The Kyiv International Book Fair and Exhibition (“Book Contracts”) is being held within the framework of the Year of the Ukrainian Book. Thus, according to the Ukrainian State Committee for Television and Radio (Derzhkomteleradio), which organized this event, the fair is a kind of final evaluation and report about Ukrainian publishers. More than 200 publishers from all over Ukraine are taking part in the exhibition this year. About 130 of them have their own stands, while the rest are showing their wares as part of regional state administrations’ stands. The participants include publishers that are well known in national and international markets, such as Folio, Kalvaria, Hrani-T, Lybid, Zeleny Lis, and others. Besides book publishers, magazines for junior and young readers, including Maliatko, Barvinok, and Piznaiko, are taking part in this year’s fair.
This year’s state budget allotted 20 million hryvnias for the development of Ukrainian book publishing (compared to last year’s UAH 18 million, of which only 4,908,000 were used). Two thousand square meters at the Ukrainian House were available free of charge to national publishers, just like at the III Kyiv International Book Exhibition.
It is symbolic that the book fair began on St. Nicholas Day, as the organizers planned a variety of surprises for children. The first floor is completely occupied by children’s literature and fairy-tale characters, like St. Nicholases, Piznaikos, and magical squirrels. There’s no room for boredom among young readers, as various promotional events are being held and little St. Nicks are being given away. Derzhkomteleradio took over this tradition from the Lviv Publishers’ Forum, which organized last year’s fair.
This year’s experience has shown that some new approaches to forming a list of publications have to be drawn up, so that libraries and their patrons can have access to the latest high-quality books in terms of content and design. The organizers are convinced that this is possible only by implementing the “Ukrainian Book” program.
President Yushchenko sent his greetings. In his address he noted that “in spite of competition from radio, Internet, and television, in the modern world of communication technologies the role of books in the formation of national identity remains extremely important.”
More than 80 cultural-artistic events await the visitors and participants of this year’s book fair: launches of new books, author-reader conferences, briefings, and seminars. All the participating Ukrainian writers and publishers have prepared their own surprises. There will be an autograph session with Yuri Andrukhovych, the launch of the first book by TV personality Natalia Rodzynska, and the launch of the latest works issued by the Kartohrafiia Publishers. This map publisher is developing a huge project called the National Atlas of Ukraine, which will contain all the atlases of Ukraine, augmented by complete information about the country and the state of its economy. According to the publisher’s spokesperson, this is going to be a truly unique publication.
