Lviv BookForum 2022

Oksana Zabuzhko is an Ukrainian novelist, poet, and essayist.

Times of historical change affect the international hierarchy, creating new jobs and opportunities for rapid change. At such moments, younger people may enter the game on an equal footing with middle-aged and older people. But is the world ready for the changes proposed by the youth? Can their voices really be heard during global conflicts and wars?

Vasylisa Stepanenko is an Associated Press video journalist, and producer of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. She earned the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, one of the youngest winners in the world. Anna Novosad is a former Minister of Education of Ukraine and CEO of the charity SavEd, which aims to increase access to education in Ukraine following the consequences of Russian aggression. Hosted by Tetiana Troshchynska.

Sofia Andrukhovych is a writer and translator, author of seven books of prose. Oksana Lutsyshyna is a poet, professor and contributor to the feminist blog Povaha. Tetiana Teren is executive director of PEN Ukraine.

When reality is so intense that prose may lose its meaning, poetry can best describe emotion. Ukrainian poets are joined by Hanan Issa, National Poet of Wales, to share their work about freedom, love and hope, with readings from Maks Kryvtsov, who died on the frontline in January 2024, aged 33.

For the Ukrainian people, Radio Liberty has offered an opportunity to receive uncensored information about events in the world and in Russia, including the work of dissidents.

The station's journalists Vitaly Portnikova and Halyna Tereshchuk discuss the impact of broadcasting in the current crisis.

Marking the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian Radio, two eminent broadcasters discuss the role of radio in a digital world: Dmitry Khorkin and Yuriy Tabachenko.

David J. Remnick is an American journalist, writer, and editor, Pulitzer Prize winner for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, and author of Resurrection and King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. He talks to journalist Kristina Berdinskykh about geopolitics and US elections.

Ukrainians follow elections around the world because they impact on global security. But can our vote influence world democracy, and even help to end wars? What can we do if politicians do not choose the democratic course?

A conversation beatween Mexican writer and journalist Lydia Cacho, American journalist Terrell Jermaine Starr, Nigerian poet, culture manager and activist Lola Shoneyin, human rights defender, Nobel Prize for Peace winner Oleksandra Matviichuk. Hosted by Anthony Richter.

Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize ™ is awarded annually for the most influential work of fiction and non-fiction that promotes Ukrainian-Jewish understading, helping to strenthen the position of Ukraine as a multi-ethnic society and embodying the motto, 'Our stories are incomplete without each other'.

The award ceremony will be held with the participation of the Ukrainian writer that wins the the 2024 prize; and jury members. Adrian Karatnytcky is the author of Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia; Oleksandr Scherba is a former ambassador of Ukraine to Austria (2014–2021); Iuliia Bentia is Executive Editor at Krytyka magazine and Senior Research Fellow at the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine; Alexander J. Motyl is a political scientist, writer and painter; and Natalia A. Feduschak is director of communications at Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.

Marichka Paplauskaite is editor in-chief of Reporters magazine; Wojciech Tochman is a Polish journalist whose books have been translated into numerous languages; Jurko Prokhasko is a writer and translator; Vira Kuryko is a reporter and writer for The Ukrainians, Reporters, and other media.

Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov's novel Time Shelter, winner of the International Booker Prize 2023, follows an unnamed narrator and Gaustine, a psychiatrist who creates a clinic for people with Alzheimer's disease in Zürich. Each floor of the clinic recreates a decade in intricate detail, aiming to transport patients back in time to revisit their memories. Tasked with collecting past artefacts for the clinic, the narrator travels across countries. Soon, healthy people turn to the clinic to flee their monotonous lives and the idea becomes widespread when more clinics open. Referenda are held across Europe to decide which past decade each country should inhabit in the future. Gospodinov talks to the book's translator and author of The Dictionary of War Ostap Slyvynsky.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked an interest in the country as never before. Suddenly, Ukraine was everywhere, with international media covering the war daily, and many books about Ukraine have appeared in the English language. Adrian Karatnycky, of Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and the Atlantic Council examines Ukraine’s history and its political leaders in Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia; Tetiana Teren, exectuvie director of PEN Ukraine, discusses the work of novelist and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina, who died aged 37 following a Russian missile attack on Kramatorsk in June 2023, and previews her book Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary, to be published in February 2025. Sofia Andrukkhovuch is a writer and translator, author of seven books. They talk to Charlotte Higgins, chief culture writer at The Guardian newspaper.

