At the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair, Ukraine will present a programme featuring poet Yaryna Chornohuz; human rights defender, journalist, serviceman and civic activist Maksym Butkevych; literary scholar Tamara Hundorova; writers Artem Chekh, Myroslav Laiuk and Yevhen Lir; and others. The organisers report this.
In particular, the stage at Ukraine’s national stand will host discussions, meetings with authors, and presentations of translations of Ukrainian books into English and German.
The events are being organised in cooperation with the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI), the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute (UI), Mystetskyi Arsenal, and the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung.
Mystetskyi Arsenal will present a stand built around the concept “Bear Your Freedom” — “Carry Your Freedom”, which was the focus theme of the 14th Book Arsenal.
As part of the stand, Mystetskyi Arsenal catalogues will be presented, including the catalogue of artist Olena Turianska’s solo exhibition “Agape. Absolute Love”, as well as promotional materials and merchandise from the Book Arsenal festival.
The Goethe-Institut in Ukraine programme aims to create a sustainable dialogue between Ukrainian and German intellectual communities. This concerns links between professional communities that continue beyond book fairs. The outcome of such meetings is expected to be new translations and interviews, publications and research, as well as further joint events featuring Ukrainian authors in Germany.
This year will also see a Special Programme for publishers from Ukraine and neighbouring countries entitled the “VOLIA Program”, organised in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Book Arsenal and the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine. The programme aims to highlight the importance of the programme’s identity, which conveys the experience of Ukrainian publishers who continue to work despite enormous losses and the constant risks of war.
The UI plans to present Ukrainian authors and German translations of their books.
The programme will open with the discussion “What the borderlands know” (What the borderlands know) on how war changes understandings of geography, memory and belonging in Europe’s border regions, featuring Chornohuz, Butkevych and journalist Sabine Fathi.
There will also be a separate meeting with Chornohuz. Her poetry collection “[dasein: defence of presence]” (2023), translated into German, has been shortlisted for the German Hotlist-2026 prize.
As part of the programme, Chekh will present the German translation of his frontline prose “A Game of Dressing Up” (2025).
Hundorova and translator Claudia Dathe will speak about key names in the history of Ukrainian literature and the relevance of their texts today.
At the same time, the UI will present the special project “The Hidden Canon” (The Hidden Canon), implemented jointly with The Kyiv Independent. It is a series of publications by independent American journalist Kate Tsurkan about eight Ukrainian writers worthy of translation and reading in foreign languages.
The closing discussion will be “Understanding a Changing World” (Understanding a Changing World) on how to write and read texts in wartime, featuring Chekh, Laiuk and Lir.
The Ukrainian programme will also include Alex Averbukh, Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Marci Shore, Kseniia Fuks, Alexander Kratochvil, Andrii Semiankiv, Yevheniia Kuznietsova, Iryna Fingerova, Mareike Müller, Yevhenii Breiger, Yurii Hurzhi, Krzysztof Czyżewski, Christiane Körner, Mariana Savka, Roksolana Sviato, Lawrence Schimel, Anton Martynov and others.
According to the description, Ukraine’s national stand, organised by the UBI, aims to serve as a platform for presenting contemporary Ukrainian publishing, introducing writers and building international professional links, showcasing modern and classic Ukrainian literature, and hosting cultural diplomacy events.
Among the 44 publishers represented at the stand are “A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA”, “ADEF-Ukraine”, “ARTBOOKS”, “ASSA”, “Astrolabia”, “ATENA”, “Bilka”, “Bohdan”, “BUKSHEF”, “Vesna”, “Vivat”, “Vikhola”, “The Old Lion Publishing House”, “Helblau”, “Horobets”, “Dakh Magazine”, “Knyholav”, “Kovyla Publishing”, “Laboratoriia”, the literary agencies “lit grunt” and “OVO”, “Literaturna brama”, “Mamyno”, “MISON”, “My Book Shelf”, “Nash Format”, “Orlando”, “Osnovy”, “Ranok”, “SAFRAN”, “Stylet i stylos”, “Ukrainer”, “Ukrainian Cartographic Group”, “Uroboros”, “Folio”, “Chas zmin inform”, “Chas maistriv”, “Chytarium”, “Chorni vivtsi”, “SHKOLA”, “Yurinkom Inter”, “Creative Publishing”, “Creative Women Publishing”, “Dach Magazine”, “ist publishing”.
The stand’s design, developed in cooperation with the Cultural Forces, is based on ornaments by Vasyl Krychevskyi, a creator of Ukrainian architectural modernism. The national stand is organised by the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI).
Publishing house “Osnovy” will be presented with a separate stand as the winner of the “Chytomo-2025” award.
Overall, Ukraine’s participation in the fair has been initiated with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Frankfurt am Main, the Ukrainian Coordination Centre in Frankfurt am Main, Beauftragte für Kultur und Medien, Auswärtiges Amt, Frankfurter Buchmesse, Börsenverein, the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine, the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, The International Renaissance Foundation, Razom for Ukraine, Mystetskyi Arsenal, the Ukrainian Institute, the NGO “Horizons Without Borders”, the Cultural Forces, the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association, and the Ukrainian Library Association.
As a reminder, this year the fair will run from 7 to 11 October. The aim of Ukraine’s focus theme is to draw attention to Ukraine’s losses and the losses suffered by Ukrainian publishing as a result of the war.
About the Frankfurt Book Fair:
- a leading professional platform for publishers, writers and cultural institutions, which each year brings together tens of thousands of visitors and participants from around the world;
- founded in 1949;
- held annually at the Messe Frankfurt exhibition centre in Germany;
- this year, the Guest of Honour will be the Czech Republic.