Canada’s Guest of Honour Role at the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair Postponed
Jul 7, 2020
Following lengthy discussions between the Frankfurter Buchmesse (FBM) and the Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH), the decision surrounding Canada’s Guest of Honour (GoH) presence at the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair has officially been made. It has been decided that Canada’s GoH presence will be postponed to 2021 (20-24 October). The official press release is available here.
Canada FBM2020 would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the exceptional contribution and support from its many close collaborators since the beginning of this project. Particularly, we would like to thank the Frankfurt 2020 team at PCH and the Embassy of Canada to Germany who have offered their continuous efforts and outstanding dedication to ensure Canada’s GoH presence at the Frankfurt Book Fair would be postponed to 2021. We would also like to thank the Frankfurt Book Fair and upcoming Guest of Honour countries Spain, Slovenia, and Italy for their collaboration and good will. The postponement of Canada’s GoH year will provide the deserved opportunity to showcase Canada’s publishing industry and promote the sale of Canadian titles at the Frankfurt Book Fair in its full capacity.
While Canada’s GoH presence has been postponed, Canada will still be involved in literary programming at the Fair in October 2020 but in a virtual capacity only. At this time, due to health and safety precautions set in place by the Government of Canada surrounding COVID-19, Canada FBM2020 does not support or encourage the physical presence of any Canadians at the Frankfurt Book Fair or at any related events to the GoH project in 2020. As a result, we are focusing our efforts on contributing to Canada’s official virtual presence. When more information on the virtual presence and its literary programming becomes available we will make it a priority to broadcast it on our social media channels and via our newsletter.
We are updating the Canada FBM2020 website as needed with information regarding COVID-19 and Literary Programming developments, and we strongly encourage you to visit the website for any questions you may have.
The Canada FBM2020 Team