Authors´ voices 2024
Dan Sociu ( Romania)
,,Thank you for inviting me, I hope next time we will all meet in Odesa for real and soon,,
Vasyl Makhno (Ukraine / USA)
“It was a privilege to participate in the 9th International Literature Festival Odesa in Bucharest. Why was it important? Our contemporary world has quickly changed. We can see worldwide events, which makes us sad. Literature and arts may be a last chance for saving “The Mutilated World”, according to Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. During the festival we read poems and spoke about war, societies, West and East. I believe that poets from different countries and speaking different languages, through words, can and should try important things. This festival gave us that opportunity.”
Nichita Danilov ( Romania)
For me, the Odesa-Bucharest International Literature Festival, which took place between February 22 and 25, 2024, and which was attended by a lot of writers from all over Europe, including Romania, Germany and Ukraine, has the meaning of a peace conference in that the subtle weapons of diplomacy have been replaced by far more subtle and percussive weapons, those of poetry.
Authors´ voices 2022
Svitlana Bondar
Wonderful opportunity for transcultural communication over the sea from Batumi to Odesa. We hope that festival will return to its native city Odesa soon.
Dmytro Lazutkin (Ukraine)
Dream festival
Ekaterina Togonidze (Georgia)
I was happy to receive this letter and I think that here I can connect with all of you, so I will take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the festival team, all the participants, my new friends and all the supporters of the festival.
To my regret, I had to leave a little early and missed the wonderful moment of performing anthem, which I would join with all my heart!
It was a great honor for me to be a part of this special event, to listen to all of you, to understand more, feel more, share ideas and emotions with Ukrainian colleagues.
Planning and thinking about joint projects filled me with hope and joy. I know that talking about war is not easy, and I appreciate every word that has been said on the literary stage or in private conversations. This means a lot to me, I am full of impressions and look forward to our next meeting, wherever and whenever it takes place.
Authors´ voices 2019
Robert Paul Weston (UK)
Thanks again for inviting me to Odessa. It was great to meet everyone and connect with writers—such as Franz and Chen—whom I would rarely meet otherwise.
It was a pleasure introducing Zorgamazoo to children who would never know it otherwise—all thanks to the festival.
Maryna Hrymych (Ukraine)
The Odessa International Literary Festival made an impression. First, it’s the Author’s Readings Festival. Authors’ texts sound and are perceived differently than in a book. You can fall
in love, or you can fall out of love with a writer in 20 minutes of his/her speech. So it happened to me this time. Secondly, it is a real international festival, where the percentage of foreign writers is not less than that of the Ukrainian one’s. And this is a real workshop. Writing workshop. You see how other writers work. And they work differently than you do. And this is a school, intensive training courses (of course, unless you focus solely on
yourself, sweetheart, and attend not only your presentation). Third, it is Odesa.
Lesia Voronina (Ukraine)
Wonderful impressions of meetings with readers, presentations and literature parties :).
And the sea is fantastic in any weather!
Eugenia Kononenko (Ukraine)
My father was born in Odesa. There, a year before, his parents got married. The presentation of my book The Word of its Kin at the Fifth Odessa Literary Festival was a success!
Henry Marsh (UK)
I greatly enjoyed my visit to Odesa and I liked the Literature Festival very much. Boris Khersonsky is an excellent moderator.
Galyna Malyk (Ukraine)
Three wonderful days of the Fifth Literary Festival in Odesa have passed missed. They passed
very quickly because those were the days full with events, meetings, new
experiences and great acquaintances. There
remains a pleasant aftertaste of being present in something long-awaited, like
a family holiday, new and unusual, as a test of a pen in another genre, and at
the same time joyful as meeting with the loved ones.
Authors´ voices 2018
Anushka Ravishankar (India)
A huge thank you for inviting me to the festival. I had a wonderful time, both with the children at my sessions and with the other authors, translators and moderators. It was a very enriching and stimulating few days.
I had one session at the Puppet Theatre and two at schools. There were 150 children at the Theatre where we had a most interesting conversation about monsters under beds. We also sang some silly songs.
Both the school sessions were wonderful, with bright children, full of curiosity and enthusiasm. The second one, at school no 64, Malinovski Str., stood out for the involvement of the teachers. The children asked excellent questions. They were excited, engaged and responsive. It couldn’t get more rewarding for a children’s author! Children at both schools asked if they could get a Ukrainian version of the book. I’m in the process, therefore, of trying to contact a publisher there. Hope it works out!
A special mention for the actor who was doing the readings. I couldn’t understand a word, of course, but I could see that he was doing a great job from the reactions of the children and I could sense that he was really connecting with them.
