Shanghai to host expanded book fair

The Shanghai Book Fair will celebrate its 10th birthday with a bigger and longer session in August. The city will also host a new fair for children’s books in November, Fang Shizhong, director of Shanghai Administration of Press and Publication, said on Wednesday.

The 10th Shanghai Book Fair will take place from Aug 14 to 20, featuring more publishing houses, authors, and reading events than ever before. It will open from 9 am to 9 pm daily.

“This will be the first time we will operate in the evening on a daily basis during the book fair,” said Kan Ninghui, deputy director of the administration. “We hope to attract more people to come and enjoy books during cooler hours of the day.”

More than 10 foreign authors have confirmed they will participate in the fair and meet Chinese readers, including Austrian novelist and playwright Peter Handke, Russian-American poet and critic Ilya Kamingsky, Italian author Paolo Giordano and Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer.

This year’s fair will make special efforts to promote private independent bookstores. “You will find more than 10 of these bookstores, each outstanding in its particular field, exhibited at the fair in a special pavilion,” Kan said.

The China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair will be an “upgraded and international edition” of the Shanghai Book Fair, Kan said. The fair will take place at the Shanghai iMart Exhibition Center from Nov 7 to 9 and focus on copyright trading, international communication between publishers and authors, and related industries.

“It will parallel with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy in April, and become a major event for the industry in the latter half of every year in China,” Kan said.