Iceland exhibition at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2011
By Hannah Johnson
Each year, the Frankfurt Book Fair selects a Guest of Honor country with the goal of introducing the international publishing community to the literature, authors, publishers and culture of that country.
This year, Iceland was the Guest on Honor in Frankfurt. I have to say that for such a small country (population 319,000), Iceland left a big impact on the Fair. Not only was their exhibition really cool, but their authors and publishers were very visible around the Fair.
Just before the Fair started, AmazonCrossing announced that it will publish ten Icelandic titles. During the closing press conference of the Iceland Guest of Honor program, Kristján B. Jónasson, head of the Association of Icelandic Book Publishers, said, “We received countless inquiries from international publishing houses during the Book Fair.”
So with the extra attention that Icelandic authors and publishers have received over the last few weeks and months, are you planning to read a book by an Icelandic author in the future? How effective is the Guest of Honor program at promoting literature not only to publishers, but also to readers?
Let us know in the comments!
One Comment
Shameless plug: For a taste of this country’s terrific literature, including poetry by PP interviewee Sjon, please check out the October issue of Words without Borders, Writing from Iceland: http://wordswithoutborders.org/current-issue/. After Frankfurt I’m even more interested.