An audience at the 2023 Frankfurter Buchmesse. Image: FBM, Marc Jacquemin
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Spaces for Dialogue Across Borders’
This year’s Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 15 to 19) will again reflect many issues, controversies, and challenges of the day—just as the world book industry itself does in its output.
Frankfurter Buchmesse has a long tradition of explicating not only influences on the industry but also the industry-in-the-world—an appreciation of dialogue driven by urgent concerns, evolving attitudes, and shifting dynamics in a format that’s safe and receptive to competing points of view.
Based primarily on a new “Center Stage” in Hall 4.1, the series of events branded “Frankfurt Calling: Perspectives on Culture and Politics” is being organized to provide a familiar and busy mix of more than 50 sessions touching on a wide range of current events and conversations.
John Steinmark
John Steinmark manages programming for Frankfurt Calling, and says, “In times of social polarization and intensifying geopolitical conflicts, we need spaces for dialogue across borders.
“Frankfurt Calling brings together voices from many countries to jointly develop solutions to the challenges of our time.”
Among Topics in This Year’s ‘Frankfurt Calling’
- Literature and Crisis Regions: Voices from and about Gaza, Ukraine, and Southeast Asia; literature that documents and reflects on conflicts and opens up new perspectives.
- Human Rights and Freedom of Expression: Freedom to publish, protection of cultural forms of expression, investigative work under repression, debates on anti-Semitism.
- Democracy Under Pressure: Authoritarianism, populism, and the important role of culture in resisting them.
- Social Cohesion: Dialogue formats for understanding and participation in an age of growing polarization.
- New Technologies, New Challenges: Opportunities and risks from artificial intelligence for life, work, and society.
Speakers
A partial list of speakers comprises:
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa
- Former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
- Publicist Hadija Haruna-Oelker
- Author Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus
- Author and cultural scientist Mithu Sanyal
- Palestinian bookseller Mahmoud Muna
- Middle East specialist Matthew Teller
- Ukrainian bookseller Oleksii Erinchak
- Cuban exile poet Ariel Maceo Tellez
- Author Joana Osman
- German Federal Minister of Justice Dr Stefanie Hubig
- Economic historian Adam Tooze
- Turkish author Ege Dündar
- Ukrainian-Palestinian storyteller Zoya Miyari
- Author and presenter Alena Jabarine
- Cultural scientist and rapper Reyhan Şahin
- Director of the Anne Frank Educational Centre Meron Mendel
- Nobel Peace Prize winner for Memorial, Irina Scherbakowa
- And Saba-Nur Cheema, Sarah Levy, Karl Schlögel, Delphine Minoui, Robert Trafford, David Schraven, Jürgen Kaube, Daniel Marwecki, Caroline Wahl, Johannes Ebert, Sherif Rizkallah, and Aladin El-Mafaalani.
Many partners come into play in producing the “Frankfurt Calling” series. they include “cooperation partners” Amnesty International, Berlin Review, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the Anne Frank Educational Centre, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Correctiv, Der Freitag, Forensic Architecture, the European and International Booksellers Federation, the Goethe-Institut, Guest of Honor Philippines, the Institut français, the International Publishers Association (IPA), the Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism, PEN Berlin, PEN International, PEN Center Germany, people of Germany, PublisHer, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Surplus: Das Wirtschaftsmagazin, Taz, the Ukrainian Book Institute, UN Publications, UN Women, ZEIT Stiftung Bucerius, and Zukunft Memorial.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here; more on international book fairs and publishing-industry trade shows is here; more on world book publishing and politics is here; and more on the German book publishing industry and book business is here.
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