It’s not clear yet how successful the event has been – the regular book fair is Iran’s largest cultural event – but it’s likely we will see hybrid virtual and in-person events hereon, not least because the virtual event opens up new global reach to Iran’s publishers and makes it easier for global publishers to participate.
It was back in July 2020 that TNPS reported that Iran’s 2-million visitor Tehran International Book Fair would not go ahead that year. The event has originally been scheduled for April-May, but in February it was postponed until July. Per TNPS at the time, the postponement reflected a,
prevalent optimism at the time both in Iran and globally that the pandemic might be winding down by summer.
Noting that the Tehran International Book Fair spokesman Ayoub Dehghankar said in July the event would not take place in 2020, I added,
There’s no mention of whether the Tehran book fair organisers considered an online alternative, but that might be looked upon as a missed opportunity.
With internet penetration in Iran at 80.5% there are 67.6 million people online in the country as of March 2020 – that’s more than in the UK.
Fast forward January 2021 and with the pandemic showing few signs of easing, an online fair is underway, running January 20-25.
Dehghankar said in a pre-launch statement,
We observed the world online book fairs, while we also attended different international book fairs such as Bologna and Frankfurt. We are well aware that we can’t achieve all the goals of a physical fair, however, we believe that the virtual fair can provide some good opportunities.
We always had limited spaces for the publishers both in the Imam Khomeini Mosalla, and Shahr-e Aftab Fairground, while the online fair will have no such restrictions, and any publisher that has been active for the past 4 years can request a virtual stand to offer its books, and this can be considered a big step towards fairness.
So far, 1,500 publishers have registered, and we hope to witness good growth in the first edition of the first virtual exhibit.
Iran was the guest of honor at the Belgrade International Book Fair in 2016 and 2021 gives Serbian publishers a chance to shine in Iran, including Laguna Publishing, Kreativni Centar, Cigoja Stampa and Utopia, which are part of the virtual event.
Per a report in the Tehran Times,
Iranian cultural attaché Mehdi Shirazi, Srdan Markovic from the Serbian Publishing House Utopia and translator Aleksandar Dragovic are among the experts participating in webinars to discuss Iranian books and the Persian translation of books in Serbia.
Dragovic is the translator of a selection from Iranian children’s book writer Hushang Moradi Kermani’s bestseller “The Stories of Majid”, which was unveiled at the 64th Belgrade International Book Fair in 2019.
The Tehran Times adds that,
The Persian language in Europe was discussed in the first webinar of the fair on Wednesday. A number of Iranian and Turkish publishers held a session on the translation of children’s books. The topic was also scrutinized in a webinar by Iranian and Arab publishing houses.
It’s not clear yet how successful the event has been – the regular book fair is Iran’s largest cultural event – but it’s likely we will see hybrid virtual and in-person events hereon, not least because the virtual event opens up new global reach to Iran’s publishers and makes it easier for global publishers to participate.
While this report reflects Serbia’s specific interest in the event, Germany, Turkey, Russia, Greece, UK, Italy, Spain, and Austria also represented Europe, while USA, and Colombia offered a presence from the Americas and Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and China are among the Asian countries participating. For the Middle East Arab nations Qatar, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Oman are on the exhibitors list, and Senegal offered Africa’s only participation.
The 2022 event, if hybrid as expected, will likely attract a far wider global engagement that will benefit Iranian and global publishing stakeholders.
