Atwood, Shafak and Gaiman to join Ukrainian authors at the 2022 Lviv BookForum

Authors including Margaret Atwood, Elif Shafak and Neil Gaiman have been announced alongside a number of acclaimed Ukrainian writers as part of this year’s Lviv BookForum.

Taking place online and in person on 6th-9th October in partnership with The Hay Festival, the festival will see 40 writers and thinkers participate in 15 conversations touching on topics such as conflict, memory, gender, loss, hope and more.

Canadian Booker-winner Margaret Atwood will be in conversation with Ukrainian psychologist Yurii Prokhasko; Turkish writer Elif Shafak will sit down with Ukrainian novelist Kateryna Kalytko; and Israeli anthropologist Yuval Noah Harari and British storyteller Neil Gaiman will be in conversation with Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musayeva.

Ukrainian historian Olena Stiazhkina will talk with Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah and Mexican activist Lydia Cacho on post-colonialism, while British historian Margaret MacMillan will sit down with Ukrainian historians Serhii Plokhy and Yaroslav Hrytsak to discuss hope.

Atwood said: "Putin’s war is an attack on democracy and freedom, not just in Ukraine but around the world. In joining the Lviv BookForum and Hay Festival programme, I support  Ukrainian writers and readers as they share their work. May this theatre of ideas and talent inspire more to raise their voices and share their gifts."

The Hay Festival will broadcast these conversations for free online in English, Spanish and Ukrainian, bolstering the programme with a specially curated strand of online events pairing international writers with their Ukrainian contemporaries.  

Lviv BookForum curator and journalist Sofia Cheliak said: “The role of public intellectuals is not only to interpret reality, but also to illuminate it and in so doing influence the world around us and the paths we take.

“Our programme is built to tackle uncomfortable questions, to which there may not be an unequivocal answer. This is a space for writers and readers to ask questions and tell their stories, a conversation that runs in defiance of the evil that seeks to squash our freedom. Please join us.”

Hay Festival international director Cristina Fuentes La Roche also commented: “In these challenging times, here is a programme of voices to examine and inspire. Through our online events, we will bring Ukraine to the world, offering a wider audience to these essential stories, while facilitating an exchange of new ideas with their international contemporaries.

“This programme is an act of defiance, a challenge to those who would curtail free expression and the tolerant exchange of ideas, and a catalyst for global change. Please join us in this act of solidarity, live online.”

Gaiman said: "It’s an honour and a privilege to be a part of the 29th Lviv BookForum. It’s Ukraine’s biggest literary festival, and it says a lot that, even in the dark days of a war that should never have been necessary, the festival continues in a brave act of resistance and allows writers like me to stand in solidarity with the writers and the readers of Ukraine.

"With the help of Hay Festival the programming of the Lviv BookForum can reach millions of people around the world. And that includes you, wherever you are. Come and listen and learn."