Ukraine in focus at Vilnius Book Fair 2016

The annual book fair will be held for the 17th time this year, entitled "Character in Search of an Author". Around 330 authors and publishing professionals are expected to attend the event, with over 30 of them coming to Vilnius from seven different countries.

The biggest stand will be devoted to Ukrainian authors and will introduce 15 publishing houses and 11 Ukrainian writers and illustrators.

"It's not the first fair when we speak about Ukraine. After the ongoing events started in Ukraine, we paid a lot of attention to this issue. We just have friendly relations and we've long been friends with the Lviv Book Forum and with Ukrainian publishers," said Milda Gembickienė, one of the organizers of the fair and a representative of the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO.

Among the guests at the book fair will be Ukraine's most translated author Andrey Kurkov, known for his Ukraine Diaries.

British writer Lucinda Riley, the author of seven books in the Seven Sisters series, as well as the Russian poet and prose writer Marina Stepnova, the author of the novel The Women of Lazarus, will also come to Vilnius.

"Marina is interesting for those who don’t believe you cannot understand Russia with your mind, and that is an opportunity to learn about Russia's mentality," Lolita Varanavičienė, president of the Lithuanian Publishers Association, told a press conference in Vilnius on Thursday.

Vilnius will host the book fair on February 25-28 at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO.