To IBBY Members

To everyone connected to the field of children’s literature, to everyone who loves children's books, creates and publishes them, to everyone who studies children's reading and puts into practice new programmes and methods, from the organizers of the 37th IBBY World Congress. 

Children's books continue to delight young readers, especially at a time when the pandemic is raging all over the world. We are pleased to announce that the long-awaited 37th IBBY World Congress will take place in Moscow on

September 10-12, 2021

The pandemic situation in the Russian Federation is gradually stabilizing, although some sanitary restrictions are still in effect. However, museums, libraries, theatres, and other cultural institutions are now working as normal; the restaurants and cafes are open, and leisure activities, educational and sports events have resumed.

The International Fair of Intellectual Literature “Non/fiction” has been recently held with great success. You can get an impression of what today's Moscow looks like from a video specially prepared by us.

Russian children's book lovers, researchers and publishers are looking forward to seeing everyone for whom children’s literature is a part of life. For those who for various reasons cannot come to Moscow at the beginning of autumn, the organizers of the Congress have made it possible to participate in all events of the programme online, both as speakers and as remote participants.

The Congress opening ceremony, events of a rich scientific programme, the IBBY-Asahi and the IBBY-iRead awards ceremonies will be held in the very centre of Moscow – at the sites of the Digital Business Space. The scientific programme of the Congress includes oral sessions, lectures by famous writers, illustrators and specialists in children's books. 270 specialists from 54 countries of the world will present their papers!

The festive Hans Christian Andersen Award ceremony and Gala Dinner will be held in front of the Moscow Kremlin, in one of the most famous and beautiful historical buildings of the capital – in one of the buildings of the Russian State Library.

Specially for the Congress, the organizers, together with foreign partners and the IBBY Secretariat, are preparing impressive expositions. All participants will be able to see the exhibition ‘Laureates and nominees of the H.C. Andersen Award 2020’, the IBBY Honour List, works by the winners of the Biennial of Illustrations in Bratislava (BIB 2019), etc. All exhibitions will be also presented in the digital format.

Key events of the Congress will be translated into English, Spanish and Russian, and for the first time also into Chinese and Arabic.

During the Congress, the 34th Moscow International Book Fair (September 8-12, 2021), the largest event in the Russian book industry, will take place in Moscow. Traditionally, more than 300 publishers from more than 30 countries of the world take part in the fair, and more than 100 thousand people attend its events. On September 9, a special programme for the guests of the Congress will be organized at the fair: meetings with popular Russian writers, leading specialists in the book industry, librarians, etc. as well as autograph sessions, round tables, a special exhibition of the best books of Russian publishing houses specializing in the children's literature, and much more.

Realizing the complexity of the pandemic and economic situation in the world, we decided to make the Congress more accessible and so we have updated the system of participant fees. The range of fees for foreign participants is based on the IBBY dues categories:

participation in the offline programme

1-4 category - 400 €

5-7 category - 200 €

category 8 - free

participation in the online programme

1-4 category - 200 €

5-7 category - 100 €

category 8 - free

Note! Important information:

– participants from Georgia, Ukraine and the Baltic States are exempt from the registration fee;

– for all cultural institutions (libraries, foundations, associations of artists, writers and publishers, etc.), online access to all events of the Congress will be provided for one registration fee for all employees.

We hereby invite you to register for the Congress events starting from May 1! Please note that the historical hall of the Pashkov House, which will host the Hans Christian Award ceremony and Gala Dinner, can accommodate no more than 200 guests. Therefore, a separate registration is open to participate in this event. The ticket price for the HCAA gala dinner is 80 Euro.

We will assist all Congress participants in obtaining a free humanitarian visa to Russia. If you need a visa to enter Russia, please, do not forget to tick the corresponding box on the registration page. You can get this type of visa at the nearest Russian consulate.

For those who wish to stay in Russia after the end of the Congress or plan to arrive some days earlier, we have prepared cultural and professional tours – from St. Petersburg, Vladimir and Suzdal to Yakutia and Buryatia. We invite you to get acquainted with the programmes and prices on the Congress website. We also suggest you to check the new offers for accommodation options in Moscow.

The Organizing Committee of the Congress expresses its sincere gratitude to the specialists of the Programme Committee for their excellent work in organizing the scientific programme of the Congress. We would like to thank the IBBY Secretariat and the IBBY Executive Committee for their assistance in preparing the Congress.

We are grateful to all the colleagues who have sent papers for inclusion in the scientific programme. We have no doubt that our programme will be of interest to the world children’s book community. Your suggestions, wishes, words of support in a difficult pandemic situation help us a lot in our work!

We have no doubt that an interesting, bright, significant event awaits all of us! It is going to be a real holiday of children's book.

See you in Moscow!

Please share this exciting news with your members and others who are interesting in attending the 37th IBBY World Congress.

Organizing Committee of the 37th IBBY World Congress