I just learned from a friend’s social media posts that in the middle of a horrific war the book community in Ukraine actual held the nation’s largest annual book festival. The poster above is for the 2023 International Book Arsenal Festival which recently took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. The poster was designed by Art Studio Agrafka from an illustration they originally did for the cover of Linkiesta Magazine.

It’s a testament to Ukraine’s love of books and the resilience of the Ukrainian people that they managed to not only keep publishing new books, but also held a festival in a capital still under attack by Russia.