Antytvir-2024 Project Results

This is the seventh time that the Antytvir project has been held as part of the International Book Arsenal Festival.

We received 113 applications, both from our regular participants, to whom we are grateful for their longstanding interest, and from new participants who were brave enough to share their thoughts with us for the first time. 97 applications passed the technical selection and have already been published on the Book Arsenal website. All works are presented unedited by the organizers.

The theme of Antytvir-2024 is FRAGILE. Handle with care.

We encouraged participants to reflect on:

• The soft power of vulnerability and its role in life;
• The fragility of both living beings and things;
• Their own experiences of vulnerability, fragility, and sensitivity.

The works of the 20 shortlisted project participants will be translated into English and published in a collection (in both Ukrainian and English) to be published this summer.

The evaluation was made based on the following criteria:

• Relevance to the topic;
• Authenticity of the idea;
• Structural presentation;
• General literacy.

The texts were reviewed by Yulia Konopliana, a creative writing teacher and speaker of the educational program for teenagers, as well as the project team and the Mystetskyi Arsenal Teen Council.

The contributors to the collection are:

Olha Sheremenko

Alina Cherniavska

Sofia Stefanyshyn

Sofia Tsap

Yekateryna Kravtsova

Yeva Vasylenko

Daryna Herasymiuk

Anna Vinnik

Veronika Ospanova

Krystyna Orikhova

Ksenia Aliekseienko

Maria Kobycheva

Natalia Pozniak

Yulia Vysotenko

Maria Khilinich

Oleksii Tarasov

Karina Moshuk

Viktoria Chudovska

Oleksandra Holdina

Tania Koval

Anna Polehenko

Yulia Panchenko

Sofia Seriohina

The project included an educational program with two components: working with teachers of Ukrainian language and literature and lectures for teenagers participating in the project.

Together with our speakers, the teachers of Ukrainian language and literature worked on developing their skills in designing interactive literature and creative writing lessons for their pupils; explored how to implement non-standard approaches within the school curriculum; and learned how to instill a genuine love for literature and creating texts in their pupils.

The program speakers included: Kateryna Molodyk, methodist at the Smart Osvita NGO, Halyna Tytysh, head of the Smart Osvita NGO, Iryna Pobidash, lecturer of Ukrainian and foreign literature and practical stylistics of the Ukrainian language at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, PhD and creator of a literary blog.

During the creative writing workshop, the teenagers discovered stories within themselves and searched for the right words to express them; conducted interviews; learned how to work with senses and visual images, how important visuals and variations in graphic language are, and how to enhance the effect by accompanying a story with an illustration.

The program speakers included: Yulia Konopliana, a literary critic, editor, and creative writing mentor; Bohdan Lohvynenko, the founder of Ukraїner, an interviewer, writer, and editor; and Polina Doroshenko, an artist and illustrator.

The project is implemented in cooperation with the Mystetskyi Arsenal Community NGO. The project is supported by the Partnership Fund for Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), funded by aid from the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Estonia, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.