The Frankfurt Book Fair held its opening press conference this morning under the shadow of a controversy that has seen numerous Arab publishing associations pull out of the fair in protest of its decision to postpone the 2023 LiBeraturpreis award ceremony honoring Berlin-based Palestinian author Adania Shibli.
Since the weekend, both Indonesia and Malaysia have also pulled out of the fair, as have several Arab, Egyptian, and Muslim speakers and authors. More than 1,100 authors and publishing personalities have now signed an open letter of protest published on Arablit.org.
At the press conference, Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos and the fair’s PR team fielded several questions from the audience over the controversy, noting time and again that the situation has been “misconstrued” and that the fair is a forum for “freedom of speech.” Boos remarked that he will miss those who decided not to come and looks forward to welcoming them back at future shows.
But it was Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, chairwoman of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association), who took the lead on addressing the issue at the conference. "We are deeply shocked by the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel. We vehemently condemn this violence," she said in her opening remarks. "Our sympathy goes to all the victims of the violence in Israel and Palestine. Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, violating international law, has been raging on the edge of Europe now for a year and a half. Looking at Germany, we are concerned by the increase in popularity of extreme positions in society and the political party landscape. Debates are heating up; words are triggering waves of agitation. All around us, populism and nationalism are gaining ground at an alarming rate.”
Still, the fair would like to remind the world that the controversy over its decision to stand “with complete solidarity on the side of Israel” is not the only thing happening in Frankfurt this week. Frankfurt hopes to put the focus back on its 75th anniversary, which is happening under the motto “And the story goes on.” Schmidt-Friederichs noted that the reopening of the fair in 1949 was a sign of return to normalcy after World War II and the end of the Nazi regime. At that time, the fair quickly transformed from a local event to a hub of the international book business, with 20% of the attendees and vendors coming from outside Germany in only its second year.
Reflecting on the book business today, Schmidt-Friederichs rang a note of caution. "While revenue from book sales is up 4% for the first nine months of the year [in Germany], the overall volume of books sold is down 1.1%, and down as much as 7% from pre-pandemic levels." She emphasized that the entire book ecosystem, including writers, publishers, booksellers, and distributors, is vulnerable. “The pandemic years of store closures and canceled trade fairs, as well as the explosion in raw material and energy costs, are threatening the economic existence of small, independent publishing houses in particular,” she said. “These publishers play a decisive role in shaping the diversity of the book market by offering titles outside the mainstream and discovering new titles and writers.”
Both Schmidt-Friderichs and Boos also warned that new AI technologies threaten the integrity of copyright—something that makes the rights trade at Frankfurt, which reinforces and emphasizes respect for copyright, all the more important. They also touched on how publishing is, inevitably, a political, not merely a cultural or commercial act.
“Reading is the basis of a resilient democracy,” Schmidt-Friderichs said, adding that those who don’t read “have a weakened immune system when exposed to populist pathogens.” Boos noted that books are a “slow” medium, with numerous quality checks, arguing that this makes them an antidote to fake news.
In an effort to help create the next generation of book consumers, Germany has recently implemented a cultural voucher program awarding all 18-year-olds with €200 to spend on cultural content or products, including books and tickets to the Frankfurt Book Fair. More than 50% of the vouchers have been spent on books, Schmidt-Friderichs said.
The keynote talk at the opening press conference was given by U.K. environmentalist and author Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century (Flatiron), who discussed how climate change will become a catalyst for further nomadic immigration among populations. She noted that many people will be forced to move from untenable environments in the south to cooler climates in the north. “Migration can feel like an anomaly, but it is not,” Vince said.
Furthermore, she added, it is an opportunity, as migration is the means through which culture and knowledge travel. She cited the book fair as an example of how complete strangers come together to create something special and unique. “Frankfurt is a great fusion of human brilliance,” she said, and a true “global community.”
This year’s guest of honor nation is Slovenia, which opened its pavilion just after today’s press conference. The theme for their program is “Honeycomb of Words.”
This dovetails with Vince’s talk insofar as it describes both a self-contained society that is fed by ideas picked up on one’s travels—much in the same way a bee flies a long distance to ultimately return home to the hive with pollen or nectar. The pavilion is decorated with clouds made of lace, seating areas made of recyclable foam, bookshelves designed to reflect the Slovenian woodlands, and several presentation areas, where there is a heavy emphasis on discussion of AI and translation, in addition to Slovenian literary history.
Tonight’s opening ceremony will feature two writers from Slovenia: poet Miljana Cunta and philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
