Poland, Comics and Digital Text to Be Focus at Frankfurt Book Fair
October 17, 2000 - 0:0
FRANKFURT The Frankfurt Book Fair, the leading international forum devoted to the published word, opens its doors Wednesday with Poland the special guest country this year for the event's 52nd edition.
A prominent place is also being devoted this year, for the first time, to the comic strip. But in line with the digital times, "electronic publishing" too will be a feature of the six-day event. According to an AFP report, among personalities expected to attend the book fair is the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who is due to present the latest edition of his memoirs in Frankfurt on Thursday. But the official guest of honor is Poland, focusing on the culture of Germany's eastern neighbor.
The Nobel prize-winning Polish author Czeslav Milosz is one of the speakers at the official opening ceremony Tuesday evening.
So too is Polish Foreign Minister Vladislav Bartoszewski, along with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer. A total 6,791 exhibitors from 106 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe, will have stands set out in an area of nearly 200,000 square meters, the organizers say. They expect the total number of visitors to be around 300,000.
last year, when there were 6,599 exhibitors, the number of visitors was about 290,000. Comic strips will get recognition in Frankfurt this year as both an intrinsically valid and commercially important literary art form going well beyond the traditional children's comics.
It has already been decided to devote a part of the annual fair to comic strips in 2001 and 2002 too. The Frankfurt Book Fair 2000 will be a forum of debate for questions raised by the digital revolution, such as the implications for intellectual property and commercial rights through the transmission and trade of text over the Internet. In addition to "On-line" considerations, the book fair will this year for the first time see the award of a prize for the best "electronic book". Software giant Microsoft is providing the $100,000 prize money for the "Frankfurt Book Award". Retail price policy for conventional books too is to be discussed in Frankfurt. This is an issue in Germany, where abolition of retail price maintenance is on the agenda, raising fears among smaller booksellers for their livelihood.
A traditional event at the international book fair is the award of the peace prize given by the German publishers and booksellers association. This year it was going to the Algerian novelist and filmmaker Assia Djebar, in a ceremony Sunday. The plight of writers in prison is also scheduled to be aired by the German Pen Club for writers and German book trade representatives. Poland will be represented by some 100 publishers and 70 authors, some of whom will give talks or readings of their work.
These are expected to include the 1996 Nobel Literature Prize laureate, Vislava Szymborska, and the former journalist Ryzsard Kapuscinski whose travel articles have been successfully translated into English. The fair will also feature the music of Polish composers, Polish theater and cinema, or the political struggle of the solidarity movement, as well as Polish literature. In addition to being a speaker at the opening of the fair, Polish Foreign Minister Bartoszewski has written the preface to a new book "Fuer Eure and Unsere Freiheit (for your and our freedom)", by the German social scientist Eva Feldmann, which aims to promote German understanding of Polish society, culture and identity.
A prominent place is also being devoted this year, for the first time, to the comic strip. But in line with the digital times, "electronic publishing" too will be a feature of the six-day event. According to an AFP report, among personalities expected to attend the book fair is the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who is due to present the latest edition of his memoirs in Frankfurt on Thursday. But the official guest of honor is Poland, focusing on the culture of Germany's eastern neighbor.
The Nobel prize-winning Polish author Czeslav Milosz is one of the speakers at the official opening ceremony Tuesday evening.
So too is Polish Foreign Minister Vladislav Bartoszewski, along with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer. A total 6,791 exhibitors from 106 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe, will have stands set out in an area of nearly 200,000 square meters, the organizers say. They expect the total number of visitors to be around 300,000.
last year, when there were 6,599 exhibitors, the number of visitors was about 290,000. Comic strips will get recognition in Frankfurt this year as both an intrinsically valid and commercially important literary art form going well beyond the traditional children's comics.
It has already been decided to devote a part of the annual fair to comic strips in 2001 and 2002 too. The Frankfurt Book Fair 2000 will be a forum of debate for questions raised by the digital revolution, such as the implications for intellectual property and commercial rights through the transmission and trade of text over the Internet. In addition to "On-line" considerations, the book fair will this year for the first time see the award of a prize for the best "electronic book". Software giant Microsoft is providing the $100,000 prize money for the "Frankfurt Book Award". Retail price policy for conventional books too is to be discussed in Frankfurt. This is an issue in Germany, where abolition of retail price maintenance is on the agenda, raising fears among smaller booksellers for their livelihood.
A traditional event at the international book fair is the award of the peace prize given by the German publishers and booksellers association. This year it was going to the Algerian novelist and filmmaker Assia Djebar, in a ceremony Sunday. The plight of writers in prison is also scheduled to be aired by the German Pen Club for writers and German book trade representatives. Poland will be represented by some 100 publishers and 70 authors, some of whom will give talks or readings of their work.
These are expected to include the 1996 Nobel Literature Prize laureate, Vislava Szymborska, and the former journalist Ryzsard Kapuscinski whose travel articles have been successfully translated into English. The fair will also feature the music of Polish composers, Polish theater and cinema, or the political struggle of the solidarity movement, as well as Polish literature. In addition to being a speaker at the opening of the fair, Polish Foreign Minister Bartoszewski has written the preface to a new book "Fuer Eure and Unsere Freiheit (for your and our freedom)", by the German social scientist Eva Feldmann, which aims to promote German understanding of Polish society, culture and identity.