Three years ago when I first visited Abu Dhabi at the invitation of ADACH, the city was a different place. There were fewer cranes, fewer tall buildings, and life in the city was just a bit snoozier. The conference center where the Fair has been taking place over the last week was half the size it is today. The convention center hotel was merely an illustration – a dream of the architect – who’d yet to build even the scale model you now see in the lobby, let alone the half finished shell you see today (it will be a welcome addition to the fair grounds for international visitors when it opens next year).
Three years ago when the Fair opened, there were 200 less exhibitors, limited cultural and professional programs, and a feeling of cautious optimism in the air that the new format – from the partnership with the Frankfurt Book Fair – would work. This year the roster of authors alone – from Vikram Seth to Henning Mankell – is enough to rival many better known festivals in the region. The addition of a full roster of professional programs, covering everything from rights, to copyright, to ebooks, to women’s publishing, puts it in its own league. That than 160 applications have been made under the Spotlight on Rights program is simply unprecedented and the development of a genuine rights market for the region should be acknowledged as a tremendous achievement. And the bookselling element hasn’t been neglected: tens of millions of dirham have changed hands. One Egyptian bookseller was so impressed with the amount of business he did that he exclaimed: “This marks the beginning of the end for the Cairo Book Fair.” Well, my only reaction to that is that to compare them isn’t even a proposition, as clearly the ABIBF is in its category. This is a hybrid of a traditional Arabic book fair and something entirely new – a professional trade fair. Book your tickets for 2010. If the past three years offer any precedent, things will only get better.
Related Posts
- Will Twilight put a twinkle in Arab readers’ eyes?
- Shining a Light on “Spotlight on Rights”
- Egyptian Yusuf Ziedan wins Arabic Booker; new awards may be forthcoming
