Lviv BookForum 2023

Drawing on colonial discourse and postcolonial theory to reinterpret key writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, Myroslav Shkandrij discusses how the need to legitimize expansion gave rise to ideas of Russian political and cultural hegemony and influenced Russian attitudes towards Ukraine. These notions were then challenged and subverted in a counter-discourse that shaped Ukrainian literature.

Both Russian and Ukrainian writers have explored the politics of identity in the post-Soviet period, but while the canon of Russian imperial thought is well known, the tradition of resistance – which in the Ukrainian case can be traced as far back as the meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian polities and cultures in the 17th century – is less familiar. Myroslav Shkandrij, a professor in the Department of German and Slavic Studies at the University of Manitoba, is the author of Russia and Ukraine: Literature and the Discourse of Empire from Napoleonic to Postcolonial Times. Olena Haleta is a professor at the Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Lviv.

Russia’s criminal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sparked an interest in the country as never before. Suddenly, Ukraine was everywhere, with media internationally regularly covering the war and political analysts offering insights. More recently, a plethora of books about Ukraine have appeared in the English-language world. In this panel, moderated by Charlotte Higgins, chief culture writer for The Guardian, authors will discuss their books about Ukraine: Adrian Karatnycky, of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and the Atlantic Council examines Ukraine’s history and its political leaders in Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia; Sasha Dovzhyk, of INDEX, discusses Ukrainian novelist and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina, who died of injuries following a Russian missile attack on Kramatorsk in June 2023, and her book Looking at Women Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary, to be published in February 2025, Victoria Belim, Ukrainian memoirist who is notable for her 2023 book, The Rooster House; and Yaroslav Trofimov, Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent of The Wall Street Journal, author of a revelatory eyewitness account of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and heroism of the Ukrainian people in their resistance.

Adrian Karatnycky and Yaroslav Trofimov will join the event digitally.

Times of historical change affect the international hierarchy, creating new jobs and opportunities for rapid change. At such moments, younger people may enter the game on an equal footing with middle-aged and older people. But is the world ready for the changes proposed by the youth? Can their voices really be heard during global conflicts and wars?

Vasylisa Stepanenko is an Associated Press video journalist, and producer of the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Days in Mariupol. She earned the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, one of the youngest winners in the world. Anna Novosad is a former Minister of Education of Ukraine and CEO of the charity SavEd, which aims to increase access to education in Ukraine following the consequences of Russian aggression. Yaryna Chornohuz is the author of the collection How the military circle bends. Hosted by Tetiana Troshchynska.

Anna Novosad and Vasylisa Stepanenko will join the event digitally.

Christina Lamb and Sofia Andrukhovych is a writer and translator, author of seven books of prose talk with Tetiana Troshchynska is executive director of PEN Ukraine.

When reality is so intense that words lose their meaning, poetry can best describe the feeling.

The best Ukrainian and foreign poets will share poems about freedom, love, and hope at special readings in national languages ​​and English. With Halyna Kruk, Julia Musakovska, Yaryna Chornohus, Hanan Issa, Ostap Slyvynsky, Hinemoana Baker, Gad Kaynar Kissinger and Jan Wagner.

Hinemoana Baker, Hanan Issa, Gad Kaynar Kissinger and Jan Wagner will join the event digitally.

For the Ukrainian people, Radio Liberty has offered an opportunity to receive uncensored information about events in the world and in Russia, including the work of dissidents.

The station's journalists Vitaly Portnikov and Halyna Tereshchuk discuss the impact of broadcasting in the current crisis. With Iaroslav Hrytsak.

Why should you carry a radio with you in difficult times? How does radio help its listeners cope with current challenges? Why is radio the best helper in times of home isolation during a pandemic, as well as during natural disasters and full-scale war? How have European broadcasters managed to provide support for their listeners during socio-political turmoil, hostilities, natural disasters, and pandemics, and have they managed to protect themselves from all the disinformation, manipulation, and myths that inevitably flourish during such periods?

Marking the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian Radio, two eminent broadcasters discuss the role of radio in a digital world: Marta Dyczok, Dmitry Khorkin , Vadym Miskyi, Matthieu Rawolle, Sofia Taavitsainen, and Yuriy Tabachenko.

Marta Dyczok, Matthieu Rawolle and Sofia Taavitsainen will join digitally.

David J. Remnick is an American journalist, writer, and editor, Pulitzer Prize winner for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire, and author of Resurrection and King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. He talks to journalist Kristina Berdinskykh about geopolitics and US elections.

