A series of activities and workshops will be held at the European Literature Day 2026. Photo coutersy of Hanoi Goethe Institute

HÀ NỘI — European Literature Days returns to major cities from May 7 to May 17 with a programme of events and guest authors from across Europe, turning the page on new cultural exchanges.

Organised by EUNIC Vietnam, the local network of European Union National Institutes for Culture, the festival reflects a shared commitment to cultural exchange, mutual understanding and artistic collaboration.

First launched in 2011, European Literature Days has grown into a key annual cultural event for Vietnamese literature audiences and a platform for dialogue between Europe and Việt Nam.

Over ten days in Hà Nội, Huế and Hồ Chí Minh City, leading voices of contemporary European literature, including Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Miku Sophie Kühmel, Rebecca Watson, Peter Simon Altmann and Thibault Clemenceau, will join Vietnamese authors, critics, scholars and readers to explore the theme The Distance Between Us: Loneliness and Solidarity in European Literature.

“The event goes beyond a simple cultural showcase, instead inviting audiences to engage in a dialogue with contemporary life,” said Pierre Du Ville, Head of the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation in Việt Nam and President of EUNIC Vietnam.

“Through this event, we would like to promote the diversity of European literature and culture in Europe. And hope that making people discover all that we have to offer, which is great, actually.”

The festival features four major panel discussions examining loneliness and solidarity through themes such as silence and repression, the body in urban space, identity and incompleteness and writing as an act of repair.

These conversations bring together European and Vietnamese authors, critics and scholars and are complemented by creative writing and playwriting workshops, including sessions led by European authors, offering closer exchange with emerging writers and students.

Two book exhibitions, German Children’s Picture Books and Comics and Echoes of the Present: Navigating Trauma, Tech, and Tomorrow, in special collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, will take place from May 8 to 10 at the Goethe-Institut Hanoi.

A curated selection of German children’s picture books and comics will be on display, including 33 contemporary German-language titles recommended by the Frankfurt Book Fair and 15 German picture books published in Việt Nam by Kim Đồng Publishing House and Crabit Kidbooks, showcased at the Goethe-Institut library.

Echoes of the Present: Navigating Trauma, Tech and Tomorrow will feature the 2025 German Book Prize and Non-Fiction Award longlists, a graphic novel selection and unpublished Vietnamese translations in progress.

Held annually, the Frankfurt Book Fair is one of the world’s most important international trade fairs for publishing and content, spanning novels, children’s books and scientific databases.

The fair is a major cultural event that attracts literature enthusiasts and turns Frankfurt into a global media hub each October.

In the past, Việt Nam had only one representative from the Ministry of Information, now the Ministry of Culture, according to Claudia Kaiser, Vice President for Business Development at Frankfurt Book Fair.

“The presence is much better now, much better. So we now have, it’s still mostly organisations, but Kim Đồng Publisher, there are chairs,” said Kaiser at a press conference on May 6 at the Goethe-Institut Hanoi.

“We created an Asia stage at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where we only talk about topics in Asia. So do we know a lot of Vietnamese authors? We don’t know enough and we need more translations of Vietnamese literature, and we need more support for those. European organisations have translation funding programmes, and we really hope that Việt Nam would also have such a programme that would really help. You need to present your authors, and we are very happy to help and support you.”

The 2026 edition will also experiment with new participatory and site-responsive formats, including an evening reading walk in Hà Nội that invites audiences to encounter literary texts across different urban spaces. Participants will rotate between stations throughout the evening on May 9 from 7pm to 10pm to listen to Vietnamese artists reading literary works.

Such formats aim to extend the literary experience beyond conventional venues and connect literature more closely with the rhythms and spaces of the city. — VNS