According to the organizers, too many large publishers decided against participating in view of the tense pandemic situation. It is the third cancellation of the second largest German book fair since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to industry reports, large publishing groups such as Oetinger and Penguin Random House had withdrawn their participation in the past few days. However, there were also commitments to the book fair, for example from the Kurt Wolff Foundation, which represents the interests of independent publishers.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the organizers had decided to plan the book fair on its usual March date. director Oliver Zille justified this by saying that 75 percent of the exhibitors from before the crisis had confirmed participation in 2022. There had been positive signals from Saxon state politics.
Austria will remain guest country in 2023
“It’s simply a catastrophe,” says Gerhard Ruiss from the Austrian IG Authors about the cancellation. Austria is supposed to be the guest country of the book fair next year – the main association of the Austrian book trade wants to stick to that “definitely”, as Managing Director Gustav Soucek said yesterday.
The kick-off event planned for this year’s trade fair is to take place in a different form. As planned, the slogan and the program will be presented in the spring. The ORF literature expert Katja Gasser is responsible for the guest country appearance.
Source: Nachrichten
