Running September 26-29 this year, the annual Göteborg Book Fair has South Korea as Guest of Honour, and the Korean Publishers Association has shared some of the delights lined up.
With 90,000 visitors expected the Göteborg Book Fair (Gothenburg Book Fair) is the largest cultural event in Scandinavia, and this year has the themes “Gender Equality” and “Media and Information Literacy.”
The South Korean delegation, marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sweden and South Korea,
will host a slew of events that include exhibitions, seminars and talks with Korean writers under the theme of “Human and Humanity.” The 171-square-meter Korean Pavilion will display 131 kinds of books, with 77 of them related to several sub-themes, including “The Human Condition in Korean Society,” “Social-Historical Public Trauma,” “Feminism In Korean Literature and Its Future” and “Peace on the Korean Peninsula and the Future of Humanity.” Fifty-four kinds of popular Korean picture books will also be exhibited. Nine Korean poets and novelists, including Han Kang, the winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, will have talks with Swedish writers and journalists. Subsidiary events will include cooking and introducing Korean food. Five Korean films, including the award-winning “Burning” by Lee Chang-dong and “The Handmaiden” by Park Chan-wook, and a documentary will also be screened at Bio Roy, a theater in Gothenburg from Sept. 27-29.
Via Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
Launched in 1985 as a conference for librarians, the Göteborg Book Fair regularly attracts 85,000-90,000 visitors, and likely more would come if the 11,000 square metre centre could accommodate them. As this image from 2018 shows, it can get a bit crowded.
More than 800 exhibitors will be presenting books and services alongside the Rights Centre which claims to be the biggest rights meeting in Northern Europe.
The Bokmässan website is in Swedish and English.
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