The International Literature Festival Odesa was founded by German cultural manager Ulrich Schreiber, who is probably best known as the founder and director of the International Literature Festival Berlin, and his Swiss colleague Hans Ruprecht.
The festival features authors from various countries, including Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Macedonia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, and the United States. The festival is bilingual: authors read their works in their original languages, and simultaneous or consecutive interpretation into Ukrainian is provided.
The festival program combines purely literary events (readings, panels, discussions, etc.) with discussions on relevant social, political and cultural issues. The festival is held at several venues in downtown Odesa, including the Odesa Literature Museum, the Odesa Regional Puppet Theatre, and co-working and office center Terminal 42. Entry to all events is free, which makes the International Literature Festival Odesa accessible to a wide audience.
The festival team strives to integrate the event into the existing network of literary festivals in Ukraine and neighboring countries which already includes festivals and book fairs in Kyiv, Lviv and Chernivtsi.
In 2022, the festival temporarily moved to Batumi, Georgia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
