Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Publishing and the Ukraine War

Ukraine's International Book Arsenal Fair was to take place in May in Kyiv. The festival's organizers issued a statement with suggestions on what people in the book industry could do to help Ukraine during this time of war. 

Also, Frankfurt Buchmesse issued a statement in support of Ukraine, as have the London and Bologna fairs.

Publishers Weekly included an article describing some of the challenges that have been facing Ukrainian publishing for the past decade, including Russian efforts to undermine the industry in Ukraine. 

Publishing Perspectives features an interview with Julia Orlova, CEO at the Kharkiv publisher Vivat. (Kharkiv has sustained massive bombardment, including cluster bombs.) But she also describes how prior to the invasion, at President Zelensky's initiative, “Every vaccinated citizen of Ukraine was made eligible to receive an electronic 1,000 hryvnia (US$33.29)  Any citizen could spend these funds on certain categories of goods, including books. More than 30 percent of our people spent this money on books.” Yet another reason to care about the fate of this nation of readers!

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