Tbilisi International Festival of Literature

Founded by the Writers’ House of Georgia in 2015, the Tbilisi International Festival of Literature (TIFL) has become a key part of the country’s literary landscape. As a unique event in the Caucasus region, the festival also fosters a range of cultural activities that are helping to transform Tbilisi into a regional cultural hub.Tbilisi International Festival of Literature is a unique event that, over the course of a single week, brings together Georgian and international literature, offering the public access to literary works through both entertainment and educational programs. The festival stands out for its broad impact across related fields. It creates valuable opportunities for contemporary authors, literary critics, scholars, and translators to engage in the vibrant and ever-evolving landscape of international literary exchange. TIFL maintains strong ties with literary journals, magazines, publishers, and educational institutions. Each year, the festival attracts influential cultural figures from around the world.Throughout ten years, TIFL has hosted up to 230 authors from more than 45 countries, organized 350 events with participation of the writers, poets, moderators, translators and other literary professionals; it contributed to book promotions and presentations, magazine publications, created digital archive and number of artistic video-interviews with the authors. The festival stage has hosted a number of important authors including Charles Bernstein, Michael Palmer, Blake Crouch, DBC Pierre, Etgar Keret, Serhiy Zhadan, Melania Mazzucco, Vera Pavlova, Nino Kharatisvhili, Leo Vardiashvili, Victor Erofeyev, Bernhard Schlink, Yurii Andrukhovych, Tomas Venclova, Katja Petrowskaja, Bob Holman, Denver Butson, Pauline Picot, Lev Rubinstein, Ariana Harwicz, Dmitry Bykov, Krzystof Czyżewski, Daneil Wisser, Lyuba Yakimchuk, Arne Swingen, Vigdis Hjorth, and many others.Over the past two years, significant shifts have taken place in the cultural landscape as a result of political interventions by the ruling party. These changes have deeply impacted cultural and artistic processes. In an effort to preserve the independence and integrity of creative expression, the literature festival took an important step in 2024. For the first time, the event was organized under the umbrella of PEN Georgia, a prominent advocate for freedom of expression and literary values. PEN Georgia was the organizer of the TIFL 2025 edition, too.