„BOOKSTAR“ 2026
The BookStar Festival, in its 12th edition, raises the question WHY FREEDOM? or FREE AT LеAST?,inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “No one is free until we are all free.” The festival is an invitation to reflect on freedom as one of the most precious and most fragile human conditions. At a time when borders – visible and invisible – are once again emerging around us, literature remains a space where thought can move without restrictions.
Freedom in writing means the opportunity for the author to ask the question that others are afraid to say, to tell a story that presents reality from a new angle and to create a world in which diversity is not an obstacle, but an asset. This is why literature has always been a place of resistance, imagination and dialogue.
With FREE AT LеAST?,BookStar celebrates freedom in its many forms: freedom of expression, of thought, of movement, but also the freedom to be yourself. Through conversations with authors, literary readings, open discussions and festival meetings, this edition will open the topic of how literature preserves, defends and constantly rethinks the idea of freedom. Finally free? or Free at least? what does it mean, and are they really one and the same? Or, in the Macedonian context, can we take it to a local extreme and speak of “From Freedom or Death! to the Sun of Freedom!”"