The 5th Chania Book Festival Comes to a Close

Events in Foreign Languages

23/06/2026

06/07/2026

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6 July 2026

PRESS RELEASE

The 5th Chania Book Festival Comes to a Close

A cultural institution establishing itself as an international meeting point for books, ideas and public dialogue

The 5th Chania Book Festival (CBF), held from 22 to 28 June 2026, came to a highly successful close, confirming its steady development into one of the most important international institutions for books and contemporary public dialogue in Greece. The Festival was organized by the Municipality of Chania, co-organized with the Region of Crete, under the auspices and with the support of the Hellenic Parliament and the Ministry of Culture, and in cooperation with dozens of publishing houses, universities, cultural organizations, local bodies and international institutions.

This year’s edition carried particular symbolic weight, as it marked five years of continuous presence. During this period, the Chania Book Festival has hosted approximately 450 events - more than 55% of which were broader thematic discussions - with more than 630 individual participants from 35 countries, making use of 18 venues across the city of Chania, with the Mikis Theodorakis Theatre and the Grand Arsenal at its centre. Participation among speakers reflects broad and plural representation, with 57% men and 43% women.

Under the central theme “Worlds in Conflict”, the 5th Chania Book Festival brought together more than 230 participants from 18 countries, including 30 distinguished writers and academics from abroad, who took part in more than 130 thematic discussions, book presentations, workshops, performances, poetry readings, film screenings and music events around books of contemporary Greek and international fiction, poetry and essays.

For one full week, Chania became an open meeting place for writers, translators, publishers, academics, journalists and thousands of readers from Greece and abroad. The packed venues, the strong response to the events, the steady presence of the audience - which embraced the Festival from the first day, culminating over the weekend - and the conversations that continued even after each event had ended confirmed that the Chania Book Festival has now secured a distinctive place on the country’s cultural map.

Five years after its first edition, the Festival confirms its identity as an institution where the book serves as a starting point for discussing, beyond the texts themselves, the major issues of our time: democracy, history, memory, geopolitical developments, social change, technology, translation and the place of literature in the contemporary world.

While remaining firmly oriented towards international dialogue, the Chania Book Festival also continues to systematically highlight Crete’s literary and cultural production. This year’s edition once again placed particular emphasis on the participation of Cretan creators, as well as on books and themes connected to the history, language, culture and contemporary intellectual life of Crete, strengthening the dialogue between local creativity and the international literary environment.

An upgraded experience for audiences and participants

The fifth edition also marked a substantial upgrade in the visitor experience. The Festival’s duration was expanded to cover an entire week, from Monday to Sunday, allowing for the development of a daily programme with a better distribution of events and fewer overlaps. At the same time, the removal of the late 10:00-11:00 p.m. time slot contributed to a more natural flow of the day for both audiences and invited participants.

The new scenographic approach to the event venues received particularly positive comments. Traditional conference-style arrangements were replaced by settings that evoked spaces of hospitality and conversation, creating a more direct relationship between speakers and the audience.

At the same time, the Festival’s signage was completely redesigned, with new banners, roll-ups, stickers and wall-mounted signs outside the venues and in central buildings of the city, including Chania City Hall and the offices of the Region of Crete. The use of QR codes on the signage enabled visitors to access the full programme directly at each event venue.

These organizational improvements contributed decisively to the functionality of the Festival and received particularly positive feedback from the audience, writers and partner organizations.

The Festival Bookshop, which this year operated at the heart of the Festival in Katehaki Square in cooperation with Chania bookstores Comixadiko, Librairie and Sporaki, became one of the liveliest hubs of the event. It was not only the place where visitors could purchase the books of participating authors, but also a daily meeting point for writers, translators, publishers and readers, where conversations often continued spontaneously after the end of the events.

Also in Katehaki Square, the mobile urban living room MULaR once again functioned as an open space for information and encounters, with particular emphasis on introducing to Greek audiences foreign writers who have not yet been translated into Greek. In the same space, the contribution of radio station Diktyo FM 91.5 was also especially important, as it became the Festival’s live “voice”. Through daily live broadcasts, selected interviews with Greek writers, translators and people of the book, as well as continuous updates on the day’s programme and activities, the station conveyed the pulse of CBF both across the city and online.

A cultural institution with an increasingly strong international footprint and growing media/digital impact

The 5th Chania Book Festival confirmed its steady international growth, both in terms of the participation of creators and the network of collaborations it has built. Within its first five years, this network now includes approximately 60 cultural and educational organizations, cultural institutes, embassies and festivals from Greece and abroad. This international development is also reflected in the numbers: from 6 countries outside Greece and 8 international participants in its first edition, CBF has grown within five years to have hosted 98 participants from 35 countries outside Greece, while more than 100 events - approximately one in five - had an international dimension, either through the participation of foreign writers and academics, through interpretation, or through their foreign-language character.

In particular, all events featuring foreign writers and speakers were again supported this year by simultaneous interpretation, ensuring the meaningful participation of Greek-speaking audiences. At the same time, simultaneous interpretation into English was piloted for selected events with Greek participants, with the aim of making them more accessible to the international audience attending the Festival.

This year’s edition also received extensive coverage in the print and online press, with dozens of in-depth articles and major interviews with Greek and international writers in widely circulated media. The quality of the programme, the high level of organization, the international character of the institution and the overall experience it offers to audiences and participants were all highlighted in particularly positive terms. The presence of journalists hosted in Chania during the Festival was also significant, as they conveyed the image of the event through extensive reports, interviews and features in national and international media.

