Lviv BookForum 2023

This year it turns 10 years since Lockwood & Co was published. Meet Jonathan Stroud (he will join remotely), the author of the cult text. The moderator of the conversation is Volodymyr Arenev, a Ukrainian fiction writer.

How do you take a whole group of people, destroy their identity and force a new one on them? That is Russia’s aim in Ukraine. What methods do they use; does it work, and how does it compare to other examples across the world and in history?

Ian Garner and Sofi Oksanen will join remotely.

Through the war with Russia, Ukraine has emerged as an unexpected hero in a battle for freedom in Europe – a battle few could have predicted. The conflict has led many, inside and outside of the continent, to rethink the political and moral ideas that we have taken for granted since the Second World War ended.

Using literature and the ways in which it helps us make sense of critical points in history and how colossal changes affect people's ways of thinking and feeling, a panel discusses ideas of heroism and how literature can help these sceptics of Ukraine understand its quests and feats. Novelist Elif Batuman, writer Kateryna Kalytko, filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk, writer David Toscana (he will join remotely) and novelist Taras Prokhasko will also talk to writer Sasha Dovzhuk about how literature can help people feel with Ukrainians and learn from the mistakes of the past.

Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.

The creation of heroic narratives has been widespread in art and literature across time and cultures. This panel will explore how we mythologize in the modern world, what stories we expect, and whether heroes still satisfy our aesthetic sensitivity in the 21st century.

Emma Antoniuk, philosopher and writer Vakhtang Kebuladze and journalist Peter Pomerantsev explore how we mythologize in the modern world, what stories we expect, and whether heroes still satisfy our aesthetic sensitivity in the 21st century. Chaired by poet Olena Huseinova.

Indian essayist Pankaj Mishra joins Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko to explore the ways Russia's assault on Ukraine has forced Europe to confront its colonial past and present. Chaired by Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva.

Bektour Iskender and Panjak Mishra will join remotely

Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.

Words have immense power, and in times of difficulty they can encourage, inspire and offer hope, helping shape thoughts, emotions and actions. Writers Ben Okri (he will join remotely), Rachel Clarke and Halyna Kruk talk to historian Olesia Khromeichuk about the power of books and writing in conflicted times.

Okri a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions; he won the Booker Prize for his novel The Famished Road in 1991. Clarke a British palliative care doctor and writer and formerly a current affairs journalist. Kruk is a Ukrainian writer, translator, educator and literary critic.

Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.