Opening up the door
Summary of the past year 2023
Last year we saw both a tightening of restrictions against civil society and liberal creativity in Russia and a significant intensification of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.
To support Ukraine, the agency tried to present even more Ukrainian authors. On the one hand, this means that more genuinely Ukrainian voices are heard abroad, and on the other hand, the royalties in Western currency help the authors to better cope with the difficult life under war conditions. Please see the UKRAINIAN list.
In order to support liberal authors writing in Russian who feel increasingly isolated, either because they fear repression in their own country or because they have already fled into exile, the agency opened up its door last year for more such authors. Please see the RUSSIAN DIASPORA list as well as a list of titles CRITICAL OF THE REGIME.
And with Aromshtam, Starobinets and others to come soon for Bologna, a separate CHILDREN’S BOOKS segment is forming in the agency.
On behalf of the authors, I would like to thank you for your continued interest in difficult times. And at the same time I’m looking forward to an exciting next year of books in hopefully more peaceful times very soon.
Yours, Thomas Wiedling