Friday, October 03, 2003

Antipodean and Bohemian Longed for this German Experience

Dive into Happy Hours with the Frankfurt Book Fair
From 8 to 13 October 2003, more than 6,400 exhibitors from over 100 countries, Australia is making rather creative mark this year, are at the biggest book fair in the world to show around 350,000 titles on an area of just under 178,000 square metres. 270,000 visitors are expected to attend, almost 500 literary agents and rights traders and 12,000 journalists.
A cultural success story was how the Australian writer Richard Flanagan recently described the development of the Australian publishing industry.
For the first time, the general public will already be admitted to the Book Fair on Friday as from 4 p.m. The fascinating programme will also explore the wave of Frankfurt book deal announcements and cover stories about literary adaptations and films. Aiming to boost synergies between the publishing and film industry, the Frankfurt Book Fair is launching an exhibition section of its own for the film industry.
If you happen to be visiting Frankfurt at the time when the city of books manages to pack every season into a week, please consider stopping by Stand 3.1 C149.
There will be stories which can talk about things that kept going on inside James' and Jozef's heads that few people would be willing to admit to their closest friends - much less publish in a book.
Why do we write about the most painful experiences in our life? Are we wallowing in the misery? No. Writing helps expunge our grief and lets us heal.
Cold River is not about Jozef Imrich crying into his Moravian beer going woe is me. It is about the Czechoslovak experience told through his escape across Iron Curtain. That's a story.
· Frankfurt [Book Affair]