In the framework of the EU Creative Europe Programme a consortium of partners from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are implementing a comics genre development project Visual Stories from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine. Project will offer a number of training and webinar sessions for comics artists and writers, as well as other interested professionals to introduce the topics of comics and graphic story writing, graphic journalism, promotion and marketing, copyright and financial literacy, negotiation skills, etc.
The final product of the project will be a comic book with stories by three women writers, one from each country, outlining the women’s perspective on war, their role in it and its impact on their lives.
The writers involved in the project are Ani Asatryan, Armenia, Ekaterine Togonidze, Georgia and Vira Kuryko, Ukraine. The illustrators will be selected through an open competition (to be announced soon). The editor who will coordinate and mentor the writers and illustrators while creating the story collection is Mikheil Tsikhelashvili. Please see the bios of the writers and the editor below:
Ani Asatryan [Armenia]
Ani Asatryan is a writer of the Generation Independence and a “text artist”.
Her first untitled book “ ” was published in 2014 and is a conceptual-Dadaist collection of short stories and essays. It was a collection of avant-garde literature, which included works written at the age of 19-21 and included surreal short pieces and which was published fully deleted. Nevertheless, the full printrun of the book ran out on the day of the presentation and became known in media as “a not-for-reading book”. Ani has Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Yerevan State University and Master’s degree from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Yerevan. Holds a Master’s degree in portrait and landscape photography, poetic documentary film making and digital media storytelling from the University of Sussex, UK.
Ani teaches creative writing at TUMO technological center. Her latest publications can be read at her page in the Medium.
Ekaterine Togonidze [Georgia]
Georgian journalist, author, lecturer and activist for the rights of people with disabilities, Ekaterine Togonidze, was born in Tbilisi in 1981. Ekaterine Togonidze made her literary debut in 2011 with her short story collection “Anesthesia” with which she introduced a new theme to Georgian literature: the discrimination against disabled people in society. The book was awarded the SABA Literary Prize for the best debut of the year in 2012. Ekaterine also was the winner of different literary competitions including the best story of the year (Sulakauri publishing prize), The BEST SHORT STORY (Literary Magazine) and the script development competition (Georgian National Film Center). She has got the Writing Scholarship of Writers’ House and was a scholarship holder for residency of Literarisches Colloquium Berlin (LCB). Her first novel “Asynchrony” was translated into German. Her latest novel “You-Home” became a best-seller immediately after its release. Her works have also appeared in magazines in Georgia and abroad, and have been translated into English, German, Czech and Abkhazian.
Vira Kuryko [ Ukraine ]
Vira Kuryko is a Ukrainian journalist, reporter and writer. She has penned a collection of stories, including “The Street of Those Involved. The File on Lukianenko from Chernihiv”, a historical non-fiction for children “Mazepa. Rights to the Sabre”, and a non-fiction book titled “Healthy Person’s Reform”. She is a reporter and writer for Ukrainian media outlets such as Reporters, The Ukrainians Media, Lokalna Istoria (Local History), Ukrayinskiy Tyzhden (The Ukrainian Week), Ukrainska Pravda. Her texts have also been published in German, Polish, and Czech media. She has been nominated for the BBC-2020 Book of the Year literary prize, is an awardee of the prize LitAccent of the Year 2020, winner of the contest Chest’ Profesiyi 2020 (Honor of the Profession) in a nomination Reportage. She is the author of several reportages in the joint book-collection of Reporters authors — 77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine. In 2022, she worked as a documentarian on The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies to document Russian war crimes in Ukraine. She is the author of a reportage about the first bombing of a residential area in Chernihiv, which was included in the book “The Most Frightening Days of My Life”.
Mikheil Tsikhelashvili, editor [Georgia]
Mikheil Tsikhelashvili is a Georgian writer, translator and comic-book editor. He graduated from Tbilisi State University (Bachelor of Fine Arts) and Ilia State University (Master of Cultural Management). For 7 years Tsikhelashvili had been working for Sulakauri Publishing as an acquisition editor and rights manager. Later he joined the Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe team as an archive coordinator for one complete season. After publishing his first novel in September 2019, Tsikhelashvili started part-time freelance practice as a translator, writer, and script supervisor and part-time volunteering. In his catalog, one can find a novel, a collection of short stories, two comic books, eight translated books, two movie scripts, and tens of articles. Currently, he lives and works in Porto, Portugal.
The consortium partners implementing the project are:
“ARI Literature Foundation” (ARI) is a non-governmental organization which aims to contribute to the development of the Armenian book market, promotion of writing and reading in Armenia as well as representation of Armenian literature and culture globally. Major goal of ARI Literature Foundation is to build multicultural dialogues to enhance the role of literature in the regional context, making Armenia an active partner in shaping literary platforms for cooperation․ ARI Literature Foundation has an extensive experience and excellent record of success stories in implementing international and local projects in cooperation with US Embassy in Armenia, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Goethe Institute, EU Delegation in Armenia, including EU funded projects.
“Literature Initiative Georgia” (LIG) is an NGO with goals to enhance intercultural dialogue and development of literary and cultural relations, develop the literary process in Georgia, implement initiatives and projects to strengthen the freedom of speech and expression, organize discussion platforms for representatives of the literary and artistic fields. LIG has worked with such partners as Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Goethe Institute and others.
“Komora” Publishing House (Ukraine) was established in 2013. The motto of the publishing house is «Only what remains», which reflects Komora’s policy and business strategy: publishing high-quality printed books, meant for personal libraries and several generations of readers. After ten years of work, the catalog of Komora includes over 90 books. Komora specializes in Ukrainian and world fiction and non-fiction, both classical and contemporary, trying to introduce Ukrainian audiences to attention-worthy (and also not widely promoted) names, events and trends, thus contributing to the growth of national reading standards. Komora actively works on projects, essential for a modern intellectual.
The project is supported by partner organisations in partner countries and around the world: Sulakauri Publishing House, National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, SABA E-book Platform, Frankfurt Book Fair, EDGE Publishing House, Yerevan Book Festival, International Book Arsenal Festival, Radio Kultura, Chytomo.
The project is funded by EU Creative Europe Cooperation Grants.
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Webinar on Promotion and Marketing in the field of comics and graphic novels conducted by Roel Daenen.
Roel Daenen studied history at Ghent University and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal). He started his career as an audience developer at BOZAR, the Brussels Center for Fine Arts. At FARO, the Flemish institution for cultural heritage, Roel coordinates the communication and is also chief editor of the magazine Faro. He wrote the book It’s just for laughter. How cartoonists are changing the world (Het is maar om te lachen. Hoe cartoonisten de wereld veranderen) for the publisher Polis, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack. Roel is also editor-in-chief of the acclaimed literary magazine Stripgids, according to the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant “the most beautiful comics magazine of Europe”.
The online conversation on the topic Publishing In Peace Crisis organized in the framework of the project with participation of President and CEO of Frankfurter Buchmesse Juergen Boos and Literature Project Curator and publicist Oksana Shchur. The conversation was moderated by Medea Metreveli, Director of Literature Initiative Georgia.
What should be the reaction of western world and its cultural institutions over these hard times Georgia, Armenian and Ukraine go through? What kind of support programs are initiated by Frankfurt Buchmesse and other literary platforms in support of the above-mentioned countries during the peace crisis they face? Why do cultural landscape, heritage, language become strategic targets during wars?Answers to these and many more questions can be found in the online conversation below.
The discussion was organised within the framework of the project ‘Visual Stories from Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine’ and aims to support the development of the comics genre.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor LIG can be held responsible for them.