For the first time in Tokyo, the festival of Ukrainian literature Voices from Ukraine took place. The event brought together Ukrainian writers, poets, translators, and publishers, presenting contemporary Ukrainian literature to an East Asian audience.
The festival was initiated by Viktoriya Matyusha, director of the literary agency OVO, with literary agent Dariya Murakami serving as curator. The Ukrainian Book Institute acted as the festival’s information partner.
The program of Voices from Ukraine included poetic and music-poetry performances, literary readings, book presentations, panel discussions, and meetings with authors. The festival also showcased publications by Ukrainian authors and the work of individual Ukrainian publishers.
Participants included writer, servicewoman, and civic activist Olena Herasymiuk; poet and cultural manager Tetyana Vlasova; writer and translator Pavlo Matyusha; poet, publicist, and publisher Maryana Savka; director of Magenta Books Olena Grubb; writer and translator Tamara Horikha Zernya; and literary manager and executive director of OVO Viktoriya Matyusha.
According to Viktoriya Matyusha, the festival aims to make the Ukrainian voice heard in the East and build new cultural bridges: “We bring to Tokyo the living stories, experiences, and meanings that have shaped us as a nation in transformative years. This is a conversation about war, freedom, dignity, memory, and the future — topics that are important and understandable to the Japanese audience.”
The festival opened with a ceremonial event and the poetic performance Echoes, dedicated to the memory of fallen poets and artists. In the following days in Tokyo and Yokohama, there were readings of Tamara Horikha Zernya’s novel Dotsya, discussions on culture during wartime, the role of women in literature, the importance of translating Ukrainian books into foreign languages, and the presentation of a Japanese anthology on Ukrainian literature.
The festival concluded with bilingual poetry readings and an official closing ceremony. Voices from Ukraine marks the beginning of a long-term and systematic presence of Ukrainian literature in Japan and the broader East Asian cultural context.