#FreeAllWords: International Text and Translation Fund of the European Writers‘ Council (EWC) gives a voice to authors from Belarus and Ukraine
Brussels, 23rd April 2026
Celebrating the UNESCO World Book & Copyright Day 2026 – or:
For the EWC: The Writer as Critical Infrastructure Remembrance Day
As we celebrate the UNESCO World Book & Copyright Day, we must celebrate first and foremost the human author. Most people agree that books are carriers of the very foundation of culture, and many agree that reading them is a must for creating and sustaining dynamic and resilient citizenry of the world of tomorrow. But the books don’t just appear out of nowhere. They are the creative, artistic works of human writers and poets.
Humans make literature
If we want human-made books and literature in the future, now is the time to realise that the writer not only is nice to have in society, but is critical infrastructure. We must all agree that in the beginning is the writer. The writer is the originator, the source and the creator of what is printed as books or made into digital formats. Without the writer, no human-made literature.
The Under-Valued Creative Process
At the very foundation of human culture is the writer and their creative works. Paradoxically often economically marginalised and working under conditions of high economic uncertainty and without benefits of pension or other benefits casually bestowed upon most wage-earning citizens of Europe. The writer is first but is remunerated last.
The Main-Ressource
The writer provides the framework of human imagination itself, conceptionalises the collective, puts the contemporary into perspective and provides the first step in the materialisation of our shared imaginarium. The writer glues community into collectives and helps put ourselves in each other’s shoes. Through the writer as mediator, the world tells itself its own story.
Our poetry captures the moment, makes shared emotions reverberate and provides blocks for buildings of inner visions and versions with the reader or the listener.
The word is the world still to this day. Intimately linked to the human experience and connecting the totality of human consciousness to the individual through reading – of creative works made by human writers. Our colleagues. Our membership.
Center human writers
So, speaking of strengthening infrastructure, cultural resilience, collaboration and connection and being serious about it, as a means to empower citizenry, further participation and heighten the shared sense of democracy, must first center on including the writer as critical infrastructure.
European Writers’ Council calls out to all booklovers to help us spread the notion of The Writer as Critical Infrastructure, not only today, but every day.
PDF of EWC’ Statement on the World Book Day 2026
About the European Writers’ Council (EWC)
The EWC is the world’s largest federation of writers in the book sector and of all genres (fiction, non-fiction, academic, children’s books, poetry, etc.). With 52 organisations and professional guilds from 34 countries of the EU, the EEA and of non-EU areas, the EWC represents 250.000 writers and translators, writing and publishing altogether in 37 languages. The EWC is the world’s leading federation for the defence of book authors’ rights since 1977.