The 31st Tehran International Book Fair, a showcase of more than half a million titles, is underway at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla (prayer ground) in central Tehran till May 12.
Among the exhibitors are 132 foreign and 2,050 domestic companies and publishers, ISNA quoted deputy director of TIBF, Amir-Masoud Shahramnia, as saying.
Exhibitors from 53 countries including Germany, China, Hungary, Austria, Russia and Iraq are presenting over 46,000 titles.
A special section is dedicated to children and education publications while digital and academic publishers have their own section.
“In recent years, our aim has been to promote cultural diplomacy with the world through books. For this purpose we have organized a program for special guests from other countries,” Shahramnia said.
For this year’s event, Serbia and the city of Tunis, capital of Tunisia, are special guests of honor. A delegation of writers, artists and musicians from Serbia are participating in the fair while Serbia’s Culture and Information Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic and Serbian ambassador to Tehran, Dragan Todorovic, attended the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
The news agency said 18 individuals and publishers are representing Tunis with 256 titles.
China will be the guest of honor at the next fair in 2019.
Book Launches
Launch of the Serbian translation of “The Sweet Jam” written by celebrated Iranian children author Houshang Moradi-Kermani was one of the momentous programs at the Serbian pavilion, attended by the writer and translator of the book.
Sara Jovanovic is the translator of the book, published by Candle and Fog Publishing, the London-based Iranian-British company that has published several books by Moradi-Kermani.
Two books translated from Serbian into Persian were also unveiled in a meeting attended by their writers and translators.
‘’A Satin in Blue Sky Color” by Goran Petrovic, translated by Sareh Arzpeima and Ramineh Rezazadeh and “The Russian Window” by Dragan Veligich, translated by Bita Ebrahimi were unveiled. Both books are released by Ketab-e Koucheh Publishing in Tehran.
A new translation of Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat (Quatrains) in Hungarian language by Hungarian painter Gizella Varga Sinai was launched at the fair, in a ceremony attended by filmmaker Khosrow Sinai (Gizella’s husband), Khayyam expert Gholam Hossein Moraghebi, artists and diplomats from the Hungarian Embassy. Gizella’s paintings are deeply influenced by Khayyam poetry, a reason that led her to translate the book.
Meeting Orhan Pamuk
Recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature Orhan Pamuk will attend the fair on Tuesday, Mehr News Agency reported on its Persian website.
The Turkish novelist, screenwriter and academic is one of Turkey’s most prominent novelists, his works have sold over thirteen million copies in 63 languages, making him the Turkey’s best-selling writer.
Pamuk, 65, is the author of novels Silent House, The White Castle, My New Life, The Black Book, My Name Is Red, and The Museum of Innocence among others.
His trip has been organized by Tehran-based Qoqnoos Publication. During his three-day visit he is to attend the pavilion of Qoqnoos Publication to meet his fans and sign his books.
Meetings with Iranian writers and translators are included in his itinerary.
Qoqnoos has so far printed the Persian translation of three of Pamuk’s works, including the novels: “The White Castle” and “My New Life”, both of which were rendered into Persian by Arsalan Fasihi.
The third book contains the Nobel lecture Pamuk gave in Turkish on December 7, 2006, at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The lecture was titled “Babamın Bavulu” (My Father’s Suitcase). In the lecture he allegorically spoke of relations between Eastern and Western civilizations using his relationship with his father as the theme. Qoqnoos published the lecture with rendering by Bahareh Faris-Abadi last year under the title “My Father”.
Back to the Old Address
After two stints with Sun City Complex in south Tehran, the TIBF has returned to its previous address at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla.
The two previous editions of the annual fair were held in the newly-built Sun City. But currently the Mosalla, off Beheshti Street in central Tehran, is hosting the annual event again.
Due to the sprawling exhibition space and distance from the capital, organizers and officials had opted for Sun City as the venue of the fair two years ago. But the bitter experience of visitors and exhibitors showed that that decision was ill-informed and premature. The new site still lacks decent and sufficient infrastructure such as a functioning drainage system which becomes more critical in the rainy season in mid-spring.
However, over the several years that the Mosalla hosted the event, it too was problematic due largely to the traffic congestion during the book fair (and other exhibitions) and the persistent complaints from furious residents living in and near the area.
Return of the exhibition to the Mosalla should give Tehran Municipality some more time to better prepare and equip Sun City so that future fairs can be held at a suitable and decent place for both exhibitors and visitors.
