Book Fairs

While exhibitors were preparing for the official start of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday, the opening press conference on Tuesday morning—featuring speeches by German Publishers and Booksellers Association chair Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Frankfurt Buchmesse director Juergen Boos, and Turkish author Elif Shafak—foreshadowed what will likely be topics of discussion across the event—politics, global conflict, and technology. Schmidt-Frederichs noted that diversity has always been part of the fair, and that it is “an event where clear distinction is made between fact and fiction,” “where debate is cultivated, freedom of opinion is practiced.” While she did not reference the US election or […]

Jerusalem International Book Forum (JIBF) has postponed its 2024 event until next year. At a virtual meeting for the Forum and the Zev Birger Editorial Fellowship, JIBF director Sharon Katz spoke briefly about the postponement. “Unfortunately, as most of you know, [the Forum] can only happen in May 2025,” he said. “After a long wait, we realized that for the JIBF to take place in the safe and prosperous environment it deserves, we would have to wait for next year.” The dates of the 2025 event have not yet been announced. JIBF chairperson and former director Yoel Makov concluded the […]

Frankfurt Book Fair concluded over the weekend, with overall trade attendance rising to 105,000 (up from 93,000 in 2022), a continuing rebound since the pandemic. (Our standard reminder: Their count is not what it seems. FBF tallies visits or scans rather than unique individuals. So the three trade days averaged 35,000 visits a day. Many of those were likely the same people, on multiple days.) What was supposed to be a celebration of the fair’s 75th year was ultimately politically fraught. In the halls of the convention center the conflict in the Middle East was inescapable, sometimes with messy outcomes. […]

The Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off on Tuesday, and it was clear from the beginning–and even from the days leading up to it–that the unofficial theme would be the crisis in the Middle East. At the opening press conference on Tuesday morning, held in a larva-shaped pod in the fairgrounds courtyard, keynote speaker journalist Gaia Vince talked about climate catastrophe and global migration, but the first English language question from the press was about the controversy surrounding Palestinian author Adania Shibli. Since organizers announced last Friday that a celebration for Shibli’s book had been cancelled by the prize organizers and […]