Czech presentation at Frankfurt book-fair 2002
The book-fair in the German city of Frankfurt, the largest event of its kind in the world, ended on Monday. Czech publishing houses also presented their wares at the book-fair, under the umbrella of the Svet knihy, or Book-world, company. Alena Skodova has more:
The number of countries represented at the Frankfurt book-fair this year increased to 110, and - as some say - the event nearly obtained the dimension of Olympic games. Despite the rise in the number of participating countries, the number of titles, at 335,000 titles, was down this year from the usual figure of 400,000. The two books that appeared as the most popular ones this year were 'Atonement' by the Scottish novelist Ian McEwan, and 'Willy Brandt 1913-1992' by the German writer Peter Merseburger.
The Czech Republic, too, had a stand at Frankfurt, where RP spoke with Dana Kalinova, the Managing Director of the company Svet knihy, which represents Czech booksellers and publishers.
"The Czech collective exposition supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Prague municipality, is located among other collective expositions of countries from Eastern and Central Europe but also from Africa, and this year I think that the Frankfurt book-fair after all those unhappy events in September last year, is getting on its feet again, and we are very busy, we have a lot of meetings here, we are I think quite successful with our presentation because the idea of the Czech presentation here is to introduce good books."
The Czech Republic also organized several exhibitions, including 'The Most Beautiful Czech Books of the Year 2001', 'Contemporary Czech Poetry' and 'Photographic Portraits of Contemporary Czech Writers'. Altogether 38 Czech publishing houses participated in the Frankfurt book-fair. The main Czech guest at the country's stand was writer Daniela Fiserova, who took part in accompanying events and discussions with readers. Dana Kalinova again:
"Daniela Fiserova had her presentation along with the Polish writer Januzs Rudnicki, but also we have a nice Prague café here, so people who are passing by and who have meetings are very happy here. What we also showed were pictures of flooded Prague because we knew everybody would like to know the situation, but we are also very positive. The motto of our presentation here is 'How to use all the help in expanding the circle of business partners', and I think this is the way - to work hard, to have good business partners, reliable, and I hope the Czech publishers will be successful according to 'heavy' meetings they have and very busy meetings, so I'm very positive about this year's presentation here."
