The sixth Tbilisi International Festival of Literature (TIFL) will be held in Tbilisi on October 17-24. The festival has been held annually since 2015. The only exception was 2020, when due to the pandemic, several online discussions were held. 

Tbilisi International Festival of Literature is organized and hosted by the Writers’ House. This year's festival will be held within the frames of the UNESCO project "Tbilisi - World Book Capital".

Tbilisi International Festival of Literature will officially open on October 17. The main theme of this year’s program is the city as a symbol associated with the American poet and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The festival program will allocate a special place to his work.

The TIFL 2021 Literary Program is divided into several stages.

The first part of the festival includes poetry evenings and discussions about the role of literature in social and political activism. Participants in this part of the program will be mostly authors the post-Soviet space.

The authors participating in the events of October 17-19 are: two Belarusian poets Yulia Timofeeva and Alherd Bakharievich (currently the residents of the Graz International Residency Program); Alexei Tsvetkov - Russian-speaking dissident poet (currently living in Israel); Lyuba Yakimchuk - a young Ukrainian poet; Rasim Garaja - Azerbaijani poet, translator and publisher; Vahe Arsen - Armenian poet and translator; Anastasia Levkova – a resident of the Writers' House, a participant of an exchange residency program organized jointly with the project - Tbilisi - World Book Capital.

The activities of this part of the program are:

• Poetry evenings;

• Poetic performances;

• Literary discussions on various topics: the life and work of writers in war and totalitarian regimes; Resistance to Russian occupation in Georgian and Ukrainian literary space.

On October 19, 20 and 21, the festival will host Georgian authors. Discussions will be held on the three cities (Tbilisi, Gori and Kutaisi) and the symbolism associated with them in literature.

The participants of the final part of the festival are: American science fiction writer Blake Crouch; fiction developmental editor and creative writing lecturer Jacqueline Ben-Zekry; Argentine novelist Ariana Harwitz; Lebanese writer Iman Humaydan, living in Paris; Sudanese poet Tariq al-Tayyib, living in Vienna; Swiss poet and performer Heike Fiedler and French poet Aurelia Lasac (an author invited through the Versopolis Poetry Platform).

The final part of the program will be dedicated to the following events:

• Authors’ meetings with readers;

• Literary discussions on various topics: writing in several languages; the difference between the writer's internal isolation and forced isolation; the role of the editor in creating a fiction text.

• Literary Workshop by Blake Crouch and Jacqueline Ben-Zeker for students and novice authors.

• An evening dedicated to the work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Public reading of the poet's poems and translations and film screening.

The festival is supported by: the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia; UNESCO project Tbilisi - World Book Capital; Tbilisi City Hall; Embassy of the United States in Georgia; Embassy of Israel in Georgia; European Poetry Platform Versopolis Poetry; Multimedia platform Indigo.