Frankfurt Book Fair 2006 to feature India

The Frankfurt book fair 2006 will showcase prominent Indian authors like Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Mahasveta Devi, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Javed Akhtar, and K. Jayakantan.

PRAVEENA SHIVRAM

14 March 2006
CHENNAI, INDIA

Last year, it was Korea. This year, it is India. No, we are not talking about anything to do with economic growth, business or statistics of any sort. We are talking about the world's biggest publishing event, the Frankfurt Book fair, held in Germany every year. This year, India is the featured nation. As "Guest of Honour" at the fair, the motto being "Today's India", the aim is to bring contemporary India and its culture into the International limelight. The entire year will witness a series of events, workshops, and festivals in Germany as a precursor to the actual Book Fair that will be held in October.

The Leipzig Book Fair, that is to be held this month on the 16th, will act as the starting point for a series of events to follow. Thirty eminent authors from the country have been invited to read from their works as part of the famed Leipzig Reads, the most important aspect of this Fair. This reading festival is "a festival of superlatives with more than 1,800 events, 1,500 active contributors, and about 250 venues". This reading festival has been a part of the Fair for the last 15 years now and is the most sought-after event in the year. This year with the huge numbers stated, the festival only gets better.

Book Fair director Oliver Zille explains this expansion in an interview, "On the one hand, we have been able to involve a noticeably larger number of individual exhibitors. In other words, more and more publishing companies are taking part in our programme of events. On the other hand, 'Leipzig Reads' has become such a big attraction over the past 15 years that nobody wants to miss the chance of meeting such an enthusiastic book fair public."

The focus, however, for the reads is not so much on authors writing in English as it is about authors writing in regional languages. Dr Udupi Rajagopala Murthy (Kannada), Vijay Tendulkar (Marathi), Pravasini Mahakud (Oriya), Maushumi Kandali (Assaamese), Sunil Gangopadhyaya (Bengali), Manglesh Dabral (Hindi), Shobha De (English), Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh (Gujarati) and Anipindi Jayaprabha (Telugu) are among the Indian authors scheduled to read their works at the Leipzig book fair.

The climax of all the events is of course the Franfurt Book Fair itself that continues to enjoy number one status in publishing circles. Despite the London Book Fair that just concluded having invited a lot of attention, it still has a long way to go to meet the standards and the standing of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Book fairs are still about selling rights, and the London fair is slowly beginning to rival the Frankfurt fair. Diane Spivey, rights and contracts director of the Time Warner Book Group, which was recently acquired by Lagardère, the French media and defense conglomerate, said in an interview: "We sell perhaps 40 percent of rights in London compared to 60 percent in Frankfurt, but five years ago London was 10 percent."

Come October and the Frankfurt Book Fair will feature 30 Indian authors. Prominent among them are Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Arundhati Roy, Mahasveta Devi, Vinod Kumar Shukla, Javed Akhtar, and K. Jayakantan. The National Book Trust of India and the Frankfurt Book Fair are jointly responsible for the organisation and management of the "Guest of Honour" appearance.