UAE: Over 600 books launched at Sharjah International Book Fair, highest in its four-decade history
The Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) took pride in more than 600 books this year, more than any other SIBF in the last 43 years.
According to officials, this cements the positioning of SIBF as an international center for writers. Mohan Kumar, External Affairs Executive at SIBF said, “This is the highest number of books that have been launched in one edition of the fair.” “Up to a few years ago, there were around 10 to 15 book launches in a year. It is the rise of authors who launch books that has been witnessed in the recent couple of years.”
Kumar, who has been with the fair for over 35 years, believes that the Writer’s Forum initiative has been the reason for the rapid increase of writers in recent years. He noted, Books fairs in every part of the world do not provide a platform for young/ upcoming/ first time writers to launch their books.
“When people talk about the festivals, they usually relate this event with popular writers signing books. However, we were surprised to see the number of book launches at Sharjah; a lot of people were coming forward to launch their books. At that point, we were placing them within the halls that we had, but we figured that perhaps, if we built on that, we would attract more of those who would be interested in writing, That is how we came up with the concept of a Writer’s Forum.”
The plan was quite straightforward: Create a distinct space for building, creating a sound-proof space and a sitting space to enable writers from across the globe a space to launch their tiles.
In his view, the Sharjah government made the request to the local community and together with him torsion accepted the case to provide Dh350, 000 and make-it happen. This year, Kumar said, the Sharjah Book authority has received applications from 750 authors above 600 they managed to accommodate.
Jamal Al Afghani also added, “The slots at the Writer’s Forum are 25-minutes long and they run all day, every day of the SIBF.” “It is a completely free service and all the writers have to do is just submit an application. This year we only had approximately 500 slots but several authors decided to combine their launches. Such as in one case when a pet dog would be seen for twenty five minutes and over ten books will be released at the same time.”
Unique launches
Kumar remarked that even this year, certain book launches have captured his interest as being different. “I think among the ones I will cherish the most is the one which has 62 female authors all of whom come from the southern Indian state of Kerala,” Kumar noted. “Some of the writers were earning just enough to afford the basic necessities. Many of them had either sold their jewels or taken a loan so as to manage the expenses of a round trip to Sharjah and book launch. It made me understand how great the impact of SIBF was in the lives of these women. Such a perspective was truly humbling”.
However for Kumar, the most pleasing aspect is that out of the 600 books that were launched during the fair, over a hundred were authored by children and young people. “At a time when the whole society is lamenting how our kids are glued to their screens and don’t pick up books anymore, kids today are actually leaning in the other direction and writing more books. One of the authors, 13-year old Sajini has written 24 books in 5 different languages. Such geniuses are marvelous to witness”.
On Saturday, 17 children between 7 and 12 years of age wrote and published a book as the culmination of their collaborative efforts during their creative writing workshop, conducted by a consultant for education, Vmentor.
Kumar also made a point of saying that whenever a student opened their book, they were motivating other students and their friends to open theirs as well. In the past, Ahmed Al Kawkabani, who won the Arab Reading challenge at 17 years old, also launched a book called The Power of Reading, and was signing copies of the book at the SIBF signing table.
No time to rest
With the conclusion of the SIBF on Sunday, Kumar mentioned that there was little time to take a break for the team. “Successful planning of a book fair takes a good one year. The team, for instance, takes part in over thirty five book fairs across the globe in a year,” he narrated.
Kumar maintained there were things worth bringing home. “We look at what the trends are and if we find something unique we try to replicate it in Sharjah. Next year, we hope that we can come back with an even bigger and better edition,” he said.
Comments