#AlShorfa / Salon du Livre / #LeCaire Culture et Innovation : La Foire internationale du livre du Caire ouvrira la semaine prochaine ************* By Waleed Abu al-Khair Readers across the Arab world are eagerly anticipating the opening of the 46th Cairo International Book Fair, scheduled to be held this year from January 28th-February 12th. The slogan for this years fair is Culture and Innovation and the first day will be limited to special guests, with doors opening to the public the very next day, said Mahmoud Junaid, a member of the fairs organising committee and supervisor at the General Book Authority. Saudi Arabia will be this years guest of honour as the Saudi wing has been expanded to 4,000 square metres to accommodate for all scheduled activities, he told Al-Shorfa. Fair organisers this year chose to honour the religious scholar Sheikh Mohammed Abdu (1849-1905), as he was a man of enlightenment who called for innovation in the modern age, Junaid said. Choosing Abdu also came in response to extremist thinking promoted by terrorist and extremist groups that damage the Muslim faith and distort its image, he said. Focusing on Abdus intellectual work will give a chance for the promotion of contemporary and correct Islamic ideas, far from extremism and terrorism, he added. ENCOURAGING READING This years fair will include a range of cultural activities, which will be held at cultural centres such as the Opera House, among other venues, Junaid said. The activities will be organised by the fairs management as well as the General Book Authority, which has adopted a project called A Book For You, to be launched at the start of the fair, he said. This project encourages people to give books as gifts to one another, he said. It also holds a competition to determine the best book published in 2014 by Egyptians writing in such genres as politics, novels, the short story, poetry -- in both colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic -- literary criticism, the social sciences, art, childrens literature and science, he said. In addition, Junaid said, a large number of Arab authors and intellectuals will speak at several seminars and hold book signings, with this years focus being on combating terrorism from a cultural perspective through seminars designed for this purpose. Mahmoud Izz al-Arab, head of publishing and distribution at an Egyptian publishing house, told Al-Shorfa that the majority of publishing houses will be heading in one of two directions this year in order to increase sales. The first focus will be on publications about political Islam and terrorism, particularly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and I expect high demand for such titles as readers want more information about this group in light of the dearth of such publications, he said. As for the second direction, it will come in the form of novels and story collections published by young authors due to increasing interest in such categories among younger people, he said. Al-Arab described the Cairo Book Fair as one of the most important Arabic cultural fairs and a great opportunity for all those working in the cultural world including authors, publishers, stakeholders and readers. The Cairo International Book Fair is known for its massive size, which extends over 70 thousand square metres including indoor and outdoor exhibitions, he said. This year, the fairs management will increase the share of Arab publishing houses to more than 30% in an attempt to increase its cultural diversity, he added. However, he said, some Arab countries may have limited participation due to security conditions in these countries, such as Iraq, Libya and Syria. This will diminish the beautiful flavour of the fair since publishing houses in these countries gave us unique titles that are important to Arab readers, al-Arab said. INTEREST IN DIVERSITY Najat al-Dreimi, a mother of two who works at a tourism company in Egypt, said she awaits the opening of the book fair every year. This year, she told Al-Shorfa, she will visit the fair with her husband and two children so they can get used to such an atmosphere, especially since her children can enjoy activities for their age group there. She said she is putting together a list of books to buy at the fair as prices there are lower in comparison to bookshops, thus allowing her to purchase more books. Al-Dreimi said her interests this year will vary between childrens books and recently-published titles about extremist groups in addition to last years novels. al-shorfa/en_GB/articles/meii/features/2015/01/22/feature-02
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 05:28:44 +0000
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