TEHRAN – Italy as the special guest of the 30th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) has announced its programs for the event, which will open on May 3.

A group of 32 Italian cultural figures will be attending the book fair, Italian Cultural Attaché Carlo Cereti said in a press release published by the TIBF on Friday.

“Among the participating figures are novelists Michela Murgia, Alessandro Barbero, Michele Serra, Beatrice Masini and Gianni Biondillo,” Cereti said.

The director general of Italy’s Libraries and Cultural Institutes, Rossana Rummo, and Alfieri Lorenzon, Director of the Association of Italian Publishers (AIE), are also expected to attend the event, he added.

He also said that representatives from Italy’s publishing companies including Mondadori and Ponte will attend the fair.

He also explained that an exhibition of books selected from the Angelica Library in Rome will be set up at the Iran National Library and Archives (INLA) during the event under the title “Silk Road Books, From Rome to Tehran”.

Iran Cultural Fairs Institute is scheduled to publish two bibliographies introducing Iranian books in Italy and Italian books in Iran, Cereti remarked.

A number of meetings and seminars have also been arranged on the sidelines, the cultural attache said.

Italian historian, novelist and essayist Alessandro Barbero will attend a session on Thursday, while Iranian painter and art critic Aidin Aghdashlu, writer Melania Mazzucco and expert Maria Felicita Ferraro will discuss the topic “Italian Museums, Masterpieces and Their Stories” on the second day of the fair. 

The 30th edition of the book fair will open with a number of Iranian and Italian cultural figures in attendance on Wednesday, May 3.

There will be more meetings through the fair, which will be running until May 13 at the Shahr-e Aftab (Sun City) Fairground.

RM/YAW