Culture and War: The Ukrainian Experience

An event by Astrolabe Publishing during the Leipzig Book Fair

We discuss whether war is a “dream of culture.” Can culture protect us from war, or help us survive it? Or could culture itself lead to war? These and other questions will be addressed in a discussion about the unique Ukrainian initiative “We Tell Our Stories,” part of which is the publishing project “In principio erat Verbum. Ukraine: Poetry of Wartime,” which captured a wide range of society’s reactions to the hostile invasion in a poetry collection. This is the experience of the first hundred days, which has not yet been forced into the Procrustean bed of dominant narratives; it is still a living magma of emotions—open and sincere—from different people: civilians and military personnel, men and women, young people and the elderly, professional poets and amateurs, those still alive and those who have fallen. Is this a unique experience? Or does it carry a universal message capable of challenging common narratives about culture and war?

Participants: Mr. Jacob Bernstein (translator), Dr. Olena Brosanina (translator and poet), Ms. Kateryna Kotyuk (civil servant and translator), Dr. Volodymyr Stasenko (artist and book illustrator), Lt. Col. Volodymyr Tymchuk (soldier and poet).

Location: Forum Literaturlandschaft, Hall 4, C205

Time: March 21, 2026, 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM