Republic of Bashkortostan’s literary family festival will take place in 2022

29 october 2021

The Power of the Word, a literary family festival initially scheduled to take place in Blagoveshchensk on October 29 and 30, 2021, has been moved back to 2022 due to the epidemiological situation in the region. The festival’s exact dates are to be announced later. The decision to postpone the festival was made by its organizers and by SIBUR who provides support to the festival to ensure the safety and wellbeing of Blagoveshchensk’s residents and visitors.

The festival’s original program will remain unchanged. It would include more than a dozen different events and it will target both children's and adult audiences. Its attendees will be invited to visit a book fair presenting the most sought-after new books published by Russia’s leading publishers including "AST", "Samokat", "Career Press", "Meshcheryakov’s Publishing House", and "CompassGid". Teachers of Russian and Literature will be able to attend interactive "teaching laboratories" whereas younger participants will be able to take part in various thematic master classes. Lovers of poetry will be able enjoy a poetry battle and a recitation contest.

The festival will include an exhibition titled "Censored Books" that will feature literary pieces that had been censored at one point in the past or another. A children's "Literary café" and a readers’ club will operate on the festival’s grounds.

Lovers of contemporary Russian literature will get to enjoy a series of meetings with their favorite writers and literary figures. Ah Astakhova (Irina Astakhova), a popular contemporary Russian poet, is scheduled to be among the festival’s headliners.

Anna Starobinets, an author and scriptwriter, winner of several Russian and European literary awards, will offer aspiring authors a master class on writing a detective story. Anna is renowned for her fiction writing and thrillers for adult readers, as well as for her fairy tales and detective stories for children, including the famous "Beastly Detective" series.

Children and their parents will get an opportunity to meet Denis Dragunsky, the prototype of the main protagonist of "The Adventures of Dennis", author of 22 books, novelist and recognized master of short story writing, the son of famous children's writer Viktor Dragunsky.

The list of special guests will include the likes of such prominent literary figures as Alexei Varlamov, writer, historian of Russian literature, Doctor of Philology, a Professor at Moscow State University, and the Rector of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, Dmitry Makarov, poet, writer, author and the host of Scary Tales, an educational TV project, Sergei Barkhatov, TV presenter, journalist and cinema scholar, and many others.

The festival will feature online meetings with Guzel Yakhina, the author of such bestsellers as "Zuleikha opens her eyes," "The Train to Samarkand", and "Children of Mine", and with Marina Stepnova, writer, poet, editor, translator and scriptwriter, the author of the "The Women of Lazarus", a novel that has been translated into 26 languages.

One of the Festival’s partners, the Russian State Children's Library, will present a unique display of classic Russian book art by Evgeny Monin, People's Artist of the RSFSR. The exhibition will feature illustrations of famous Russian and European fairy tales and poems by celebrated poets.

Follow our project updates on the project’s website at: http://sila-slova-fest.ru and on social media at: https://vk.com/litfest_sila_slova, https://www.instagram.com/litfest_sila_slova/.

The venue of the festival is at: City Palace of Culture, 98 Sedova Street, Blagoveshchensk, Republic of Bashkortostan. Admission is free. Pre-registration on the website is required for some events.