Czechia to be honorary guest at 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the world’s most prestigious literary events, has announced Czechia as its honorary guest for the 2026 edition. How important will its participation be for the country’s literature and publishing houses? I discussed these questions with Martin Krafl, head of the Czech Literary Centre, which is involved in planning the prestigious event:
“I think it is great news for us. We wanted to be a guest of honour at Frankfurt Book Fair for a very long time. I think that thanks to being a guest of honour at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2019, we have a good knowledge of how such a project should be organised.
“However, Frankfurt is different, of course. It is something like Olympic Games in literature, and I hope that we will be succeed there.
“I think it is a major opportunity not only for the Czech book industry but also for the country’s entire culture sector. It is also a big chance to present the high quality of Czech literature abroad but it is also an investment into the future of Czechia’s book market.”
What will be the main goals of Czechia’s presence in Frankfurt?
“We would like to introduce Czechia’s contemporary literature. We have already chosen the motto for the fair: Czechia - a country on the coast, inspired by William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. We want to introduce Czechia as the coast of imagination, the coast of creativity and the coast of humanity.
“We would also like to offer more translations not only in German, but also in English, Spanish and French. We would like to increase the number and diversity of international publishers involved in Czech literature.
“We also want to emphasize the role of translators, because without translators, Czech literature wouldn’t be known abroad. We also want to support Bohemian studies at European and international universities and cooperate more with libraries and memory institutions in the European Union.”
The Czech participation at the Frankfurt Book Fair is co-organised by the Czech Literary Centre. What does that mean for you? What’s going to happen within the next three years?
“In the coming months, we have to organise the team that will support the whole project. There is also an expert committee nominated by the Ministry of Culture.
“In the next two years we will be supporting translations of Czech literature in other languages and work on establishing more contacts with publishers and translators, because we have to inspire them to be part of this project in order to have enough books to present in 2026.”
