The opening ceremony of the 32nd international Book Forum festival took place in Lviv. The festival will run until October 5. This year’s focus theme is “Resilience and Endurance.”
This was reported according to a Chytomo correspondent.
Nelly Klos, the festival’s program director, said during the opening ceremony: “It’s wonderful that the Book Forum is returning to Lviv for the 32nd time with the book fair. That is why we chose this year’s theme — ‘Resilience and Endurance.’ We are convinced that this wonderful tradition — gathering around books, listening to favorite writers, discovering new authors who may become our favorites in the future — should continue.”
In 2025, the events are focused on three thematic clusters:
- Living Memory (curators Olesia Yaremchuk and Oleksandra Dovzhyk, INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Interaction);
- Being Close (curators Kateryna Mikhalitsyna and Ostap Slyvynskyi);
- Dislocation of Time (curators Olha Mukha and Yurko Prokhasko).
Speech by Croatian Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek
The event was attended by the Ambassador of Croatia to Ukraine, Anica Džamić, who read a speech on behalf of the Croatian Minister of Culture, Nina Obuljen Koržinek:
“The goals of the Forum, which has been held since 1994, reflect values that the Republic of Croatia prioritizes in its book policy. These include creating a space for dialogue between writers and readers, promoting reading and publishing, and establishing a platform for dialogue among authors, publishers, readers, translators, and the wider public. Equally important is strengthening connections between Ukrainian literature and the international scene and encouraging cultural exchange with other countries.”
This year, the festival features a packed program — 260 planned events, including lectures, discussions, presentations, performances, and public interviews across 23 locations in Lviv. The festival’s special guest is Jim Loveless, one of the world’s most popular motivational speakers and the author of the book “Go Where It’s Scary. And You’ll Get What You Dream Of”.
Traditionally, the BookForum also hosts a book fair, featuring 127 publishing houses from across Ukraine.
The return of the book fair in 2025
Olha Movchan, the director of the book fair, emphasized: “The return of the book fair, and on such a scale — 3,000 square meters with over 140 participants, including more than 120 publishing houses — is a huge event for the country. The sense of unity we are seeing now among publishers and visitors is not only a celebration but also networking and community. I think that even for this reason alone, it was worth holding the forum. At the same time, we hope that the main goal of our publishers — to present themselves so that many people see them — will also be fulfilled.”
The opening of BookForum took place at the Lviv Palace of Arts.
Writer and veteran Artur Dron emphasizes:
“The festival is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial — it all depends on its content and what it is made of. It can be completely detached from reality, and in that case, criticism or reproach would be justified. Or it can be organized like this year’s Forum: filled with discussions about the time we live in, highlighting writers who are also veterans or servicemen, focusing on the literature they create, and not avoiding difficult and painful topics that need to be addressed. When literary events or book festivals are organized this way, they cannot be considered inappropriate.
In such a case, they become another form of resistance. We are already in the 11th year of the war, the fourth year of full-scale conflict, yet we still find ways to develop culture: ensuring major publishers and bookstores continue to operate, print runs are distributed, and the festival components keep functioning. The answer to the question of whether this is necessary or appropriate comes from the people who attend these events.
Therefore, I can only congratulate everyone on the fact that, despite everything, we are working together to support culture.”
In addition, events will take place at the following locations: the Lviv National Literary Memorial Museum of Ivan Franko, Lviv National University, Lviv Palace of Arts, the Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Industry of the Institute of Folklore Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the social café “Horykhovyi Dim,” the Center for Urban History of Central and Eastern Europe, the reading room of the Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University Library, America House Lviv, the Institute of Cultural Strategy, the UA Comix Store, the UNESCO cultural hub, the R. Ivanychuk Lviv Regional Youth Library, and others.
BookForum is a book fair and the Lviv International Literary Festival. It has been held every autumn in Lviv since 1994. The organizer is the NGO “Publishers’ Forum.”
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