The annual literature and arts festival continues to bring “a sense of presence and unity with one another” despite recent attacks. The theme of the 2026 program is “Carrying Your Freedom.”

Destruction of the National Museum Chornobyl, Photo Maksym Nazarenko

By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox

“We are celebrating that we are here, we are alive, we have our literature, our culture.”

Yuliia Kozlovets, Director, International Book Arsenal Festival

“This year we have 240 events, over 150 fair participants, dozens of programs, and exhibition projects. But the most important thing about the festival isn’t the numbers. What matters most is a space for gathering where we can think deeply, hear different voices, and not lose our sensitivity or ability to imagine the future,” said Yuliia Kozlovets, Director of the Festival, International Book Arsenal Festival.

“I believe that culture is particularly important today precisely as a space where people can remain human. A space where there is room for memory, for doubt, for freedom, and for conversation that goes beyond mere slogans.”

The festival begins in the wake of Sunday’s prolonged Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv and nearby towns which impacted Kyiv’s cultural institutions and community, including National Art Museum of Ukraine, National Philharmonic of Ukraine, National Music Academy of Ukraine, Ukrainian House National Center, Yaroslav Mudryi National Library of Ukraine, Kyiv Opera, and The National Museum Chornobyl which all sustained significant damage, according to Ukrinform.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said in a statement about the National Art Museum of Ukraine, which remains closed, “Museum staff and relevant services are currently inspecting the building, documenting the consequences of the attack, and assessing the extent of the damage. The museum building is a nationally significant monument of architecture, history, and monumental art.”

Photos of the destruction of these homes, courtesy of Chytomo

Furthermore, Chytomo reports that bookstores, publishing houses, and the homes of Taras Shevchenko National Prize winners – film director Iryna Tsilyk and Tamara Duda, bestselling writer of Daughter which won BBC Book of the Year in 2019 and the Taras Shevchenko National Prize in 2022; award-winning children’s and young adult author Olena Zakharchenko; screenwriter and teacher Alisa Lindeman; and artist Yulia Sheket were also damaged in the attack. As Chytomo notes, many Ukrainian writers now have nowhere to live.

And yet, amid this most recent threat, which has been preceded by so many others, the Ukrainians continue in the face of this horror, loss of life, and destruction of their homes, both physically and metaphorically. They continue to bring together the literary and cultural community to share ideas, stories, and to work together to seek a better world.

Last fall at the Frankfurter Buchmesse, Kozlovets appeared on the Publishing Perspectives podcast “On the Books” to discuss the importance of community, particularly in the face of adversity.

When asked about the difficulties they face in coming to Frankfurt or putting on the festival in Kyiv, Kozlovets noted, “Ukrainians are dedicated to what we are doing. This is the reason we are here [in Frankfurt] and why we do the festival.

“The festival in Ukraine is a place of great inspiration. The foreigners who come feel a great unity of people. A great atmosphere of victory because we are celebrating that we are here, we are alive, we are doing what we want, we have our literature, our culture – it is a place of great inspiration for everybody who works in books or is in the publishing industry.”

That international engagement continues despite the ongoing war. Even now, the festival is hosting an international fellowship program. Eight participants were selected for this year’s program — publishers, agents, and rights managers from the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Egypt, Georgia, and Peru.

“It is important to us that, despite the war, the Ukrainian book scene does not isolate itself but remains part of a larger international conversation. So I warmly welcome all our foreign guests, international partners, and participants in the Book Arsenal Fellowship program,” said Kozlovets.

Maksym Butkevych, Curator of the Focus Theme

“The festival will open with a conversation between Andriy Lyubka, curator of the special program, an award-winning writer, translator, volunteer and military man and Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. On another stage, Peter Pomerantsev and Lyubov Tsybulska will discuss how war affects our perception of truth and trust—this is the first event of this year’s focus theme: ‘Carrying Your Freedom.’ Its curator is Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian journalist, human rights activist, and military serviceman, and a former prisoner of war.”

This year’s theme is particularly timely with the recent attacks. In the curatorial essay by Butkevych, he notes, “Freedom is absolute. Because no one can completely deprive us of it. Because even when we cannot choose the conditions in which we find ourselves, we can choose our attitude towards them, as Viktor Frankl wrote, choose our thoughts and views of the world.”