Hay Festival and Lviv BookForum unveil free hybrid programme

Lviv BookForum has partnered with Hay Festival for a second year to produce a free, hybrid programme of events featuring 50 writers and thinkers in 30 conversations and performances encompassing art in times of conflict, memory, gender equality, loss, corruption, imperialism and hope.

Taking placed between 5th and 8th October, speakers at the 30th annual edition of Lviv BookForum will include novelists Andrey Kurkov, Jonathan Franzen, Elif Batuman, Halyna Kruk and David Toscana; essayists Rebecca Solnit and Pankaj Mishra; filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk; cartoonist Art Spiegelman and many more.

The organisers say the aim is to “create a civic space for a free and tolerant exchange of ideas between writers and readers around the world".

Lviv BookForum curator and journalist Sofia Cheliak said of the event: “Last year, when we started co-operation with Hay Festival, we put on a programme of events with faith in a quick victory. The second year of the war makes us question our faith in the future, but thanks to the support of our friends and partners, we continue to work to make it happen for each of us. We hope that the thoughts and ideas that will be born during this year’s discussions will become the foundation for our future happily ever after.”

Hay Festival international director Cristina Fuentes La Roche said: “With freedom of expression under attack globally, here is a programme of voices to engage and inspire. Through our online events under the theme Writing the Future, we will bring Ukraine to the world again this October, continuing to broaden the audience for these essential stories, while facilitating an exchange of new ideas. This partnership and this programme is an act of solidarity, a stand for free expression and the tolerant exchange of ideas, and a catalyst for global change. Please join us.”

More information can be found here.