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The 2016 Book Fair’s Guest of Honour

The Netherlands and Flanders are the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair and are presenting themselves under the motto: “This is what we share”.

18.10.2016
© dpa/Andreas Arnold - Bart Moeyaert

The sea is a topos full of poetic and political power. It connects fates and not least countries with each other. For example, the guest of honour at the 2016 Frankfurt Book Fair, the Netherlands and Flanders, and their host country, Germany. The concept to unite the three nations in the literary image of the sea comes from the Artistic Director of the Book Fair, the renowned children’s and young people’s book author Bart Moeyaert. “Nearly 25 years have passed since the first appearance of the Netherlands and Flanders as guest of honour at the Book Fair in 1993. There are new names, new people, a new dynamics. It’s like the sea; everything is in movement; there are treasures washed up on the beach.”

Germany is the most important export country

Moeyaert has visitors to the Guest of Honour Pavilion stroll along a beach and discover this or that piece of stranded goods. Under the motto “Dit is wat wij delen / Dies ist, was wir teilen” (This is what we share), the guest of honour Flanders and the Netherlands brings with them more than 370 new publications for the German reader. In 2016, 230 literary works by Flemish and Dutch writers were translated into German. They cover all genres, ranging from fiction to non-fiction, from poetry to graphic novels. According to information from the Frankfurt Book Fair, no other guest countries have hitherto succeeded in launching in advance so many translations. Germany is by far the most important export country for Dutch-language literature. Seventy Dutch and Flemish writers will take part in the Book Fair’s accompanying programme – with virtual reality presentations, exhibitions, theatre and film festivals and literary talks. Two authors will represent the guest of honour at the opening of the Fair on 18 October 2016. The writer and columnist Arnon Grünberg will represent the Netherlands, while Flanders is sending to Frankfurt the youngest guest country spokesperson in the history of the Fair: the poet Charlotte Van den Broeck, born in 1991. Together, the well-known fiction writer and the young poet will read a dialogue to illustrate again the characteristics shared by the guest of honour.

Frankfurt Book Fair, 19 to 23 October 2016 in Frankfurt am Main

www.buchmesse.de

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