Book Worms Get Ready! Egypt’s Long-Awaited International Book Fair Is Finally Taking Place
Finally, after months of preparation and waiting, the 52nd Cairo International Book Fair will be held from the 30th of June to the 15th of July. Last year, for the first time, one of the most awaited annual events in Egypt was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the slogan, “Egypt’s Identity: Culture and the Question of the Future,” the book fair will be held at Egypt’s International Exhibitions Center in the Fifth Settlement, with the main personality for this edition being the writer Yahya Haqqi. For the first time, the committee decided to have a main character for the Children’s Book Fair as well, and picked the writer Abdel-Tawab Youssef.
However, how the exhibition will be held, has yet to be decided today after a meeting at the General Egyptian Book Organization. For now, all we know is that the pavilions will be built with some distance between them in order to avoid crowding, and only two or three visitors will be allowed to enter a pavilion at a time.
Preparations for the fair have been ongoing for a while now, with the Supreme Committee launching a website designated for the Cairo International Book Fair. This comes in line with the country’s technological transition. The Cairo International Book Fair usually hosts workshops, music booths, and signing parties by authors. However, this edition will most definitely not witness any of these activities as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.
The exhibition will also continue celebrating the centenary of the legendary writer and translator, Tharwat Okasha, and the poet Salah Abdel Sabour, as part of the Ministry of Culture’s celebrations for the two writers.