David Remnick will join the event digitally

Why do Ukrainians follow the elections around the world, why do we analyze the programs of the candidates? Because in particular, those points related to global security. Whether our vote is a responsibility for the term of the mandate, or whether each of us with our vote can influence world democracy, even the end of wars. Can we do anything if the choice is made, but the politicians do not choose the democratic course. A conversation beatween Mexican writer and journalist Lydia Cacho, American journalist Terrell Jermaine Starr, Nigerian poet, culture manager and activist Lola Shoneyin, human rights defender, Nobel Prise for Piece winner Oleksandra Matviichuk, historian Franziska Davies and editor-in-chiefof Radio NV Oleksii Tarasov.

Oleksandra Matviichuk and Lola Shoneyin will join the event digitally.

Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize ™ is awarded annually for the most influential work of fiction and non-fiction that promotes Ukrainian-Jewish understading, helping to strenthen the position of Ukraine as a multi-ethnic society and embodying the motto, 'Our stories are incomplete without each other'.

The award ceremony will be held with the participation of Ukrainian writer Yuriy Skira, whose nonfiction book Solid. The Life-Saving Footwear Factory won the 2024 prize; Ihor Balynskyy, co-founder of the Choven publishing house; Iuliia Bentia, Executive Editor at Krytyka journal and Senior Research Fellow at the Modern Art Research Institute, the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine (Ukraine/Jury Member); Alexander J. Motyl, professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, writer, and painter (United States/Jury Member); Igor Shchupak, Board Member, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter. In conversation with Natalia A. Feduschak.

Iuliia Bentia and Alexander J. Motyl will join the event digitally.

Since gaining independence, Ukraine has been undergoing a challenging path of democratic transformation. Since February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian people have shown an unprecedented strength of resistance, resilience, and determination. What role does civil society play in these processes, and what kind of collective action do we lack at this stage?

Those problematic issues will be discussed by: Alim Aliev, Deputy General Director of the Ukrainian Institute and Board Member of the International Renaissance Foundation; Serhiy Zhadan, writer, musician, translator, volunteer, who joined the ranks of the 13th brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard Khartia; Olesya Ostrovska-Liuta, Director of the National Art and Culture Museum Complex Mystetskyi Arsenal; Inna Pidluska, Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation. Moderator: Radoslava Kabachiy, Social Capital Program Manager at the International Renaissance Foundation.

Serhiy Zhadan and Olesya Ostrovska-Liuta will join the event digitally

What drives people to engage with each other during wartime? How and why does war paralyze society's will to resist? Is war a sentence or a challenge that demands action? The discussion will focus on the key experiences of the Russian-Ukrainian war, its global context, and the main dangers and challenges of the post-war future.

Marichka Paplauskaite is an Ukrainian reporter, media manager. Co-founder of The Ukrainians Media, editor-in-chief of the online magazine Reporters, author of the reportage books God of Amazing People and Other Sinners and The Train Arrives on Schedule. Wojciech Tochman is a polish reporter, Co-founder of the reporter's bookstore-café and publishing house Wrzenie Świata in Warsaw, author of 10 reportage books, including the post-genocide trilogy Like Eating a Stone, Today We`ll Draw Death, and Roosters Crow, Dogs Cry; Jurko Prokhasko is a literary scholar, psychoanalyst, essayist, publicist and translator. Corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Arts (Dresden), Co-founder and lecturer at the Lviv Psychoanalytic Institute and Member of PEN Ukraine. They talk with the Ukrainian reporter, Vira Kuryko, author of documentary books The Street of the Involved. Chernihiv Case of Lukyanenko, Mazepa. The Right to the Sword or A Healthy Person's Reform. Writes for Reporters, Local History, and a number of Ukrainian and foreign publications.

Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov's novel Time Shelter, winner of the International Booker Prize 2023, follows an unnamed narrator and Gaustine, a psychiatrist who creates a clinic for people with Alzheimer's disease in Zürich. Each floor of the clinic recreates a decade in intricate detail, aiming to transport patients back in time to revisit their memories. Tasked with collecting past artefacts for the clinic, the narrator travels across countries. Soon, healthy people turn to the clinic to flee their monotonous lives and the idea becomes widespread when more clinics open. Referenda are held across Europe to decide which past decade each country should inhabit in the future. Gospodinov talks to the book's translator and author of The Dictionary of War Ostap Slyvynsky. In converstion with Vadym Karpiak.

Georgi Gospodinov will join the event digitally.

