10th Tbilisi International Festival of Literature

On September 19 to 23, 2025 Tbilisi will host the International Festival of Literature for the tenth time. 19 international authors from 15 countries will be the guests of this years' festival.

The Tbilisi International Festival of Literature marks its tenth edition this year, unfolding in an unprecedented and challenging context. For almost a year, many writers and readers in Georgia have stood in continuous protest. Today, the country counts around sixty political prisoners, including poet Zviad Ratiani and journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli.

The 2025 festival theme – Pen Against Silence – speaks directly to the realities of contemporary Georgia. It explores silence as a metaphor for acquiescence to forces that suppress, restrict, and destroy free thought; silence as fear in the face of repression, censorship, and violence; silence as conformity and self-censorship; and silence as the refusal to fight, to stand in solidarity, and to defend the oppressed.

The pen - a timeless symbol of resistance through words - stands here as literature's uncompromising answer to such enforced quiet.

Founded in 2015 at the Writer's House of Georgia, the Tbilisi International Festival of Literature has become an essential part of Georgia's cultural landscape and a unique event in the Caucasus. Over the past nine years, the festival has welcomed nearly 200 authors from more than 40 countries and staged over 300 cultural and educational events.

In 2024, the festival was organized under the auspices of PEN Georgia – an advocate for freedom of expression and the rights of writers, journalists, and artists. This marked the start of a new chapter for the Festival: staged without state involvement, in alternative spaces, yet with undiminished spirit.

We hope this milestone festival will be remembered as a bold, inspiring moment in Georgia's literary history, and as part of the nation's continuing struggle for freedom.

10 th Tbilisi International Festival of Literature is presented by @Goethe-Institut Georgien

Partner of Festival: @Versopolis

Supporters of the Festival:
TBC Bank, Polish Institute, Danish Cultural Institute, French Institute, Heinrich Boell Stiftung South Caucasus, Embassy of Italy in Georgia, Embassy of Denmark in Georgia, Office of the Embassy of Spain in Georgia, Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia, Latvian Literature, Literature Ireland, Icelandic Literature
Czech Literary Centre, Magazine Kartuli Mtserloba, Magazine Indigo, Radio Fee Liberty, Movement Theatre.

The Tbilisi International Literary Festival is fully responsible for the content of the program, and it may not reflect the views of presenting, partner, and supporting organizations.