CBF’s digital impact was equally important. The continuous production of original content, the daily coverage of events and a dynamic social media communication strategy contributed to the significant expansion of its audience. During the last month, the Festival’s official website recorded more than 12,000 unique visitors, while its digital content once again exceeded 1,000,000 views.

The 10 best-selling books of the 5th Chania Book Festival

Based on sales data recorded by the Festival Bookshop, the ten books that stood out most strongly in the audience’s preferences were the following:

Jonathan Coe, “The Accidental Woman”, Polis Publishing
Elisavet Chronopoulou, “For the Purpose of Enrichment” / “Epi Skopo Ploutismou”, Polis Publishing
Leonardo Padura, “Ir a la Habana”, Kastaniotis Publishing
Konstantinos Poulis, “Social Media: The Freedom to Speak Without Being Heard” / “Social Media: I eleftheria na milas xoris na akougesai”, Gutenberg Publishing
Xenophon I. Contiadis, “Collaborationists and Dreamers: A True Story” / “Dosilogoi kai Oniropoloi: Mia alithini istoria”, Topos Publishing
Vincenzo Latronico, “Perfection”, Loggia Publishing
Niall Williams, “Four Letters of Love”, Doma Publishing
Niall Williams, “This Is Happiness”, Doma Publishing
Katie Kitamura, “Audition”, Dioptra Publishing
Lena Divani, “This Is How the World Ends” / “Etsi Teleioni o Kosmos”, Patakis Publishing

Selected comments on the 5th Chania Book Festival

“I would be very happy to return another year… I realized that wherever I looked in the streets of Chania, I kept encountering writers whom I appreciate and admire.”

Jonathan Coe, writer

“It is wonderful. Thank you very much. We really enjoyed the Festival and will be very happy to recommend it to other writers.”

Niall Williams, writer

“Thank you, Greece. For the hospitality, for the words, for the thoughts, for the food, for the beauty - for this incredible time I spent here. I am truly impressed.”

Laura Cwiertnia, writer

“My experience at the Chania Book Festival was exceptional. The audience is always so warm and receptive.”

Vincenzo Latronico, writer

“I am very happy that this Festival is taking place in Chania, so culturally rich, so high in quality… I feel proud that it is happening here, in the city where I was born.”

Nyima Marin, writer

“I believe we managed to convey, at least to some extent, the atmosphere and the conditions that have taken shape for Palestinians. It is important for us, at this time, to take part in events that highlight the Palestinian issue, and we are grateful to you for this. Warm thanks to the organizers.”

Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian politician, academic and writer

“The Chania Book Festival was a small dream for me. Light, water, faces, words, ideas, embraces. A sweet bite of condensed life. Shared with a tribe of which I slowly feel part.”

Kyriakos Charitos, writer

“I enjoyed every moment of the events in which I participated, as well as those I managed to attend or even just glimpse. See you next year!”

Elena Maroutsou, writer

“The programme was exceptionally rich… Everything worked perfectly, the events started on time and traditional Cretan hospitality lived up to its reputation.”

Yiannis Baskozos, writer and journalist

“The Chania Book Festival has clearly succeeded in creating, away from the centre, in this atmospheric and historic city, the hive of a living community of people who gather around the ideas born from books, or around the ideas that give birth to books.”

Eleni Kechagioglou, editor and Head of Publications, Patakis Publishing

“An excellent organization that gave us the opportunity to see beloved Greek and international writers up close.”

Ioanna Petridou, Agatha Crime Fiction Festival

Acknowledgements

The Chania Book Festival extends its warm thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this year’s edition: the writers, translators, academics, journalists, artists and moderators of the events; the publishing houses; the cultural organizations and international partner institutions; the sponsors and supporters; the media sponsors; and all employees and collaborators who worked on the preparation and implementation of the Festival. Special thanks are due to the Hellenic Parliament and the Ministry of Culture for placing the Festival under their auspices.

Thanks are also extended to the journalists who responded to the Festival’s invitation and conveyed the experience of the event to thousands of readers through their reports, interviews and features; as well as to the interpreters and technicians who played a crucial role in the smooth running of the Festival. Equally warm thanks go to the volunteers, whose daily presence contributed decisively to the smooth flow of the events, the reception and guidance of the audience, the hospitality of the guests and the overall efficient operation of the Festival. Their contribution was invaluable and an integral part of the success of the 5th Chania Book Festival.

The greatest thanks, however, belong to the thousands of visitors and to the city of Chania itself, which once again warmly embraced the institution, confirming that the Chania Book Festival has become a celebration of the entire city, with steadily growing national and international resonance.

Project Team / Director: Manolis Pimblis • Cultural Programme Design: Pavlina Marvin, Kyriaki Beioglou, Manolis Pimblis • Production Management - Programme Coordination: Zoe Georgoula • Organization of Parallel Events: Kyriaki Beioglou • Communication & Public Relations: Vasilis Kimoulis • Social Media Management and Digital Content Creation: Digital Media and Strategic Communication Lab - Department of Communication and Digital Media, University of Western Macedonia, Anastasia Yannacopoulou, Assistant Professor, University of Western Macedonia. Social media team members: Sofia Stamatopoulou, Stelios Tasopoulos, Nikolena Altzerini, Gina Kromintarovska, Charis Mamoucha, Argyris Georgiadis, Chara Dimitriou, Giorgos Mitropoulos, Panagiotis Gkitsos, Konstantinos Kallinikos, Chrysanthi Markou • Technical Direction & Website Management: Lefteris Bletsas • Visual Communication: Menelaos Kouroudis - K2design • Hospitality Organization: Athena Charitaki, GoProEvents • Volunteer Coordination: Lefteris Bletsas • Design & Implementation: “Project Planning & Implementation” non-profit organization