By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Historic Ties Between the Two Countries’
As the world’s May book fairs, trade shows, and conferences continue to tumble over each other, the next to open is the public-facing Warsaw International Book Fair, running Thursday through Sunday (May 23 to 26).
The guest of honor country at Warsaw this year—following Norway in 2022 and Ukraine in 2023—is Italy. And once more, the Association of Italian Publishers (Associazione Italiana Editori, AIE) is stepping up, in what has to be one of the most demanding years in its history.
Of course what adds heft to the Italian guest of honor this week in Warsaw, of course, is the fact that Guest of Honor Italy is headed for Frankfurter Buchmesse (October 16 to 20), and is nearing the release of new details about its plans and programming.
Warsaw is part of a chain of appearances for Italy that includes Sharjah (2022); Paris (2023); Bucharest (2023); and Tunis (April 2024), all part of the march to Frankfurt, part of “Destination Frankfurt,” a protracted build-up to the October event that’s designed to use book fairs as bully pedestals for Italian literature and publishing.
Innocenzo Cipolletta
Innocenzo Cipolletta, president of the Italian publishers’ association, says, “With 481 translation rights sold in 2022, Poland is the third-largest European destination market for Italian publishing.
“These are numbers that reflect the historic ties between the two countries and which in the years to come will only grow further thanks to our first participation as a guest country of honor in Warsaw.
“The Polish capital is an important stage in a path toward internationalization, which has seen our country go from 1,800 translation rights agreements made in many parts of the world in 2001 to around 7,900 in 2022, a path which will culminate in 2024 when we’ll be guest of honor in Frankfurt.”
Luca Franchetti Pardo
In Warsaw, the Italian presence’s slogan is Ci vuole un fiore, or It Takes a Flower, a line based on a poem of Gianni Rodari.
Luca Franchetti Pardo, the Italian ambassador to Poland—”the deep and inseparable relation between human being, natural environment and the planet.
“It’s about topics that are bound to become a priority in the years to come, and that will require a total commitment for a sustainable and equitable development.”
Details of the Italian Presence
Held each year at Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, built in 1955 to a design by Soviet-Russian architect Lev Rudnev, the fair will feature the Italian pavilion in the building’s Marmurowa Hall.
It’s expected to include space for meetings as well as a bookstore managed by the Polish bookshop Italicus and a display of the now very familiar Bologna Children’s Book Fair exhibition Figures for Gianni Rodari, promoted by the Bologna fair and the Emilia-Romagna region, curated by Giannino Stoppani Cooperativa Culturale at the Accademia Drosselmeier.
Italian publishers expected to be represented as part of a B2B space in the guest-of-honor presence are:
- Reggio Children
- Il pozzo di Giacobbe
- Il Castoro
- Edizioni San Paolo
- Mondadori
- Eurarte
- Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson
- Lavieri
- White Star
- Hoepli
- Il Saggiatore
- Gallucci Editore
Authors and guests presented as part of the Italian delegation are:
- Pietro Luca Azzaro
- Alessandro Baldacci
- Luigi Ballerini
- Alessandro Barbero
- Massimo Borghesi
- Alessandro Campi
- Andrea Colamedici
- Mattia Corrente
- Carlo Gallucci
- Maura Gancitano
- Helena Janeczek
- Federica Manzon
- Michele Marchitto
- Luigi Marinelli
- Laura Pugno
- Stefano Redaelli
- Antonio Riccardi
- Davide Rondoni
- Gaia Stock
- Matteo Struku
Held each year at Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science, built in 1955 to a design by Soviet-Russian architect Lev Rudnev, the fair will feature the Italian pavilion in the building’s Marmurowa Hall, and it’s expected to include space for meetings as well as a bookstore managed by the Polish bookshop Italicus and a display of the now very familiar Bologna Children’s Book Fair exhibition Figures for Gianni Rodari, promoted by the Bologna fair and the Emilia-Romagna region, curated by Giannino Stoppani Cooperativa Culturale at the Accademia Drosselmeier.
Most of the Italian programming for the Warsaw event is, logically, of public interest and thus centers around literature, authors, history, and the relationship between the Vatican and the community in Italy.
There is, however, on Friday (May 24) at 1 p.m. CEST, a presentation of the Italian market figures from one of AIE’s research analysts, Bruno Giancarli in the Palace of Culture and Science’s Goethe Hall.
And on Saturday (May 25) at 2 p.m. CEST, Luigi Marinelli, Leonardo Masi, and Mateusz Salwa will discuss Translating and Betraying: On Translating Between Italian and Polish in the Kijev Hall.
Italy’s participation as guest of honor at Warsaw International Book Fair is supported by the Italian ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation with the Italian embassy in Warsaw and the Italian Institute of Culture in Warsaw; the ministry of culture; “ICE,” the agency that promotes Italian interests abroad; the Center for Books and Reading; and the publishers association, AIE.
May’s Mashup
The dates of the Warsaw fair and its Guest of Honor Italy program may be ringing a bell: They’re also the dates of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. And that’s a reflection of what has happened to May in international book-related events.
You may remember that the emirate Sharjah closed its own reading festival on a Sunday (May 12) and was guest of honor at Thessaloniki only four days later (May 16). Thessaloniki just closed on Sunday, May 19. Lillehammer’s World Expression Forum (WEXFO) opens one day after Warsaw will close and is seated in Norway through May 28. On May 29, Madrid’s Readmagine opens to turn through May 31. In fact, the Bogotá International Book Fair, the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, and Sharjah’s Animation Conference also have had dates in May.
Today’s news (May 20) reveals that with the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino’s close on May 13, Italy’s publishers association, the AIE, will see its guest of honor appearance at Warsaw open just 10 days later on Thursday (May 23).
So much energy and so much effort in so many markets, it should go without saying, is genuinely appreciated and respected by all in world publishing. But it would be interesting to see some of this commercial, promotional, financial, and cultural dynamic put into several of the other 11 available months of the year.
More of these good events could have room to breathe on the calendar. More professionals could take advantage of their professional programs and fellowships. More business could be done. More press coverage could be mounted. And more traveling members of the international book publishing business could get to these important moments, meet their counterparts on their home platforms, and then spread the word of their value more widely.
More from Publishing Perspectives on Frankfurt’s Guest of Honor Italy is here, more on the Italian market is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here. More on the international book publishing industry’s trade shows and book fairs is here, more on the Polish book market is here, more on translation is here, and more on the international rights trade is here.