Pro-government says Belgrade Book Fair turns literature into a bridge between Serbia and the world

Pro-government says Belgrade Book Fair turns literature into a bridge between Serbia and the world
The 69th International Belgrade Book Fair opened in Hall 2 of the Belgrade Fair under the slogan “Words Build the World.” The event will run through October 31, with Tunisia serving as guest of honor and nearly 700 direct and indirect exhibitors expected to participate.

At the opening, writer and art critic Dragan Jovanović Danilov described the fair as a meeting point between local culture and the wider world. “The Book Fair is a mirror for every writer, reader and publisher,” he said, arguing that books can thrive only where enthusiasm for reading and a developed reading culture exist. He also presented literature and reading as a defense of the inner life amid what he called a digitally disrupted age.

Tunisia’s presence formed the second central theme of the opening. Speaking on behalf of absent literary scholar Mabruk Manaï, Tunis International Book Fair director Khaled Kchir outlined Tunisia’s literary development from medieval poetry and prose to modern novels, drama and autobiographical writing. He said Tunisian literature had remained closely tied to community life and human destiny, focusing on “identity, freedom and reform.”

The fair includes exhibitors from Tunisia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska, Greece, Georgia, Italy, Iran, Morocco, Germany, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Croatia and Montenegro. Domestic publishers are concentrated in Hall 1, while Hall 4 includes local and foreign publishers, public institutions, religious publishers, distributors and antiquarian booksellers.

Family visitor days are scheduled for October 26 and 27, followed by School Day on October 29. The fair closes on October 31 with the ceremonial handover of the “Open Book” to the United Arab Emirates, the guest of honor for the 70th edition. A parallel education and teaching materials fair will run from October 27 to 31.