News

With the support of International Charity Foundation Cartu,byorganizing of Georgian National Book Center and Georgian Publishers and Booksellers Association, Georgia was presented with renewed and diverse program at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016. Due to intensive planning activities regarding Georgian Presentation as Guest of Honor Country at Frankfurt Book Fair 2018, Georgian program during current yearwas mainly focused on business meetings. Georgian program at FBF 2016 was implemented with the support of International Charity Foundation Cartu, German online store of Georgian wines Georgian Products and The Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.

A Business Breakfast was held on the initiative of Georgian National Book Center into the framework of the book fair. Preliminary registered 40 German, Italian, French, British and up to 10 Georgian publishersattended and participated into the Business Breakfast.

The director of Georgian National Book Center, Medea Metreveli delivered to the guestsnew catalogues prepared by the center (Books from Georgia 2016, Children’s Books from Georgia 2016, Georgian Book Market Research 2016) and made a presentation about the activities of the center for the current year. The head of the Georgian Publishers and Booksellers AssociationGvantsaJobava discussed Georgian publishing market, while representatives of Georgian Publishing houses (Palitra L, Karchkhadze Publishing, BakurSulakauri Publishing, Diogene, Books in Batumi Publishing, Intelekti) presented information about Georgian authors to the European colleagues. In order to establish new business contacts and to sell copyrights, various personal meetings and face-to-face negotiations were held.

Georgian Fiction in 30 Minutes– a discussion about the Georgian classic and contemporary literature ¬¬was held at the Georgian National Stand. The moderator of the discussion was a well-known German publisher, journalist and art critic Barbara Widle. Speaker of the event was a Georgian translator and playwright Davit Gabunia, who presented information about Georgian authors and their works to foreign publishers, critics and literary agents.

Georgian publishers also participated in the round table meetings with children’s book publishersof Leipzig and Frankfurt Book Fair Guest of Honour Countries. The Georgian and Romanian publishers discussed the children’s book market and presented their publications to the leading German publishers (Knesebeck Verlag, Loewe Verlag, RavensburgerBuchverlag, NordSüd Verlag, Magellan Verlag).

The Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia Mikheil Giorgadze and the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Alexander Jejelava attended the Frankfurt Book Fair 2016.