The Lviv Publishers’ Forum is an annual book fair and industry conference founded in 1994. It is organized by the NGO of the same name. The Lviv Literature Festival separated from the forum in 1997 and quickly became popular among the book-loving youth of Western Ukraine. Foreign guests participated in the Festival for the first time in 2001, and the event officially became international in 2006.
The Lviv International Literature Festival is a major cultural event in Western Ukraine as well as one of the largest book-related events in the country. The festival strives to promote Ukrainian literature and to integrate it into the world literary process. Another goal of the event is to introduce outstanding foreign authors to Ukrainian readers.
Its rich and diverse programming includes the Young Republic of Poets literary contest and festival, the night of poetry and music, the TRANSLIT International Translation Festival, the CONTEXT Festival of Cultural Management and Literary Criticism, meetings with authors, lectures, workshops, discussions, round table meetings, and more.
Over the years, the Lviv International Literature Festival has hosted over 1,500 events. Alongside literature, the Festival embraces other kinds and genres of art, including music, theatre, and visual arts. Music program has been an integral part of the festival since 2013. It has featured many popular Ukrainian bands and performers.
Litfest has welcomed a lot of well-known Ukrainian novelists and poets, including Oksana Zabuzhko, Yuri Andrukhovych, Viktor Neborak, Iren Rozdobudko, Serhiy Zhadan, Irena Karpa, Lyubko Deresh, and others. Notable foreign guests have included Jostein Gaarder (Norway), Zygmunt Bauman (Poland/UK), Janusz Leon Wiśniewski (Poland), Olga Tokarczuk (Poland), Erlend Loe (Norway), Marek Krajewski (Poland), Adam Michnik (Poland), Tatyana Tolstaya (Poland), Terézia Mora (Germany), Linor Goralik (Israel/Russia), and more.
In 2020, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo: bookforum.ua
