On Nov. 6-9, the Sportyvny Exhibit Center hosted the Ninth Kyiv Book Fair “Medvin: World of Books 2008.” This time it attracted a record number of participants — over 200. For the first time it was joined by the Christian Book Festival. This year’s program was rich in interesting events, including the launch of the website bukvoid.com.ua, the dramatized event “Stus’ Circle”, the soiree “Poetry Live,” the presentation of the Biblioglobus Internet store (www.biblio-globus.us), and the announcement of the Seventh International Antiterrorism Forum “World without Violence, Terrorism, and Extremism for Children and Youth” scheduled for next year in Kyiv.
Readers’ ratings placed The Day‘s mini-photo exhibit and its stand among the most frequented places of the book fair. The photo exhibit was made up of 50 works submitted to The Day‘s 10th photo competition. One could say these photos served as apt illustrations of some of the stories and novels about current realities that were presented at the fair.
“The Day is doing a great thing by organizing these annual exhibits,” says Volodymyr Chuiev, a programmer, while exploring the exhibit. “These photos - and the books, of course - serve as a graphic eye-opener on Ukraine Incognita. We think we know our country but we should know better. Looking at the photos on display, you realize that this is a kind of monitoring of Ukrainian realities. Also, you are aware of the warm attitude behind the photos. You are led to conclude that this monitoring was done by our people, i.e., patriots.”
The readers determined the exhibit’s bestseller: James Mace: Your Dead Chose Me... of The Day‘s Library Book Series. Says the journalist Valerii Yasynovsky: “I’ve read a lot about this American scholar who exposed the Ukrainian Holodomor for the benefit of the rest of the world. Personalities of his caliber are born one in a century, wrote Lina Kostenko. Thank you for publishing his works - they not only relate to the tragedy of 1932-33, but also contain the key to understanding the drama of our postgenocidal realities.”
The Day asked the organizers, participants, and guests whether cultural, and in particular book-publishing, events are covered in a timely and high-quality fashion.
Valeria OLEKSIIENKO, Melvin Co., coordinator of the Kyiv International Fair Project:
“Fortunately, an increasing amount of attention is being paid to the publication of Ukrainian books, considering that information about such projects appears before and after the event. However, it’s a shame that journalists often fail to specify the date and location of some such events, presumably because any such specifics would be regarded as advertising. Personally, I regard this as disrespect for all those who would like to attend such events. As it is, these people have to look for the lacking information elsewhere. In fact, we have to develop a cult of the book in our society, use it in social advertisements in different ways, organize various projects supported by noted actors and musicians, etc. Both the state and the general public are faced with this task.”
Maria MATIOS, writer:
”Honestly, all I expect from journalists describing book-publishing events is information about the new books and where you can buy them. Perhaps I’m in a privileged position in that I can’t complain of insufficient information about my books. However, I am offended to see a glaring lack (if not total absence) of information in mass media on books written by a number of gifted Ukrainian authors. I’d say that such data is currently reduced to five, maybe ten names, whereas there are a great many others. It’s good that Den‘ has the column ”Ukrainians, read!” This is an example to be followed by other periodicals.”
Leonid FILKENSTEIN, editor in chief, Fakt [Fact] Publishers:
”As far as I’m concerned, the way cultural events are covered by television or printed media is reminiscent of that with financing in the educational, research, and cultural spheres in Ukraine-all of them are financed on leftovers. For example, whenever the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza carries a review praising a publication, its print run immediately increases several times over. There are no such trends in Ukraine.”
Orest BAKAICHUK, Triada Plus Publishers:
”I remember that in the late 1990s every Lviv-based newspaper had a weekly column promoting new books and [cultural] events. This was a start. A thousand copies was regarded as a good print run several years ago, whereas it is three to five thousand. And we have a precedent, I mean the television program Book.UA. True, the journals Knyzhnyk Review and Knyzhkovyi ohliad plius have been discontinued. Nevertheless, we have Kyivska Rus’-and this despite the economic crisis in Ukraine. Now consider how many people came to the Medvin exhibit. First, the project was properly advertised; second, this book fair is becoming an indispensable component of Kyiv’s cultural life. So, we do have reasons to be optimistic.”
