After witnessing a massive footfall of 26 lakh bibliophiles last year, the International Kolkata Book Fair is all set to woo the book lovers once more. The 47 edition of the International Kolkata Book Fair slated to be held between 18 and 31 January 2024, is to have books from Germany after a gap of 12 years. According to the members of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, several new publishers have applied to participate in the book fair that saw sales worth Rs 25 crore last year.
As per general secretary of the guild Sudhanshu Sekhar Dey, around 2,000 applications have been received for this year’s book fair, including around 300 only for little magazines. Considering the huge demand, the guild is planning to allocate spaces and accommodate more new publishers. “The dates of the book fair have been brought forward by a few days owing to the commencement of the board exams from the last week of January and first week of February,” informed the president of the guild, Tridib Kumar Chatterjee. The mega book fair will be inaugurated by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on 18 January.
The focal theme country of the IKBF this year is, United Kingdom (UK). The year 2023-2024 also marks the 75 years of presence of the British Council in India. The guild is in talks with some of the eminent foreign writers, who could be a part of the threeday Literature Festival held during the book fair.
A logo of the theme country was also unveiled by the guild today in presence of British Deputy High Commissioner, East and North East India, Andrew Fleming and Debanjan Chakrabarti, director of the British Council, East and North East India among others. Notably, guild representatives accompanied Miss Banerjee to her business delegation to Spain in the month of September.
The publishers also participated and addressed the Creative Economy Session at the recently held Bengal Global Business Summit.