19-23 October, Frankfurt, Germany, is hosting the traditional Book Fair, considered to be the biggest book exposition in the world. 7,500 exhibitors are taking part in this year’s edition of the forum, with 285,000 professional visitors expected to have visited the fair by the end of the week.

This year Bulgaria is represented by over 150 book publishers presenting over 300 titles, including the nominated and award-winning books of the past two years. Visitors to Bulgaria’s stand B88 in hall 4.0 will be able to get acquainted with the best of Bulgaria’s classical and modern literature.

At 11.30 AM on Sunday, 23 October, representatives of the Bulgarian Book Association, organizer of Bulgaria’s participation, will meet with children from the Bulgarian schools in Frankfurt and Mainz, and the event will end with a literary reading, part of the #LiteracyCause campaign.

“Where there is one Bulgarian there are Bulgarian books, language and culture. I believe that the literacy data from recent years we have been so worried about is a temporary occurrence which can be overcome if we spark a love of reading, and with the help of the national programme called #LiteracyCause,” Desislava Alexieva, chair of the Bulgarian Book Association said at the opening of the forum.

• Reading – a pastime young people in Bulgaria are not interested in

The Frankfurt Book Fair also provides an opportunity for meetings between book publishing professionals from Bulgaria and from other countries. The participants in the forum will discuss issues connected with online copyright, working with libraries and readers, EU legislative initiatives, and last but not least – zero rate VAT on books, as recommended by a European Commission directive earlier this year. 

Compiled by Veneta Nikolova