The festival's program is divided into literary events, book premieres, and political discussions. A day of the festival is also dedicated to graphic novels. Since 2002, internationally renowned guest authors of the ilb have voluntarily visited Berlin prisons during the festival to read from their books and discuss them with inmates. Since 2005, there have been annual collaborations with Science Year, an initiative by the
Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Since 2019, the ilb has cooperated with the Cluster of Excellence "Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective" at the
Free University of Berlin. At all events, texts are presented by the authors in the language they were written, followed by a German translation, which are performed by actors. A discussion between the presenter, author and audience typically follows each reading. In November 2015, the Berlin International Literature Festival published an appeal to support
Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian-Saudi Arabian poet imprisoned and lashed for
apostasy, with a Worldwide Reading on 14 January 2016. Every year, the ilb opens with a celebratory opening event. The opening speakers for each year have been: •
Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (2024) •
Francesca Melandri (2023) •
David van Reybrouck (2022) •
Leïla Slimani (2021) •
Mario Vargas-Llosa (2020) •
Petina Gappah (2019) •
Eva Menasse (2018) •
Elif Shafak (2017) •
César Aira (2016) •
Javier Marías (2015) •
Pankaj Mishra (2014) •
Taiye Selasi (2013) •
Liao Yiwu (2012) •
Tahar Ben Jelloun (2011) •
Juan Goytisolo (2010) •
Arundhati Roy (2009) •
Nancy Huston (2008) •
David Grossman (2007) •
Édouard Glissant (2006) •
Carlos Fuentes (2005) •
Antjie Krog (2004) •
Shashi Tharoor (2003) •
Dževad Karahasan (2002) •
Charles Simic (2001). == ==