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The 2019 Frankfurt International Book Fair just ended and saw the number of visitors hitting a new record of more than 300,000, according to its organizer. The International Book Fair was an extremely busy place – situated in several huge buildings. Hundreds of publishers from Canada showed their books off at the fair – next year the country will be the “Guest of Honour” in Frankfurt.
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Olga Tokarczuk
Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was named the winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature and Tokarczuk had been added to the opening press conference at Frankfurter Buchmesse. She has seen a wave of literary recognition in the past year. She won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize for “Flights”. Tokarczuk is one of only 15 women to win the Nobel Prize in Literature!
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Charming Presentation
The best presentation in Frankfurt had Austria – not only due to free coffee, cookies, namely “Manner Schnitten” which were offered freely. They showcased very interesting books, not only novels and memoirs of famous Austrians but also non-fiction books about climate change, organic agriculture, etc. Everyone at their booth was friendly and charming, just the way the Austrians are. I lived in the country for many years and I had been missing their way of life a lot in North America.
From children’s books about reducing plastic to tips for zero-waste cooking, the climate crisis was dominating this year’s Frankfurt book fair.
7,400 Exhibitors from 104 Countries and Regions!
Besides the publishers and publishing organizations, printing companies, translators, editors, book cover designers, print-on-demand companies, agents, audiobook and podcast producers, book agents, voiceover artists, and many more organizations that are dedicated to all kinds of books had a presence.
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Chinese Art Exhibition
The installation “China Through Time” was brought to an overseas book fair for the first time and was an eye-catching project at the book fair’s THE ARTS+ exhibition area. It was a wonderful example of the effort to showcase the arts through new technologies.
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Margaret Atwood
“No”, the voices of women are not loud enough yet – Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood was talking about feminism at the Literary Gala – and said: “Wars are always especially bad for women and women’s rights”.
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International License Dealers
With 355 agencies from 35 countries, approximately as many companies as in the previous year have registered at the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre. They had plenty of books in their luggage to talk about. If the deals announced from the USA in recent days are a barometer, the mood among American exhibitors is clearly on the upswing.
The new “Frankfurt Audio”, an area of more than 600 square meters for audiobook publishers and streaming platforms, debuted at this year’s book fair, putting a spotlight on one of the media industry’s fastest-growing segment worldwide. It’s all about audio! The Frankfurt Audio Summit on 17 October, 2 pm – 5 pm, addressed the biggest trends and challenges in audio markets worldwide. Speakers included Michael Krause from Spotify, Michele Cobb from the Audio Publishers Association and Bradley Metrock from Score Publishing.
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Highlights of Some of the Most Interesting Author Presentations:
Colson Whitehead
With his novel “The Underground Railroad” about the secret escape network of slaves during the U.S. colonial era, Colson Whitehead not only headed the NYT bestseller list for weeks but also won the renowned Pulitzer Prize. His new novel “The Nickel Boys” is also about deep-rooted racism in American society. During the Frankfurt International Book Fair Whitehead gave signings and interviews.
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Reinhold Messner
He is the most famous mountaineer in the world. He was the first person to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders, including Mount Everest without oxygen for the first time.
His new book “Der Eispapst – Die Akte Welzenbach” is a homage to a mountaineer who was not interested in power or ideology, but in joie de vivre and self-expression. Messner signed on Saturday in different halls and on Sunday morning he appeared in the event area “Save the Mountains”.
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Nele Neuhaus
With her Taunus crime thrillers about the investigators Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, Nele Neuhaus has gained the hearts of her readers. Her novels regularly conquer the bestseller lists, the film adaptations reach an audience of millions. She has signed at several book events at the fair.
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Soon my feet were burning from hours and hours of walking through all the Fair halls. It is a huge affair, indeed! Wi-Fi is not only offered at the fairground and halls but also in all subways, trains, and streetcars in Hamburg.
The next Frankfurt Book Fair (Buchmesse) 2020 will be staged between the 14th to 18th of October – come and see yourself this wonderful event!
More Photo Impressions from Frankfurt and the World’s Largest Literary Meeting:
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