Thank you once again, for inviting me. This is such an important festival, and I’m honoured to have been a part of it.
Volodymyr Kadenko (Ukraine)
Huge thanks for wonderful days in Odesa!
Meg Rosoff (US / UK)
Thank you for a really wonderful few days in Odessa. The festival had such an incredibly warm and friendly atmosphere, and I loved meeting the other authors.
It was beautifully organised and you were so helpful — it was altogether a brilliant experience.
I felt really privileged to be invited to Odessa.
Authors´ voices 2017
Viktor Erofeyev
I believe that this project is an appearance from the future, a future in which we can discuss literary news, free from the ideological nightmare that is holding us captive for now.
Sjoerd Kuyper
That morning, Thursday the 28th of September 2017, starting at nine o’clock, in The Odessa Puppet Theatre, was one of the best mornings I had in my life as a writer. And I thought it would be so hard: one hundred and fifty students or more, and their teachers, Russian their mother language, Ukraine their lover language, and me and Simon van der Geest, my Dutch colleague before the festival and my friend ever after, with only our Dutch and some English… But how it worked!
The students were eager to listen and talk to us, to find out how and why we write our books the way we do. It’s all new to them. I mean, in The Netherlands much is taken for granted, when I talk to students there I have to be funny at least, and the best is to be cynical: “Well, it’s only books. I know, let’s not be to serious about it.” In Odessa everybody in the audience wanted to be serious. It was a relief, these fresh open minds. After the reading I went outside, sat on the steps before the Theatre, in the Odessa sunrise, said hello to everyone passing by, and they said it back to me, and I was glad Simon and I had another reading that afternoon.
The rest of the week this feeling stayed. I made new friends from all over the world, even from The Netherlands, I attended their readings, had wine with them during dinner, talked about politics and life and books, we went into town together, to the beach, till all our languages became one and the same. I am sure that at this moment in time, on this planet, the best place to organize an international literary festival is Odessa.
Paata Shamugia
It was a pleasure to be part of the 3rd international literature festival Odessa. I met many interesting and talented authors, read poems and discuss several actual problems and challenges. It was my first visit to Odessa and I think I will be back some day. As for the event itself – it was remarkable, all the part of the festival was very well organized. I have been able to get in touch with audience and it was very impressive. Thank you very much!
Janne Teller
I truly enjoyed the meeting of colleagues from all over the world, seeing the wonderful city, and learning more about the situation in Ukraine. Hopefully the little steps we all took towards furthering mutual understanding through literature can do its contributing part to help unite our splintered world. So thank you so much for giving us this opportunity.
Maria Galina
Without doubts and I consider such event is very useful for Odessa and Ukraine in generall and I also hope it helps to create a positive image of Ukraine which is a promicing and perspective (and very beautiful) country.
Michael Krüger
It was all perfectly organised,and for me,first time in Odessa,it was a big surprise to see the old houses,in which some of my beloved artists,from Emil Gilels to Paustowski lived.And it was such a pleasure meeting you all.
Adania Shibli
Dear ilo family,
Just to say thank you for the wonderful days, and most inspiring conversations and crossings you created. Thank you, and warmest regards to everyone.
Saskia van Stein
It was very inspiring to meet, share, lecture within the context of Odessa. I realize this was the first time the festival has choosen for a more transdisciplinairy approach, which to me has great added value. Funny enough the urban (social and economic) challenges we face in the Western European context are not so different from the Ukrainian reality yet obviously from very different historical backgrounds, which pivot around money and identity (politics).
Elena Karakina
The third international literature festival odessa was very successful, as I can judge by the number of visitors as well as their feedback. I am grateful to be a part of the festival. I hope this wonderful cultural event will be continued.
Authors´ voices 2016
John Ralston Saul, The President of PEN International
What a wonderful initiative it was to create the Festival in Odessa. I have been talking about in interviews continuously since I left. I do think that it was an important statement about the role of literature and free expression in countries caught up in war. It was particularly great to see the quantity of young people in the rooms getting to their feet.Congratulations and thanks to both of you. I was glad to be part of it.
Mikhail Shishkin
An der Kreuzung der Zeiten und der Sprachen treffen sich in Odessa Dichter und Leser. Wo würden sie lieber in den Lektüren versinken als am gastlichen Ufer des Schwarzen Meeres?
Davit Turashvili
As I know it was Ulrich Schreiber’s idea to organise the 1 st international literature festival in Odessa and therefore I would like to thank him and his perfect team for everything what made me so happy joining this festival.
Of course I’m very content with all events I participated there and of course I used a brilliant chance to meet so interesting people (not only writers) from other countries and also I’m very glad to have a presentation of my book to the readers in Odessa.