A reflection on how the world was affected in the 1990s by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the declaration of independence of Ukraine and countries of the former Warsaw Pact. The decade was a time of hope and change. Vladimir Arsenijević is a Serbian novelist, translator and musician; Oliver Bullough is a British investigative journalist; Viv Groskop is a British writer and comedian; Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish writer and playwright; Iryna Tsilyk is a filmmaker and writer, winner of the 2020 Sundance director award. They talk to Olha Mukha.

Vladimir Arsenijević, Oliver Bullough and Sofi Oksanen will join the event digitally.

Conversation around Salman Rushdie's newest book The Knife. On the morning of 12 August, 2022, Salman Rushdie was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a masked man rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife. His first thought was: "So it’s you. Here you are". What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. In his book The Knife, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide. The Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, gravity, and unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again. Chaired by writer, art curator and member of PEN Ukraine Oleksandr Mykhed.

Salman Rushdie will join the event digitally.

The work of Myroslav Shkandrij, professor emeritus at the Department of German and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba, and author of Revolutionary Ukraine, 1917-2017: Flashpoints in History and Contemporary Memory Wars, prompted Ukrainians to reflect on serfdom as a form of slavery that existed in Ukrainian territory. Terrell Jermaine Starr is an American journalist and activist who writes about Ukraine, foreign policy and race. Chaired by Bohdana Romantsova, editor at Tempora Publishing House.

How countries from the former Warsaw bloc joined the myth of Europe, how the collapse of the Soviet Union affected the self-identification of Western European countries, how migration from other continents affected the European myth. And where exactly is the center of Europe. Krzysztof Czyżewski is a Polish author, one of the initiators of the Borderland Foundation in Sejny, Poland; Tomica Bajsić is a poet, writer and illustrator. Chaired by cultural critic and translator Kateryna Botanova and Halyna Kruk.

Krzysztof Czyżewski will join the event digitally

A discussion on the nature of genocides in history from Biblical times to Darfur; the tragedy of Babyn Yar as a worldwide symbol of the Holocaust, genocidal practices of Russia in the modern war against Ukraine. What do we know and how do we remember genocides in world history? How is the memory of the Holodomor ('death by hunger' in Ukraine in 1932/33) erased in the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia, and why should these practices be considered as one part of genocide? Why is it important for modern Ukraine to preserve the memory of the past genocides?

Norman Naimark is an American historian, author of Genocide: A World History; Lyudmila Hrynevych is a director of the Holodomor Research and Education Committee; Vladyslav Hrynevych's book is Babyn Yar: History and Memory; American professor Paul Robert Magocsi is Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto; Igor Shchupak is director of the Tkuma Ukrainian Holocaust Research Institute and Yehor Vradii is assistant director.

Norman Naimark will join the event digitally.

A conversation on the newly translated book The Language of War by Oleksandr Mykhed. Mstyslav Chernov, the Oscar-winning director of 20 Days in Mariupol, says: “Mykhed tackles the immense challenge of finding a language that can convey the horror and absurdity of war, and he does so with devastating impact. Mykhed skillfully assembles recollections, anecdotes, portraits, and conversations alongside a catalogue of war crimes, creating a uniquely powerful account of what has happened to Ukraine since February 2022. Both deeply personal and universally significant, this book should be required reading for all.” Chaired by the Guardian's senior international affairs correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison.

What causes empires to fall, can they fall without casualties, and which are the modern empires? Natalia Kryvda is a philosopher and a director of Academic Programmes at Edinburgh Business School Eastern Europe; James Alan Robinson is a British economist and political scientist, Vakhtang Kebuladze is a philosopher, writer and translator; Oleksandr Komarov is a philosopher currently working on the frontline giving psychological support to Ukrainian service men and women; Adrian Karatnycky is author of Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia. Chaired by British investigative journalist Oliver Bullough.

Oliver Bullough, Adrian Karatnycky and James Alan Robinson will join the event digitally.

What path should be chosen by one group that has long been subordinated to another, stronger one? Is the cancel culture the only way to break free from the domination of the aggressor?. And what if this aggressor is an empire?

A discussion on how we make sense of the post-imperial heritage, and whether it is necessary to renounce it, with the Dutch writer Simone Atangana Bekono, Indian literary critic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak; Brazilian feminist philosopher and journalist Djamila Ribeiro; Nigerian writer and activist Lola Shoneyin; and Ukrainian philosopher and writer Oksana Zabuzhko. Chaired by philosopher Vakhtanh Kebuladze.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Djamila Ribeiro, Simone Atangana Bekono and Lola Shoneyin will join the event digitally.