A reflection on how the world was affected in the 1990s by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the declaration of independence of Ukraine and countries of the former Warsaw Pact. The decade was a time of hope and change. Vladimir Arsenijević is a Serbian novelist, translator and musician; Oliver Bullough is a British investigative journalist; Viv Groskop is a British writer and comedian; Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish writer and playwright; Iryna Tsilyk is a filmmaker and writer, winner of the 2020 Sundance director award. They talk to TV and radio presenter Vadym Karpiak.

On the morning of 12 August, 2022, Salman Rushdie was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a masked man rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. In his book The Knife, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide. The Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, gravity, and unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again. Chaired by writer and art curator Oleksandr Mykhed.

The work of Myroslav Shkandriy, professor emeritus at the Department of German and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba, and author of Revolutionary Ukraine, 1917-2017: Flashpoints in History and Contemporary Memory Wars, prompted Ukrainians to reflect on serfdom as a form of slavery that existed in Ukrainian territory. Artem Chekh in his novel The Song of the Open Road compares the enslavement of Ukrainians with black people in America. Are such comparisons appropriate and how is slavery reflected in other literary traditions? Terrell Jermaine Starr is an American journalist and activist who writes about Ukraine, foreign policy and race. Chaired by Bohdana Romantsova, editor at Tempora Publishing House.

How and why did countries from the former Warsaw bloc join the myth of Europe? What impact did the collapse of the Soviet Union have on the way western European countries identified themselves? And how has migration from other continents affected Europe? Olena Haleta is an associate professor at Ivan Franko National University, Lviv; Krzysztof Czyżewski is a Polish author, one of the initiators of the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, Poland; Georgi Gospodinov is a Bulgarian writer and poet; Tomica Bajsić is a poet, writer and illustrator. Chaired by cultural critic and translator Kateryna Botanova.

A discussion on the nature of genocides in history from Biblical times to Darfur; the tragedy of Babyn Yar as a worldwide symbol of the Holocaust, genocidal practices of Russia in the modern war against Ukraine. What do we know and how do we remember genocides in world history? How is the memory of the Holodomor ('death by hunger' in Ukraine in 1932/33) erased in the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia, and why should these practices be considered as one part of genocide? Why is it important for modern Ukraine to preserve the memory of the past genocides?

Norman Naimark is an American historian, author of Genocide: A World History; Lyudmila Hrynevych is a director of the Holodomor Research and Education Committee; Vladyslav Hrynevych's book is Babyn Yar: History and Memory; American professor Paul Robert Magocsi is Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto; Igor Shchupak is director of the Tkuma Ukrainian Holocaust Research Institute and Yehor Vradii is assistant director; Oleksandr Scherba is a diplomat and former ambassador to Austria. Chaired by Oksana Forostyna, editor, author and the impact of disinformation on societies.

A conversation on the newly translated book The Language of War by Oleksandr Mykhed. Mstyslav Chernov, the Oscar-winning director of 20 Days in Mariupol, says: “Mykhed tackles the immense challenge of finding a language that can convey the horror and absurdity of war, and he does so with devastating impact. Mykhed skillfully assembles recollections, anecdotes, portraits, and conversations alongside a catalogue of war crimes, creating a uniquely powerful account of what has happened to Ukraine since February 2022. Both deeply personal and universally significant, this book should be required reading for all.” Chaired by the Guardian's senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison.

What causes empires to fall, can they fall without casualties, and which are the modern empires? Natalia Kryvda is a philosopher and a director of Academic Programmes at Edinburgh Business School Eastern Europe; James Alan Robinson is a British economist and political scientist, Volodymyr Yermolenko is president of PEN Ukraine, Vakhtanh Kebuladze is a philosopher, writer and translator; Oleksandr Komarov is CEO of Kyivstar JSC; Adrian Karatnytsky is author of Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia. Chaired by British investigative journalist Oliver Bullough.

What path should be chosen by one group that has long been subordinated to another, stronger one? Is the cancel culture the only way to break free from the domination of the aggressor?. And what if this aggressor is an empire?

A discussion on how we make sense of the post-imperial heritage, and whether it is necessary to renounce it, with Indian literary critic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; Brazilian feminist philosopher and journalist Djamila Ribeiro; Nigerian writer and activist Lola Shoneyin; and Ukrainian philosopher and writer Oksana Zabuzhko. Chaired by philosopher Vakhtanh Kebuladze.