According to Oleksandr Afonin, president of the Ukrainian Association of Booksellers and Publishers, since February over 3000 publishing professionals have lost their livelihoods. A number have lost their lives. Many bookstores and book warehouses in the eastern part of the country have been destroyed. Book sales in Ukraine dropped from 40 million last year to 4 million in 2022. Children began the school year without new textbooks.
A group of writers and booksellers (Carolyn Forche, Mitchell Kaplan, Christopher Merrill, Askold Melnyczuk, and Jane Unrue) have partnered with the Coral Gables Foundation to raise funds for direct support to booksellers, editors, printers, warehouse workers, libraries and librarians, and other personnel involved in the publishing industry and book culture. All contributions are tax-deductible:
The funds will be used to make direct grants to booksellers and others in the publishing industry in financial crisis; to help make printing and production facilities operational, and to assist in the purchase of books for libraries in regions affected by the war. As Oksana Bruy notes in a recent story in the Guardian: “The library is a community.”
