Chania Book Festival
The ambition of the Chania Book Festival is to become an annual institution, gathering contemporary Greek literature and intellectual thought, while also having an international character with invitations to significant foreign authors, academics, and intellectuals.
The festival will focus on books of all kinds: prose, poetry, essays, children's books, and all genres without limitations.
Not only book presentations will take place at the festival, but also discussions on current thematic axes from the fields of literature, society, international politics, and more.
The nature of the festival is purely festive. There is no book exhibition; only the books of the invited authors are sold at relevant points within the festival spaces, in collaboration with interested bookstores in the city.
The goal is to extend the festival throughout the city of Chania, with readings and events taking place in bookstores, libraries, as well as open spaces so that gradually, during the festival days, the city will come alive for it.
A deeper goal is to expand the love for reading, familiarizing everyone with the object of "book," so that it becomes part of the daily lives of as many citizens as possible.
In a complex era, we organize a festival with individual existence in mind. The person who seeks points of balance but struggles to find them amidst the whirlwind of information, ongoing events, diverse advertising and propaganda, conflicting stimuli. The book, knowledge, genuine democratic dialogue, and entertainment are elements that offer balance, give strength to the person with sensitive antennas, the one who feels uncomfortable in the realm of appearances, enabling them to gain self-confidence, to stand on their own feet. Even more so when such individuals, who are many yet also alone, gather together somewhere in a creative atmosphere, a different atmosphere, it generates uplift, produces power and hope. This is the value of a festival. The creation of another world within the known world, the fusion of individual existential struggle with collective vision. And this has a deeper existential, social, and political significance."
Project Team
Director: Manolis Pimplis
Cultural Program Managers: Pavlina Marvin, Kiriaki Beioglou, Manolis Pimplis
Press Office and Communication • Production Execution: Vassilis Kimoulis
Coordinator of Parallel Events: Kiriaki Beioglou
Hospitality Manager: Athina Charitaki, Go Pro Events
Technology and Website Consultant - Volunteer Team Coordinator: Lefteris Bletsas
Art Director: Menelaos Kouroudis - K2design
Social Media Management and Digital Content Creation: Digital Media and Strategic Communication Lab - Department of Communication and Digital Media, University of Western Macedonia, Coordinator: Anastasia Yannacopoulou, Assistant Professor
The Chania Book Festival is organized by the Municipality of Chania in co-organization with the Region of Crete and with the cooperation of cultural organizations and institutions, as well as bookstores of the city.
