, the Czech Republic will be the Guest of Honor. This year, the goal of Ukraine’s focus theme is to draw attention to the losses suffered by Ukraine and the Ukrainian publishing industry as a result of the war.
Source: LB
