Lviv Book Forum

The tradition & historical record

Book Forum Lviv (formerly The Lviv Publishers' Forum; Ukrainian: Львівський книжковий форум) is the biggest book fair in Ukraine. It has been held in Lviv each September since 1994 and is organized by the Publishers' Forum, an NGO founded after the success of the initial Lviv book forum. It is the largest book fair in Ukraine and one of the largest events of its kind in Eastern Europe. It has also been called Lviv's most popular event. Main expositions are located in the Palace of Arts near the Potocki Palace. The forum program includes literary events and contests, presentations of publishing houses and authors, meetings with authors, literary readings, autograph sessions, discussions, round-table meetings, and performances. It participates in the organization of collective expositions at the international book fairs in Warsaw, Moscow, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Pisa, and Vilnius. ¹

The Lviv Publishers' Forum was founded in September 1994 by the National Museum of Lviv. At the time, the Ukrainian book market collapsed after a nationwide economic crisis in 1992-1993. Oleksandra Koval, then organiser and person in charge in future, decided to establish a book fair to get publishers together and survive in a hard time. It was founded by the International Renaissance Foundation, and the fair collaborates with the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors (Ukrainian: Українська асоціація видавців та книгорозповсюджувачів). The fair held a series of 25 professional and literary events, including literary events and competitions, presentations of publishing houses and authors, author meetings, literary readings, autograph sessions, discussions, round tables, performances, etc. The forum was modelled after the Warsaw Book Fair (pl) in Poland. The Frankfurt Book Fair had attended the forum for several years until early 2000, when Ukraine stopped requesting cooperation anymore. Starting this year, the NGO "Publishers' Forum" has been participating in the organisation of collective exhibitions at international book fairs in Warsaw, Moscow, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Pisa, and Vilnius. The logo of the book fair was designed by Mykhailo Moskal, depicting two snails supporting a vertically placed book with their shells. Snails symbols "infinity, rebirth, indomitability, determination, perseverance, and interaction". It had been used until 2018. ¹

The Publishers' Forum Best Book Award was established. ¹

The Literary Festival, a highly popular event among Ukrainian youth, separates from the Forum. ¹

Foreign guests start to participate in the Literary Festival. ¹

The "Best Young Reader of Ukraine" contest is established. Over the years around 500 thousand children from all over Ukraine have taken part in it. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Book Forum Lviv”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Lviv Book Forum is recorded in open cultural data. The structured record cited below does not describe the practice, and this entry has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²