Sometimes there’s nothing better than to curl up on sunny Margaret Island with a good book. So, all bookaholics, get your reading glasses at the ready, as the 17th International Book Festival is coming to town.
Nearly 300 events will be squeezed into four days and about 35,000 books will be on display, not to mention that well-known writers and publishers from all over the globe will flock to Millenáris from as many as 24 countries this year including Saudi-Arabia, Brazil and Austria for the first time. You will be spoilt for choice…
This year’s guest of honor will be Israel presenting their contemporary literature, an overview of their literary culture through a series of live readings, on-stage conversations, literary evenings, concerts and photo exhibitions. Also, the guest author of honor will be Israeli writer Amos Oz (potential nominee for the Literary Nobel-prize), who’ll be presented with the ‘Budapest Grand Prize’ on the festival’s opening day.
For the tenth time, The European First Novel Festival will also see the meeting of the continent’s most talented first-book prose writers (authors from seventeen countries). In fact, from within Hungary and wider Europe, 500 writers, poets, scientists and artists will be making the festival their stomping ground for the sunny April weekend.
Works, authors and events presented over the three and a half days will cover a full, sparkly spectrum of genres. So, expect all tastes to be catered for. Alongside weighty classics, contemporary works of Hungarian prose and poetry writers won’t be under-represented, either. Instead, an array of the works of the country’s finest will be on offer, and a bookish banquet of genres, nationalities and periods will be tumbling from the festival’s shelves.
As well as die-hard book worms, the event’s also for those in the business; the festival will be a professional forum to discuss issues of the industry as well and will be home to a conference on forgery and copyrights plus the impact of the financial crisis. The organizers will also present the ‘Publisher of the Year’ and ‘Bookseller of the Year’ awards. The ‘Buda Prizes’, given by Budapest’s 2nd district, are presented to publishers that have made notable contributions to public education, and there’ll be a Children’s Book of the Year award, too. Don’t think all this industry talk means you can’t get involved, though, as visitors are invited to vote for the ‘Audience’s Award for the Most Beautiful Hungarian Book’, as well. Time to start thinking, then!
So, whatever floats your literary boat, Budapest’s 17th International Book Festival is bound to have a page turner or ten that’ll keep you well glued to your comfy armchair.
17th International Book Festival, Budapest
Dates: April 22 – 25
Millenáris 1024 Budapest, Fény utca 10-12.
Tel.: +36.1.438.5312