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The 75th anniversary edition of the International Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main took place from 18-22 October. It is the most important event of the book industry in the world. This year, Poland showcased in Frankfurt for the 25th time, and the Polish stand was traditionally prepared by the Book Institute.
The Frankfurt event celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary this year and was held under the motto 'And the story goes on'. The anniversary edition of the fair attracted as many as 215,000 visitors (including 105,000 trade visitors and 110,000 readers) and 4,000 exhibitors from 95 countries worldwide. The event featured a total of 2,600 different events covered by 7,000 media representatives. The fair is designed as an industry event and festival and hosts around 4,000 exhibitors from all over the world every year. The first two days of the Frankfurter Buchmesse are aimed exclusively at representatives of the publishing industry, while the weekend features events for readers as well. The organisers reported that this second, festival part of the event was attended by 30 per cent more visitors this year than last year.
The Book Institute organised a stand of 200m2. Foreign audiences were presented with books from the "New Books from Poland 2023" catalogue. As every year, Frankfurt also hosted the premiere of the "Polish Book Market" report, providing the industry audience with knowledge of our domestic book market.
In the Polish stand space, foreign publishers were informed about the Book Institute's programmes aimed at them, including the flagship ©Poland Translation Programme, which aims to promote Polish literature around the world by financially supporting the publication of Polish books translated into foreign languages. In all editions of the programme, the Book Institute has already subsidised a total of more than 3,000 translations of Polish books into foreign languages. In Germany alone, more than 40 translations of works of Polish literature are published each year.
At this year's Frankfurt Book Fair, the Book Institute organised three meetings with Polish authors. The central focus of two of them was Witold Szabłkowski and his book Rosja od kuchni ("Die Köche es Kreml” [“What's Cooking in the Kremlin”]). They took place on Saturday and Sunday at 12 noon in Buchmesse Halle 3.1. A promotional meeting for the book Marek Kamiński. Jak zdobyć bieguny Ziemi (“Eis!: Nordpol und Südpol in einem Jahr” [”Marek Kamiński. How to Conquer the Poles of the Earth. In a Year"]) nominated for the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2023, attended by Agata Loth-Iganciuk and Bartłomiej Ignaciuk and the book's protagonist Marek Kaminski, took place on Saturday.
At the Polish collective stand, a record number of 47 exhibitors from the publishing industry presented their offer, including: GW Foksal, Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry, Wydawnictwo Agora, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Opolgraf, Mamy dla Mamy, Dom Wydawniczy REBIS, Wydawnictwo Tatarak, Wydawnictwo Nowe, Domirea, inkBOOK, BOSZ, Narodowe Centrum Kultury, Helion, Glossa, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, DTagency, Grupa Zaczytani, Media Rodzina, Nasza Księgarnia, Ezop, Widnokrąg, Wydawnictwo Literatura, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Dressler, BZGRaf, MTK Warszawa, Zielona Sowa, Poradnia K, Polish Your Kitchen, UAM, Publicat SA, Wydawnictwo Bernardinum, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, OZGraf, MCK, Marpress, Dzika Małpa, Druganoga, Muchomor, Powergraph, Makami, Karakter, Relacja, Znak, Interak, Natuli.
This year's Frankfurt International Book Fair also marked the tenth anniversary of the Albrecht Lempp Scholarship, a support programme for Polish and German writers and translators run jointly by the Book Institute, the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation and the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Polish stand was decorated with a poster designed by Piotr Depta-Kleśta depicting previous scholarship winners. Scholarship recipients over the past decade have included Tomasz Różycki, Zyta Rudzka, Jakub Małecki and Małgorzata Rejmer - along with German translators, of course.
Slovenia was the Guest of Honour at this year's Frankfurt International Book Fair. Next year, Italy will present itself in this capacity.